Cabinet of Mauritius

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The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Mauritius is the official council which advises the President of the Republic to take major decisions. It is led by the Prime Minister and a total of 23 ministers with the exception of the Attorney General which is considered to be a cabinet member .The constitution of the Republic provides a cabinet under the leadership of the Prime Minister that must be appointed by the President after each general elections.

A cabinet minister must be a member of parliament whether directly or indirectly elected with the exception of the Attorney General who is a cabinet minister but votes in the parliament only if he/she is elected as MP. The Attorney General who forms part of the cabinet is appointed at the discretion of the President and on the advice of the Prime Minister .

Each Cabinet Minister taking office must take the oath of swearing allegiance to the President at The State House in front of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister and other parliamentarians. Therefore using the section 59 part 3 of the constitution, the President of the Republic of Mauritius acting on the advice of the Prime Minister appoints the person to take office of Minister which takes effect from the swearing of oath and also signature of appointment letter.

The last Swearing In ceremony was held on 11 May 2010, where the President appointed a new cabinet composed of the Prime Minister and 24 Ministers including the Attorney General.^[1]

On 26 July 2011, due to a scandal involving the health minister, 6 ministers of the Militant Socialist Movement resigned from the cabinet .In the following week, the prime minister reshuffled the cabinet appointing 4 new members and on 17 August, another two ministers were appointed.^[2]

History

According to the Constitution, there shall be a Cabinet for Mauritius consisting of the Prime Minister and the other Ministers. The functions of the Cabinet shall be to advise the President in the government of Mauritius and the Cabinet shall be collectively responsible to the Assembly for any advice given to the President by or under the general authority of the Cabinet and for all things done by or under the authority of any Minister in execution of his office.

Subsection (2) shall not apply in relation to the appointment and removal from office of Ministers and Junior Ministers, the assigning of responsibility to any Minister under section 62, or the authorisation of another Minister to perform the functions of the Prime Minister during absence or illness, the dissolution of Parliament.

There shall be, in addition to the offices of Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney-General, such other offices of Minister of the Government as may be prescribed by Parliament or, subject to any law, established by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister.

Provided that the number of offices of Minister, other than the Prime Minister, shall not be more than 24, the President, acting in his own deliberate judgment, shall appoint as Prime Minister the member of the Assembly who appears to him best able to command the support of the majority of the members of the Assembly, and shall, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, appoint the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney-General and the other Ministers from among the members of the Assembly:

Provided that where occasion arises for making an appointment while Parliament is dissolved, a person who was a member of the Assembly immediately before the dissolution may be appointed; and a person may be appointed Attorney-General, notwithstanding that he is not (or, as the case may be, was not) a member of the Assembly.

Tenure of office of Ministers

Where a resolution of no confidence in the Government is passed by the Assembly and the Prime Minister does not within three days resign from his office, the President shall remove the Prime Minister from office unless, in pursuance of section 57(1), Parliament has been or is to be dissolved in consequence of such resolution.

Where at any time between the holding of a general election and the first sitting of the Assembly thereafter the President, acting in his own deliberate judgment, considers that, in consequence of changes in the membership of the Assembly resulting from that general election, the Prime Minister will not be able to command the support of a majority of the members of the Assembly, the President may remove the Prime Minister from office:

Provided that the President shall not remove the Prime Minister from office within the period of 10 days immediately following the date prescribed for polling at that general election unless he is satisfied that a party or party alliance in opposition to the Government and registered for the purposes of that general election under paragraph 2 of the First Schedule has at that general election gained a majority of all seats in the Assembly.

The office of Prime Minister or any other Minister shall become vacant where he ceases to be a member of the Assembly otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of Parliament or where, at the first sitting of the Assembly after any general election, he is not a member of the Assembly. Provided that it shall not apply to the office of Attorney-General where the holder thereof was not a member of the Assembly on the preceding dissolution of Parliament. The office of a Minister (other than the Prime Minister) shall become vacant where the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, so directs, where the Prime Minister resigns from office within 3 days after the passage by the Assembly of a resolution of no confidence in the Government or is removed from office under subsection (1) or (2)or upon the appointment of any person to the office of Prime Minister. Where for any period the Prime Minister or any other Minister is unable by reason of section 36(1) to perform his functions as a member of the Assembly, he shall not during that period perform any of his functions as Prime Minister or Minister, as the case may be.

Cabinet functions

Where the Prime Minister is absent from Mauritius or is by reason of illness or of section 60(5) unable to perform the functions conferred on him by this Constitution, the President may, by directions in writing, authorise the Deputy Prime Minister or, in his absence, some other Minister to perform those functions (other than the functions conferred by this section) and that Minister may perform those functions until his authority is revoked by the President. The powers of the President under this section shall be exercised by him in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister

Provided that where the President, acting in his own deliberate judgment, considers that it is impracticable to obtain the advice of the Prime Minister owing to the Prime Minister's absence or illness, or where the Prime Minister is unable to tender advice by reason of section 60(5), the President may exercise those powers without that advice and in his own deliberate judgment.

Junior Ministers

The President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may appoint Junior Ministers from among the members of the Assembly to assist Ministers in the performance of their duties. The number of Junior Ministers shall not exceed 10.Where occasion arises for making appointments while the Assembly is dissolved, a person who was a member of the Assembly immediately before the dissolution may be appointed as a Junior Minister. The office of a Junior Minister shall become vacant where the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, so directs;where the Prime Minister resigns from office within 3 days after the passage by the Assembly of a resolution of no confidence in the Government or is removed from office upon the appointment of a person to the office of Prime Minister. Where for any period a Junior Minister is unable by reason of section 36(1) to perform his functions as a Member of the Assembly, he shall not during that period perform any of his functions as a Junior Minister.

Swearing allegiance

Each Minister whether Cabinet or Junior Minister must take the oath and swear their allegiance to the President in according to the section 53(9) of the constitution .

I , (name of the Minister), do solemnly affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Mauritius according to law .I, (name of the Minister), being appointed Minister do solemnly affirm that I will do to the best of my judgment at all time when so required freely give my counsel and advice to the President for the good Management of the Public affairs of Mauritius and I do further solemnly affirm that I will not on any account at any time whatsoever disclose the counsel, advice, opinion or vote of any particular minister and that I will not except with the authority of the cabinet and to such extent as may be required for the good management of the Affairs of Mauritius directly or indirectly reveal the business or proceedings of the Minister or any matter coming to my knowledge in my capacity as such and that in all things , I will be a true and faithful minister .

Allowances and line of succession

The cabinet must be composed of 25 sitting members and is led by the Prime Minister. There are two different posts similar to each other are the Deputy Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister. They are both ministers but the Deputy Prime Minister is the first person to hold office in case of incapacity of the PM and the office of Vice Prime Ministers are also provided but they are given less allowances and benefits.

Cabinet Ministers

The new cabinet was sworn on 11 May 2010 in front of Sir Anerood Jugnauth on the recommendation of prime minister Navin Ramgoolam .The cabinet was composed of 15 ministers of the Labour Party, 7 Ministers of the Militant Socialist Movement, 2 Minister of the Mauritian Social Democrats Party and 1 minister of the Republican Movement .

On 7 August 2011, the Militant Socialist Movement left the coalition government and thus all the ministers resigned from their position and the cabinet was reshuffled and 4 new ministers were appointed and sworn in .

The new cabinet is again composed of 25 members as provided by the constitution and is as follows as from Thursday 17 August 2011.^[3]

On 18 May 2010, President Jugnauth appointed the following people to the office of Parliamentary Private Secretaries upon the recommendation of Prime Minister Ramgoolam.

In the morning of 26 July 2011, the Leader of the Militant Socialist Movement, Pravind Jugnauth resigned as Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. This was followed by the other five cabinet members of the same party. These resignations was due to fact that there was a preliminary accusation of Fraud where the then Ministry of Health, Mrs Hanoomanjee and Pravind Jugnauth who both from MSM party were summoned to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for investigation purpose. Jugnauth said that they will remain in the government as part of the Ptr-MSM-PMSD alliance but will be backbenchers until further notice. The resignation letters were received by the President Anerood Jugnauth.^[4]