The Cabinet of South Africa is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of South Africa. It is made up of the President, the Deputy President, and the Ministers. Overview The President appoints the Deputy President and ministers; assigns their powers and functions, and may dismiss them. The President may select any number of ministers from the members of the National Assembly, and may select no more than two ministers from outside the assembly. As of 2021, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel are the two cabinet ministers who are not members of the National Assembly. While Deputy Ministers are not members of the cabinet, they are required to assist relevant Ministers in the execution of their duties. A member of the Cabinet is appointed by the President to be the leader of government business in the National Assembly. History On 31 May 1910, former Boer military general and the former prime minister of the Transvaal Colony Louis Botha became the first Prime Minister of the newly established Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state. He appointed the first cabinet of the Union of South Africa after the general election held on 15 September 1910. It consisted of members of the now-defunct South African Party. For the next fourteen years, it only consisted of members of the SAP. Botha died in 1919 and was replaced with another Boer general and SAP member, Jan Smuts. In 1924, J. B. M. Hertzog of the National Party became prime minister through a coalition with the Labour Party and appointed a cabinet that consisted of National Party and Labour Party members. In 1934, the Hertzog's National Party and the South African Party merged to form the United Party. Hertzog won the 1938 general election, but in 1939 the United Party was divided between supporters of Hertzog and those of his Justice Minister Jan Smuts because of the question of South Africa's role in the Second World War. Hertzog was voted out in the United Party and resigned as prime minister, which allowed Jan Smuts to form a government in coalition with the Dominion Party and the Labour Party. The 1948 general election was won outright by D. F. Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party and Malan appointed his first cabinet composed of National Party members. For the next forty-six years, South Africa would