DEMOCRATIC Alliance leader Athol Trollip says South Africa has two civil services - one made up of "cadres" and another made up of former civil servants who were "expunged" after apartheid ended, and who now work as consultants.

DEMOCRATIC Alliance leader Athol Trollip says South Africa has two civil services - one made up of "cadres" and another made up of former civil servants who were "expunged" after apartheid ended, and who now work as consultants.

Trollip's clear implication is that white consultants are keeping the country running, because the post-apartheid black civil service cannot cope on their own.

Speaking during the debate on the Presidency's budget vote in Parliament yesterday, Trollip told President Jacob Zuma that the cost of service delivery was "excessively high due to the fact that cadre deployment and the expunging of civil servants from the previous regime have left us with a corps of public officials that are not adequately skilled and equipped to perform their functions effectively".

"This has led to us having to employ and fund effectively a 'dual' civil service which is made up of consultants. These people are effectively the expunged former civil service corps that now "advise" government on what and how to do things," Trollip said.

Zuma had earlier said the government would address "weaknesses in local government, the poor quality of some of the public services rendered by national and provincial spheres and poor strategic planning across the three spheres of government".

Trollip also slammed the National Planning Commission, headed by Trevor Manuel, and the Ministry of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation headed by Collins Chabane.

"Not only have you chosen an enormous cabinet that appears to owe its existence to a not too unapparent appeasement strategy, you have also created two surrogate departments within your own office," Trollip said.

But Manuel said his department was needed to help government develop its "long-term vision".

Chabane said he did not want to respond to Trollip's comments.

Zuma said the departments were needed to "improve the ability of the Presidency to give leadership to government" and to make sure programmes were being carried out across the country.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said she "wholeheartedly" supported two ministries which were essential in generating a long-term vision for the country and to address the weakness of lack of planning and monitoring.

Cope's parliamentary leader Mvume Dandala said the "increased size of government is a source of great concern" and called for Zuma to say how much the new enlarged cabinet would cost.