It was appointed on 30 June 2024 after Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC) lost its absolute majority in the May 2024 general election and formed a ten-member coalition government.

All four original members of the coalition are represented in the cabinet, as are three later entrants, the Good Party, Pan Africanist Congress, and Freedom Front Plus.

[1][2] Support for the incumbent governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), significantly declined in the election; the ANC remained the largest party but lost its majority in the National Assembly for the first time since the inaugural post-apartheid election in 1994.

uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), a left-wing populist party founded six months prior to the election and led by former president Jacob Zuma, came in third place.

[21] On 3 December 2024, President Ramaphosa announced his first reshuffle of the cabinet, affecting four ministries: ministers Mmamoloko Kubayi and Thembi Simelane swopped portfolios and deputy ministers Judith Nemadzinga-Tshabalala and Phumzile Mgcina likewise swopped portfolios.