Newly appointed public works and infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille has pledged to "continue the struggle for dignity and fairness for all South Africans".
In a short statement after her appointment on Wednesday night, the GOOD party leader said she was humbled to have received the call from president Cyril Ramaphosa to serve in his cabinet.
De Lille, who fell out with the governing party's biggest political rivals, the Democratic Alliance, and was forced to resign as Cape Town mayor last year, returned to parliament after her five-month-old party garnered enough votes to win two seats in the National Assembly.
She said her new post would enable her to continue fighting for an accountable and compassionate government.
"On President Ramaphosa's election to the Presidency last week I pledged GOOD's constructive support for turning South Africa around.
"This support we will wholeheartedly give, but I will be joining President Ramaphosa's executive with open eyes and ears as a representative of good South Africans of integrity who love their country and demand better of their leaders," said de Lille.
In another statement, de Lille's party welcomed her inclusion into Ramaphosa's cabinet.
"Our faith in South Africans wanting a new political alternative that was offering real solutions and a positive contribution to the South African challenges was not misplaced. GOOD bucked the trend and was a new party that managed to break through and win seats," said the statement.
"We said when good people do nothing, that allows corruption and wrongdoing to prosper. It is thus entirely appropriate that we support our leader’s appointment to the cabinet. We are walking the talk."
African News Agency (ANA)