Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen on Monday tabled a motion of no confidence in Cabinet.

Steenhuisen announced this as he participated in the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SoNA), which he delivered on Thursday night.

This motion did not include a motion for Ramaphosa's removal.

Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa talked about building a capable State, but was unwilling to walk away from cadre deployment.

Steenhuisen said the goodwill towards Ramaphosa when he became president in 2018 evaporated in the face of his inaction.

He said Ramaphosa's executive of 64 - which includes Ramaphosa, 28 ministers, 34 deputy ministers, and Deputy President David Mabuza - was among the biggest in the world.

He described it as "a massive jobs-for-cadres scheme where no one is too corrupt, too lazy, or too useless to land one of these plush jobs".

"Every energy reform, every measure to unshackle our economy, every intention to support businesses and grow jobs sinks like a tonne of bricks the moment you walk into your next Cabinet meeting.

"Almost no one on your executive would be employable in the private sector, and frankly, some of them should be behind bars."

Steenhuisen said instead of cleaning up his Cabinet, he reshuffled the corrupt.

"You stand up in your SoNA, and you talk about building a capable State. But you're not prepared to walk away from the very essence of State capture and the incapable state: the ANC policy of cadre deployment.

"Clearly, you know your Cabinet cannot be trusted to get things done. You have effectively admitted that by setting up a parallel state in your own office.

"Your appointment of outsiders like Sipho Nkosi, Mavuso Msimang and Daniel Mminele to do the job of your Cabinet says it all.

"In a functional democracy, you would have fired most of your Cabinet ages ago, but we all know why you haven't."

Steenhuisen said that was because Ramaphosa would rather protect the unity of the ANC than put the country first.

"In other words, you see your job as holding together this rag-tag mob of crooks and free-loaders, even if that means the destruction of our country."

"Accountability is something you only talk about, because actually doing something about it would mean firing most of your Cabinet and upsetting your comrades. And we all know you'd rather be a weak president than do that."

Steenhuisen promised Ramaphosa the DA's support for a reform agenda.

The debate was expected to continue into Monday night and resume on Tuesday.

The motion of no confidence would first need to be processed by the Speaker before being scheduled for consideration.

Ramaphosa also faces a motion of no confidence from the ATM, which also still had to be scheduled after a lengthy delay due to a court battle about whether the vote should be by secret ballot.