Section 31E of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states categorically that the office of vice president, minister or deputy minister shall become vacant upon the assumption of office of a new president, meaning there is no Cabinet at the moment since Mugabe’s inauguration on June 29.
‘Mugabe appeared set on elevating speaker of parliament, John Nkomo, to vice president to replace his current ailing deputy, Joseph Msika,’ our source said.
While Mugabe was said to have preferred Emmerson Mnangagwa to that position, he has to maintain a tribal balancing act in the presidium, and can only appoint a former Zapu stalwart in line with provisions of the 1987 Unity Accord. Mnangagwa, who was the veteran ruler’s chief election agent, is set to replace Nkomo as speaker.
Msika, who was appointed deputy president after the death in 1999 of veteran nationalist Joshua Nkomo, is 85, Mnangagwa is 65 and Nkomo is 73.
Vice president Joice Mujuru would be retained, The Zimbabwean was told, for gender parity in the presidium and to maintain a façade of Zanu (PF)’s much-trumpeted women empowerment.
“There are going to be wholesale changes,’ one source said.
Senior government officials said Mugabe’s expected Cabinet reshuffle had not been affected by the controversy over re-election, but the need to assemble a competent and courageous Cabinet team for a country facing a deepening economic crisis.
‘A number of Cabinet ministers are losing their jobs because of the Bhora Mudondo campaign, where you had the councillor winning, the MP winning, the senator winning and the president losing,’ a senior Politburo official said.
“I am aware that in the first round of voting, some of you campaigned for the opposition, especially Simba Makoni; I am aware of all the tricks that were designed to make me lose,” Mugabe said.
Speculation is rife that Mugabe might infuse his Cabinet with one or two officials from the MDC ‘to win some sort of credibility”. He extended an invite to his inuguration to Tsvangirai and to the Mutambara MDC. Only Gabriel Chaibva, a spokesman for the Mutambara MDC attended the inauguration.
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