Zanu PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa (whose own State Security Ministry might be scrapped) denied there were any divisions in the party. ‘There are no divisions in the party. All members agree with what the President has done regarding the signing of the power-sharing agreement with the opposition.’
Mutasa confirmed that President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara would meet Thursday to appoint ministers in a new government. As Nehanda Radio reported on Wednesday Zanu PF members loyal to former army general Solomon Mujuru are bitter Mugabe wants to reward loyalists in the rival Emerson Mnangagwa faction. This would be seen as a thank you gesture to Mnangagwa, the head of the notorious Joint Operations Command that effectively secured Mugabe’s violent re-election.
Thursday is expected to see more bitter horse-trading between the major players who are bidding to secure key ministries and influence how the new government functions. Speculation is rife the MDC have secured the Home Affairs, Justice, Finance and Information Ministries while Zanu PF retained Defence, Agriculture, Mines and Prisons. It is also alleged Zanu PF cronies are stalling on the cabinet issue to allow time for them to share mining concessions amongst themselves which will be hard to reverse should they secure a Mining Ministry.
On Tuesday Mugabe had a meeting with his party’s politburo and followed that up with another meeting Wednesday with the Central Committee. Sources told Nehanda Radio these meetings have been heated with Mugabe facing the daunting task of trimming his 30 or so ministers to only 15 under the new agreement. Tsvangirai’s MDC will get 13 ministries while the smaller MDC faction led by Mutambara gets 3. – nehandaradio.com