President Mugabe . . . will have to drop some of his loyal lieutenants from Cabinet HARARE President Robert Mugabe is yet to finish selecting the 15 people from his ZANU PF party that he will appoint as ministers, just four days before a unity government is appointed.Under the power-sharing agreement, there shall be 31 ministerial posts
with the main MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai allocated 13 posts
and the Arthur Mutambara-led smaller formation of the opposition taking
three posts.
It was not immediately clear whether Tsvangirai and Mutambara had
finished making their own selections but sources said the opposition
leaders were unlikely to face much difficulty given that their parties
had always campaigned on smaller government of no more than 15 Cabinet
ministers.
Mugabe, who will announce the power-sharing Cabinet on February 13, has
the harder task, as he will have to drop some of his loyal lieutenants
from Cabinet to make room for the opposition, with our sources saying
there will be lots of surprises from ZANU PF when the new ministers are
announced.
"The final line up on who will be in the Cabinet has not yet been
finalised," said a source in Mugabe's office, who spoke on condition he
was not named.
He added: "They will be a lot of surprises in the final line up. Nobody
is guaranteed of his or her post despite others working hard to be
noticed over the year. Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is certain.
Just expect fireworks in the final team from ZANU PF."
Making it more difficult for Mugabe is in-fighting between two rival
factions in ZANU PF that are vying for control of the party in the
event that he steps down.
The factions, one led by former parliamentary speaker Emmerson
Mnangagwa and the other by retired army general Solomon Mujuru, are
expected to push for their candidates to occupy influential posts in
government as a way to strengthen their hand in the party.
The appointment of Cabinet next Friday will be preceded by the swearing
in of Tsvangirai as Prime Minister on Wednesday. Deputy Prime Ministers
Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe will be sworn in on the same day as
Tsvangirai.
Zimbabweans hope a power-sharing government will help ease the
political situation and allow the country to focus on tackling an
economic and humanitarian crisis marked by acute shortages of food and
basic commodities, amid a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3
000 people since last August.
ZimOnline
Post published in: News