HARARE - The fight for the control of state bodies is heightening within the coalition government, with the Ministry of State Enterprises and Parastatals now demanding that it should have a hand in board appointments.
Joel Gabuza, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) minister of state enterprises, has placed adverts in the state-owned newspapers asking Zimbabweans wishing to be considered for appointments onto 75 state entities and parastatals to lodge applications with his ministry. Gabuzas move comes barely three weeks after Webster Shamu, the minister of media, information and publicity made appointments to six media institutions. The appointments were condemned as illegal by the MDC.
Gabuza told ****The Zimbabwean*** that the call for applications was intended to reduce incidents of political appointments on the state boards and enterprises, which, he said, were responsible for the collapse of some of the state entities now reeling under huge debts. We are trying to eliminate arbitrary appointments as has been the case with alleged appointments at ZBH, Zimpapers and BAZ. What we want is a situation where every qualified Zimbabwean has a chance to serve on these bodies, irrespective of their political affiliations, said Gabuza.
While Shamu was not immediately available for comment yesterday, his deputy, Jameson Timba, said he agreed with Gabuza that there should be wider consultation on the appointment of people to serve on state boards. The advert placed by Minister Gabuza might be erroneous in that it lists Zimpapers as one of the state enterprises, but I agreed with him in that his ministry has to be consulted before any state board is appointed, said Timba, who has been at loggerheads with Shamu over appointments.
Post published in: Africa News