Mugabe to Wield Axe

Financial Gazette (Harare)

Dumisani Ndlela

29 April 2011

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is said to be planning a surprise Cabinet reshuffle sometime next month to strengthen his political hand and weed out those that have fallen to the temptation of greed, The Financial Gazette can exclusively reveal. At least three longtime allies from ZANU-PF are likely to fall by the wayside as the veteran Zimbabwean leader shifts focus from his bruising tug-of-war with Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations in the inclusive government to the performance of State bureaucrats in his Cabinet lineup.

The Cabinet reshuffle would be the first by President Mugabe since a forced marriage of convenience with the former opposition parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Industry Minister, Welshman Ncube to form the unity government in February 2009.

Ncube, a controversial political schemer, took over the helm at the other MDC formation after he was voted party president at a congress held in February to replace Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara who was left clutching at the straws for survival.

The only Cabinet reshuffle that has taken place since the formation of the coalition was by Prime Minister Tsvangirai who dropped a few of his MDC-T ministers, including the party’s organising secretary, Elias Mudzuri and Education secretary, Fidelis Mhashu.

Tsvangirai’s reshuffle was said by critics to have been meant to purge potential rivals or members of his party said to have been aligned to a rival within his party, recently hit by a spate of violence during provincial elections ahead of the MDC-T’s elective congress, which begins today in Bulawayo.

President Mugabe’s reshuffle, which the ZANU-PF party leader expects to rejuvenate his government machinery and endear his party with a restive urban and rural population eager for change was said to have been contemplated after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) put brakes on elections he had targeted to hold this year.

SADC — the guarantor of the Global Political Agreement upon which the coalition is anchored — is demanding a clear-cut election roadmap to be endorsed by all the major parties in the inclusive government before it could give the green light to an election in Zimbabwe.

The 15-member bloc fears that rushing elections in tension-filled Zimbabwe could worsen violence, reported in some parts of the country and, in the end, produce yet another contested electoral outcome.

With the elections now unlikely this year focus in the inclusive government is now shifting to the conduct of its public officers in and outside their offices.

The performance of the bulk of its office bearers has not been up to scratch. Cabinet has also been blighted by allegations of corruption against some of its ministers.

The Financial Gazette has names of three Cabinet ministers likely to be purged under the reshuffle. All three are not aligned to any of the two prominent factions within ZANU-PF, reportedly led by retired army general, Solomon Mujuru and Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

If fact, the three are long-time loyalists of the President but are said to have become a significant impediment to the rejuvenation of the party owing to controversies surrounding their tenure in their respective portfolios.

One of the ministers hails from Mashonaland West, President Mugabe’s home province. The second one is from Mashonaland Central, while the third is from Matabeleland. All three are elected representatives of ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe’s Parliament.

It was said by one source that one of the ministers had already been proscribed from approving new deals within his ministry.

“All new dealings by the ministry are now being approved by President Mugabe,” said the source.

The other had been involved in acts that the President felt had grossly undermined ZANU-PF and threatened its electoral chances.

The third minister was said to be “too ambitious to be able to spearhead his mandate without overcoming the temptation of greed”.

Sources said it was unlikely the reshuffle would be indiscriminate and President Mugabe was said to be particularly alert to the potential to stoke further divisions within his party by purging members of any of the two prominent factions within ZANU-PF.

There have been efforts to unite the fractious party through a restructuring exercise spearheaded by former Air Force of Zimbabwe vice Air Marshal, Henry Muchena. Muchena is now a full time director of ZANU-PF.

But sources have indicated that divisions remain wide and deep, creating the possibility of an implosion should President Mugabe choose to step down as the party’s leader.

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