via Cabinet reshuffle exposes Mugabe – NewsDay Zimbabwe July 10, 2015
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s decision to reassign Cabinet ministers implicated in corrupt deals to influential potifolios shows his lack of commitment to fight graft, analysts said yesterday.
By Everson Mushava
Ignatius Chombo, the new Home Affairs minister, was singled out by the analysts after he was moved from Local Government in Mugabe’s second reshuffle in less than seven months.
Chombo was implicated in several questionable deals while serving as Local Government minister for the past 15 years.
His predecessor at the Home Affairs ministry Kembo Mohadi has also leapt from scandal to another in his Beitbridge constituency in deals involving land and companies.
Nyasha Chikwinya, the new Women Affairs minister, was sucked into land rows in Hatcliffe suburb.
Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere has been fingered in shady indigenisation deals, but was handed the powerful portfolio by Mugabe.
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute director Pedzisai Ruhanya said Mugabe’s government had thrived on corruption and his Zanu PF party would collapse the moment he moves to deal with the scourge.
“Mugabe runs a patron-client administration, it should be noted that he superintends corruption,” Ruhanya said.
“His party thrives on corruption, if you look at the report of the Auditor-General, the rot is evident.”
Chombo and Kasukuwere have been subject of a Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) investigation that was reportedly blocked by Zanu PF.
Ruhanya said Mugabe was not dealing with corruption or the economy, but maintaining his grip on power by neutralising factions within his party.
“Remember (Vice-President) Emmerson Mnangagwa is believed to be leading a faction, and so is Kasukuwere who has now been moved to Local Government,” he said.
“Mugabe could be trying to use Kasukuwere to neutralise Mnangagwa.
“At the same time, he is also preparing for elections by conflating the commissariat and Local Government so that he extends his patronage network.”
Political analyst Ernest Mudzengi said Mugabe would tactfully deem accusations against his ministers, particularly Chombo, as mere allegations because dealing with corruption that had formed the core of his party would threaten his power.
“It is convenient for him to consider accusations against Chombo and Kasukuwere as mere allegations,” Mudzengi said.
“The realignments are about power, not corruption or the economy.
“Kasukuwere, who is also political commissar, had been appointed to Local Government strategically to coordinate his work at all levels of government to ensure Zanu PF wins the next elections.”
Mudzengi said Chombo could have been removed from the Local Government ministry, not because of corruption cases reported against him, but because of various complaints on the way he was handling chieftainships.
Chombo has been accused of harbouring ambitions to rise higher in Zanu PF echelons.
His critics say he was using the Local Government ministry to manipulate chieftainship disputes to create his power base because of the role traditional leaders play in mobilising for Zanu PF.
Mudzengi said Mugabe could have left the Information ministry vacant, after reassigning Jonathan Moyo to the Higher Education portfolio, so that he directly controls the Information department.
“He wanted to give room to the President’s Office to handle it and avoid fomenting factionalism,” he said.
Political analyst Takura Zhangazha said Mugabe was appointing his loyalists after purging those who threatened his power in the form of the camp linked to former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
Joshua Mhambi, spokesperson for the Welshman Ncube-led MDC, alleged Chombo had been deployed to the Home Affairs ministry to abuse the police to further Zanu PF interests.
“Therefore in our view the reshuffle was only meant to benefit Zanu PF and its interests and not the people of Zimbabwe,” Mhambi said.
In 2013, it emerged during the trial of a Zacc commissioner, Emmanuel Chimwanda, that Chombo had been fingered in a corruption report submitted to the Harare Regional Court.
The report alleged that Chombo fraudulently acquired and sold land designated as a “public place” in Glen Lorne.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said he was baffled by Kasukuwere’s reappointment following the indigenisation scandals.
Kasukuwere is being investigated by Parliament over an alleged irregular $100 million indigenisation tender given to Brainworks Capital.
“Fresh from a grilling on that potentially stinking scandal, and upon his new appointment, he has the audacity to announce that he will effectively deal with corruption in local authorities.
“A mosquito announcing how it is going to cure malaria?” Tamborinyoka quipped.
Mugabe has in the past admitted that some of his ministers were corrupt, but none of them have been successfully prosecuted.
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