Source: Cabinet reshuffle must dwell on performance – DailyNews Live
Eddie Zvinonzwa 9 October 2017
HARARE – Obviously, the Daily News feels vindicated after President Robert
Mugabe confirmed – at a youth meeting on Saturday – its story on an
impending Cabinet reshuffle that was published at the end of September.
On his return from the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York
on September 25, Mugabe hinted that he might reshuffle his Cabinet to weed
out elements seen as fomenting discord in his government.
He said then that he was aware of saboteurs who wanted to incite people
against his government ahead of next year’s watershed polls – in which he
has been endorsed as Zanu PF’s presidential candidate – suggesting some of
them could be within his inner circle.
His inner circle clearly refers to those closest to him, that is, in the
cockpit which is the ruling party as well as government’s control room.
Zanu PF has a history of conflating party and government business and for
them there is no difference.
Mugabe last reshuffled his Cabinet in September 2015 as he sought to
uproot functionaries thought to have been associated with former vice
president Joice Mujuru.
But events have unfolded very fast on the ground, especially the
contentious issue of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s alleged poisoning
at the Gwanda youth interface rally in August.
The public spat between Vice President Phekekezela Mphoko – who was acting
president during Mugabe’s absence – over the same issue lately, have
stoked Zanu PF factional flames.
While Mugabe is at liberty to reassign and even fire some in his bloated
Cabinet, Zimbabweans hope he will assemble a team that has the long-term
objective of bettering the battered lives of crisis-weary Zimbabweans.
Cash shortages have led to long queues outside banks as people struggle to
access their cash from the financial institutions, despite the
introduction of bond notes last year by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
Coupled with a shortage of basic commodities, the US dollar has
disappeared from the formal market and importers have turned to the
parallel market where they get it at a premium, a development which has
seen prices spiking.
Consumers jammed supermarkets purchasing goods like cooking oil
anticipating an acute shortage in the future while some were hoarding for
speculative purposes.
The country’s public hospitals have been hopping from one challenge to the
other with the shortage of basic drugs the major handicap.
These challenges are coming as a replay of what ordinary Zimbabweans
witnessed in the hyperinflation of 2008.
It is important to note that the under-performance of Mugabe’s Cabinet has
largely been a product of the speculation associated with his succession.
By refusing to name a successor, ostensibly because, he claims, the ruling
party’s constitution does not give room for that, Mugabe has left his
lieutenants fighting to position themselves in preparation for a
post-Mugabe era.
Half the time, they have been brawling, attending worthless rallies at a
time the country has been burning.
In a way, Mugabe is also to blame for the current team’s failures and
hopefully when he sits to compile a new one, the whole exercise will be
informed by the performance of individual team members in their respective
portfolios.
But again, this is politics. Mugabe will use the reshuffle to stamp his
authority on both the party and government by pushing out those he feels
belong to the wrong camp.
Zanu PF is split between two major factions the Generation 40 (G40) –
rabidly opposed to Mnangagwa taking over from Mugabe and Team Lacoste,
which is rooting for the Midlands Godfather to succeed Mugabe.
Predictably, Mugabe’s reshuffle will – this time around – be influenced by
non-State actors, some of whom have been very vocal recently about those
entrusted with Cabinet positions.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution allows Mugabe to hire and fire, which is what he
did in 2015. The only difference is that back then he could give his vice
presidents an ear.
This time around, it could be a different ball game altogether with the
axe hanging over those perceived to be “in the wrong basket”, to borrow
from Mugabe himself.
For now, let’s wait and see what the country’s chief executive officer has
to offer Zimbabweans.
COMMENTS
If it were ever possible to dwell on performance then the re-shuffler would be the first to re-shuffle himself (actually, taking himself out of the pack completely). Indeed he is the weakest point when it comes to performance. In fact, on scale of 0 to 10, the old man would not even deserve the 0. He will get a score of 0 by default, otherwise he deserves something way below 0. Clearly, that is how impossible it is for anyone to ever even think of performance being a factor when it comes to the old man’s exercising of his power. Unless the word performance now has a different meaning in zanu pf dictionary.