ZANU PF gives MDC useless ministries
In a step that could jeopardize a painstakingly negotiated power-sharing deal, President Robert Mugabe, in office for 28 years, has unilaterally declared that his party will retain ministries that control the military and the police, state media reported Saturday. The crucial Finance Ministry was still in dispute.
Opposition officials condemned his decision and said their party, the Movement for Democratic Change, would not join a government in which the key ministries were occupied by officials in ZANU-PF, the governing party.
Since the power-sharing agreement was signed more than three weeks ago, Mr. Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who was to serve as opposition leader under the deal, have been deadlocked over the division of ministries. The two men agreed after meeting on Friday to request the intervention of Thabo Mbeki, who was recently ousted as president of South Africa by his own party but remains the official mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis. Mr. Mbeki is flying into Harare on Monday, his spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said.
An opposition spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said Mr. Mugabe’s allocation of ministries was a strategy meant to pre-empt Mr. Mbeki’s mediation and called on African leaders and the international community to intervene. In a statement, he called Mr. Mugabe’s division of the ministries ”a giant act of madness which puts the whole deal into jeopardy.” Mr. Mbeki will be going to Harare on Monday, according to his spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga.
”The MDC did not append its signature to a ZANU-PF power-grabbing deal but to a power sharing deal,” he said.
Mr. Mugabe remained in office through what witnesses and human rights groups have said was a military-led campaign of violence against the opposition before a presidential runoff election in June that was denounced by independent African election monitors as a sham. Mr. Tsvangirai, who outpolled Mr. Mugabe in the March election, dropped out of the runoff days before it was held, citing the killing or beating of many of his party’s workers and supporters.
The Herald, the state-owned newspaper, reported Saturday that Mr. Mugabe had allocated to his own party the ministries of defense, home, foreign affairs, justice and media, among others. It seemed to leave open the possibility of further negotiation on the Finance Ministry ,which it described as being still in dispute. Mr. Tsvangirai’s party was given ministries that oversee constitutional affairs, energy, health, labor and social welfare, and economic planning and investment promotion.
Mr. Mugabe’s control of both the military and police forces would cement his continued ability to use the country’s vast security services to enforce his party’s political power. Dominance of the Finance Ministry would sustain his ability to pay for it and shape economic policy.
Mr. Tsvangirai had been willing to concede the military to Mr. Mugabe but had insisted on naming the home minister, who oversees the police force, to restore the rule of law.
He had also insisted on naming the minister of finance, to end the severe mismanagement of an economy in which agriculture and manufacturing production have collapsed, and the minister of foreign affairs, which he said was necessary for Zimbabwe to once again become ”part of the family of nations.”
Most of Zimbabwe’s 12 million people are now living in dire and worsening poverty as annual inflation has soared to 231 million percent, according to official estimates. The United Nations estimates that about one-third of the population is now hungry and in need of food aid, which is overwhelmingly provided by the United States, Britain and other Western countries often denounced by Mr. Mugabe.
In recent days, Mr. Mugabe’s party has been making the case that he is still in charge of the government and, in statements quoted in The Herald, that Mr. Tsvangirai and his party are cat’s paws for the West, particularly the United States and Britain, a stance that officials of Mr. Mugabe’s party have maintained for many years.
On Friday, a negotiator for Mr. Mugabe’s party, Patrick Chinamasa, was quoted as saying that constituting the cabinet required that certain offices ”are not demanded to overrun this country with imperialist agents.”
The ministries are as follows according to ZANU PF.
1. Defence
2. Home Affairs
3 . Foreign Affairs
4. Transport
5 . Local Government and Urban Development
6 . Mines and Mining Development
7. Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement
8. Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism
9. Higher and Tertiary Education
10. Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development
11. Justice and Legal Affairs
12 . Media, Information and Publicity
13. Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development
14. Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment
15.Finance
MDC-T
1. Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
2. Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
3. Energy and Power Development
4. Health and Child Welfare
5. Labour and Social Welfare
6. Water Resources Development and Management
7 . Public Service
8. Sport, Arts and Culture
9. State Enterprise and Parastatals
10 . Science and Technology Development
11. Information Communication Technology
12. Public Works
13 . National Housing and Social Amenities
MDC-M
1. Regional Integration and International Co-operation
2. Education
3 . Industry and Commerce
Meanwhile, the MDC has now released its own version of ministerial allocations, saying it captures the understanding at the latest deliberations on Friday.
“This list, contrary to the one published by The Herald, captures the general understanding during the deliberations.”
The following is the list according to the MDC:
Zanu-PF
1. Defence
2. Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement
3. Mines and Mineral Development
4. Parliamentary and Constitutional Affairs
5. Youth Development and Indigenization
6. Higher and Tertiary Education
7. Public Service
8. National Housing and Social Amenities
9. Public Works
10 Water Resources, Development and Management
11. Information and Communication Technology
12. State Enterprises and Parastatals
13. Transport
14. Small and Medium Enterprises
15. Prisons and Correctional Services
MDC- Tsvangirai
1. Finance
2. Economic planning
3. Home Affairs
4. Foreign Affairs
5. Justice and Legal Affairs
6. Local Government
7. Health and Child Welfare
8. Education
9. Energy and power Development
10. Media & Information Publicity
11. Labour and Social Welfare
12. Women, Gender and Community Development
13. Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism
MDC – Mutambara
1. Science and Technology development
2. Regional Integration and International Cooperation
3. Industry and Commerce
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on October 11, 2008. Filed under Politics.
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