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Development cabinet
Bulawayo Agenda
May 03, 2005

Introduction
The post 31 March 2005 elections period has seen Mr Robert Mugabe appoint a contingent of his cabinet ministers, their deputies and resident ministers. He dubbed it a ‘development cabinet’ as opposed to the war cabinet of the 2000- 2005 era. The new cabinet is characterized by a number of notable exits and some not so notable additions. Of particular note is the reappointment of the likes of Joseph Made for agriculture, Herbert Murerwa for finance and Aennias Chigwedere for education. These men are known for their record of steady incompetence. Also interesting is splitting of various ministries into overlapping portfolios like Chombo’s local government ministry having to contend with Mnagagwa’s newly created Rural and Social Amenities ministry. Chen Chakezha Chenamo Cimtengwende bounced back as minister of Public Interactive Affairs likely to collide with Thichaona Jokonya’s ministry of Information and Publicity. The reason for doing this would be to have ministries compete for the president's attention. It was against this background that Bulawayo Agenda hosted a meeting of the minds at the Democracy Centre to analyze Mugabe’s appointments. The focus areas of the meeting included among others:

• Composition of the cabinet
• Ethnic ethnicity and balance
• 1987 Unity Accord dynamics
• Tsholotsho declaration factor
• Gender
• Constitutionality
• Development cabinet concept

Concept analysis

a) Composition

• The so called ‘development cabinet’ is composed of tired, recycled and boot lickers who have been variously described as non performers, non-committal and reactive individuals. Most of these ministers have presided over the demise of social services, economic depression and policy failures over the past 25 years.
• Unlike the 2000 cabinet where there was talk of ‘injection of new blood of the technocrats’ to the cabinet, the appointment of the current cabinet was nothing but a negation of service delivery an exercise in rewarding of party loyalists, party hacks and praise singers.
• The only new face that has joined the pack is Munacho Mutezo the Minister of Water Resources who brings with him a ‘wealth of experience’ in running down viable entities such as the Hwange Colliery.
• The size of the cabinet ministers including deputy ministers and resident ministers is probably the largest cabinet in Africa. This bloated cabinet is going to have lethal effects on the fiscal budget. It is understood that until now most of the ministries do not have offices and have not yet recruited their staff. The reason for increasing the size of the cabinet was therefore unwise and ill informed.

b) Ethnicity and ethnic balance
Mashonaland East got the lion’s share in the cabinet. Out of 13 elected members of parliament, seven were handed full ministries, four deputy ministries posts and one provincial governor totaling 12. The 13^th is reported to be headed for a diplomatic posting. Mashonaland East is the home province of retired General Solomon Mujuru the so called king maker and head of ZANU PF faction which is currently controlling the levers of power. Other provinces such as Masvingo and Midlands were short changed. Mr Mugabe did not bother himself with appeasing all the provinces.

c) Unity Accord dynamics
In terms of the 1987 Unity Accord dynamics little was achieved because only 3 ministers were appointed from Matabeleland which is indeed a serious cause for concern. The retention of Andrew Langa and Abednigo Ncube and appointment of Abigail Damasane is viewed an ‘act of appeasement’. Otherwise, the 1987 Unity Accord is dead and buried. The former PF ZAPU stalwarts such as Dumiso Dabengwa, Welshman Mabena, Joshua Malinga, Cyril Ndebele and others have been left out of the limelight maybe because they are no longer of any use to Mr Mugabe.

d) Tsholotsho Declaration factor
What is striking is the retention of the alleged key conspirators in the Tsholotsho Declaration debacle. Contrary to widespread speculation Mugabe pulled the Hodini act by retaining Chinamasa, Mnagagwa, Made, Mushove, Chombo all who were directly or indirectly associated with the ‘Tsholotsho putsch’.

Direct casualties were Mudenge who was demoted and the likes of Josaya Hungwe and Shuvai Mahofa who were booted out. These have now joined Prof. Jonathan who also fell out of favor of Mugabe during the run up to the 2005 elections.

e) Gender
The 2005 cabinet stands as one of the most gender insensitive cabinets ever. Only four women were given ministries out of a whooping 31. The president actually seemed to have run out of female appointees by overstepping his constitutional prerogative by appointing someone who was not a member of parliament. The other way of looking at it was to scrutinize the quality of women in the August House. This argument however does not hold water since male appointees are by description clueless and incompetent. Mugabe seems not to trust women members of cabinet. This is authenticated by his vacillating changes in roles. Flora Buka has just been relieved of her roles as head of lands and land reform. The responsibility being heaped on Didymus Mutasa who also run the security ministry in charge of distributing maize.

f) Constitutionality
Mugabe appointed unconstitutional governors for unconstitutional metropolitan provinces. These two were reportedly ejected from parliament on swearing in day. The appointment of non member of parliament Sithembiso Nyoni also boggles the mind. One needs to be an MP to be appointed minister. Only time will tell how far the president will go in manufacturing a constituency for her minister of informal sector.

g) Economic development
Until the economic fundamentals are addressed, human rights and human dignity respected, rule of law and democracy are given chance, electoral and constitutional laws are reformed and until the government looks not just east but all sides shall Zimbabwe talk of a development cabinet.

N.B. The views on this paper represent the opinions of the participants who attended the focus Group Conversation on the 3^rd of May 2005.

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