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Mugabe steps up militarisation of state institutions
Zim-Online
May 09, 2005

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=9689

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has ordered the redeployment of more than 2 000 soldiers from the army to the civil service as he continues militarising state institutions, ZimOnline has established. Graduates of the government's controversial national youth service training will also join the soldiers in the civil service, sources said. Some of the soldiers and the youth militias have since the end of last month been receiving induction training in government policy and functions at various centres across the country. Most of the soldiers and youth militias will be deployed in four new ministries created by Mugabe when he named a new Cabinet after the March election. But many will also take up jobs in existing ministries and government departments, sources said. ABOUT 2 000 soldiers are being redeployed to the civil service as the government continues militarising state institutions

A Ministry of Labour official, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said: "The courses are basically meant to re-orient them and help them make the transition from soldiers to public service workers. "There are about 2 000 people undergoing training and the majority of these are soldiers while the remainder is made up of national youth service graduates. There is a mixture of high ranking and middle ranking soldiers." Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi refused to take questions on the matter when contacted last night, while phones went unanswered at the Zimbabwe Defence Forces' public relations and press liaison office.

Secretary of the Public Service Commission (PSC) that employs all government workers outside the uniformed forces, Constance Chigwamba, would also not be drawn to discuss the matter. Chigwamba would only say: "We always hold induction courses for new employees," when asked whether her commission was running induction courses for soldiers to prepare them for the jobs in the civil service. Mugabe, in power for the past 25 years, has resorted to appointing trusted military officers to key government positions as his hold on power has increasingly come under challenge in the last five years from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and from within his own ruling ZANU PF party. But this is the first time that the government is making a wholesale recruitment of soldiers, including junior ranking troops, into the civil service. When the opposition and Southern African Development Community leaders pressured for an independent commission to run elections in Zimbabwe, Mugabe responded earlier this year by appointing former top army officer George Chiweshe as head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

The MDC has accused Chiweshe of bias in the March 31 election after his ZEC produced conflicting figures and statistics of people who voted in the poll massively won by ZANU PF. Chiweshe, who is a lawyer and was appointed to the High Court after the government purged independent judges, previously headed the Delimitation Commission that redrew voting constituencies in Zimbabwe before the last election. Chiweshe excised three constituencies from opposition supporting areas and awarded them to rural areas where ZANU PF enjoys more support. A former army colonel Samuel Muvuti was appointed two years ago to head the government's Grain Marketing Board tasked with ensuring food security in the country. Former military intelligence officer Sobhuza Gula-Ndebele was appointed Attorney General earlier this year while former army brigadier Kennedy Zimondi is chief elections officer of the Electoral Supervisory Commission that monitors fairness during elections.

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