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Backlash as Mugabe's men face losing jobs
Louis Weston, Independent.ie
September 17, 2008

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/africa/backlash-as-mugabes-men-face-losing-jobs-1476716.html

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faced a backlash from his Zanu-PF party over Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement yesterday, as several of his ministers faced the prospect of imminent unemployment.

After benefiting from years of patronage and corruption, many of his senior officials will lose their jobs when a new cabinet is agreed. Only 15 seats are reserved for Zanu-PF, down from its previous total of 32 cabinet posts and 19 deputy ministerial jobs.

Senior Zanu-PF figures have been left "shattered" by the agreement with the Movement for Democratic Change, sources said. At the weekend a senior politburo member privately said: "Mugabe has sold out."

But Mr Mugabe (84) blamed his own party for the power-sharing deal with Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader and the new prime minister. "It's because of your divisions I have had to sign this document," the president told a meeting of the politburo last weekend.

Ibbo Mandaza, once a senior official who remains well connected to Mr Mugabe's party, said: "Zanu-PF has virtually lost its hold on the country. Few, if any, Zanu-PF ministers will have allegiance to Mugabe."

Nonetheless, Mr Mugabe remains president and chairman of the cabinet, although a parallel "council of ministers" will be headed by Mr Tsvangirai.

There is still an opportunity for Mr Mugabe to wield his vaunted political skills and attempt to impose himself on Zimbabwe's future.

Talks between the president, Mr Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a rival MDC faction and the new deputy prime minister, will take place today. The three men must agree the composition of the new 31-member cabinet, in which the MDC's two wings will have 16 places.

Factions

Mr Mandaza does not expect Zanu-PF to turn against Mr Mugabe to the point of deposing him. "They are lame, they don't know what to do. They are disparate, too many factions, none of whom can commandeer the whole party."

Mr Tsvangirai said that signing the agreement had been essential for Zimbabwe's future. "If we had not settled for this, it would have been a very devastating blow to the hopes and aspirations of Zimbabweans.''

"It would have been the last nail in their confidence in their own country. So on that basis I find it not impossible to work with President Mugabe," he said.

The Prime Minister added that addressing Zimbabwe's desperate food shortage was the new government's priority: "If I can get food to every part of the corner of the country, that is the first step and we are working on that."

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