Zimbabwe’s Prime Minsiter Morgan Tsvangirai is on Wednesday expected to pull a shocker by firing “incompetent ministers” from his MDC party. Speculations are rife in Harare that Tsvangirai will reshuffle his cabinet team in an exercise aimed at purging several key ministers accused of incompetence.
Tsvangirai is less than pleased with the performance of his team which was given charge of most of the economic and social affairs ministries in the coalition cabinet.
Insiders say the MDC-T leader is concerned that his team has generally failed to deliver on its mandate and have fallen into the trap of enjoying their cabinet perks as well as going on endless foreign trips which come with generous travel allowances.
“Tsvangirai is fed up by ministers who have generally failed to deliver on their promises and will either reshuffle them or fire them completely. They are enjoying the luxuries and forgetting where they came from.
“The Prime Minister wants to make sure that the drastic action he is taking will make the ministers work hard so that they deliver on their promises. He is also not happy that some of his ministers are always globetrotting in search of allowances but he wants to put this to a stop,” an official said.
Sources here say Tsvangirai consulted President Mugabe who in turn asked Deputy prime minister Auther Mutambara whether he had been consulted to which he answered, “no”. Mugabe then advised Tsvangirai to inform Mutambara of his intentions which he did.
“Whether or not he (Tsvangirai) is going to go through with it is his baby,” a source said. “It’s really up to him because the other principals cannot veto his decision to reshuffle. They can only air their views and opinion, but the final decision is Morgan’s”.
However, President Mugabe is said to have been against the move and might refuse to swear in the new ministers.
At least 10 MDC-T ministers will be affected. Those to be reshuffled are reportedly Theresa Makone (Public Works), Fidelis Mhashu (Housing and Social Amenities), Giles Mutsekwa (Home Affairs), Gabuza Joel Gabbuza (State Enterprises and Parastatals), Elton Mangoma (Economic Planning and Investment Promotion) and Elias Mudzuri (Energy and Power Development).
