Cabinet reshuffle looms in Zimbabwe

By Blessings Mashaya

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is set to reshuffle his Cabinet, firing underperforming ministers barely four months after their appointment, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services deputy minister Energy Mutodi has revealed.

This comes as Mnangagwa’s government is failing to stem the economic meltdown in the country, which has been characterised by widespread shortages of basic commodities — especially fuel — and skyrocketing prices, amid biting foreign currency shortages.

Posting on his Twitter handle, Mutodi said his boss will reshuffle his Cabinet to stop the current economic crisis.

“Cabinet reshuffle: After all what has happened, it’s now clear that some ministries are being messed up and president Mnangagwa has to take action. A reshuffle is coming and those messing up your days are numbered,” Mutodi wrote.

Mnangagwa’s government seems to be running out of solutions for the economic crisis that has gripped the country, which has continued despite the country holding relatively peaceful elections on July 30 and especially worsened with the introduction of the two percent transactional tax by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.

Mthuli’s austerity measures — which are seen as the first steps towards reviving the country’s economy — have not found resonance with the majority of disillusioned Zimbabweans.

Ironically, Mnangagwa gave his ministers 100-day targets to achieve after he won the heavily-contested July 30 elections in which he beat opposition leader Nelson Chamisa with a razor-thin margin.

Recently, Mnangagwa revealed there were some among his Cabinet ministers who were demanding bribes from investors to facilitate meetings with him and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga.

Mnangagwa told stunned Zanu PF bigwigs during the party’s central committee meeting in Harare last week that in one of the more egregious cases, a Cabinet minister had demanded a whopping R5 million bribe from a foreign investor to arrange a meeting with him. DailyNews