Mnangagwa reassigns Chitando to Mines, demotes Soda Zhemu to Housing

HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reassigned Winston Chitando as Mines and Mining Development Minister and demoted Soda Zhemu to the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities.

In terms of Subsection 1 of Section 104 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the President also appointed Daniel Garwe to head the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works replacing Chitando.

Chitando is considered to have a wealth of experience in mining, leading Mimosa Mines to greater heights as its chief executive for years.

The Zanu-PF leader also appointed Musa Ncube as deputy minister of National Housing and Social Amenities while Headman Moyo was redeployed to deputy minister of War veterans of the Liberation Struggle.

Jonathan Moyo, a former cabinet minister, describes the move by Mnangagwa as largely portfolio reassignment rather than cabinet reshuffle.

He said a cabinet reshuffle is a significant event, typically done mid-term or before elections, to adjust the government’s structure for strategic reasons. It involves changes to the entire cabinet or a large portion of it.

Portfolio reassignment, on the other hand, focuses on individual performance. It can happen more frequently based on regular assessments of cabinet ministers.

Moyo adds that by aligning skills with responsibilities, this approach ensures better performance and can even lead to the removal of non-performers.

“On the other hand, a ‘portfolio reassignment’ is less if at all about the cabinet itself, and more about results-based performance of an individual member of the cabinet, on the back of his or her skills,” Moyo said.

“For this reason, a ‘portfolio reassignment’ is possible or meaningful only where there’s a continuous results-based performance assessment which is functional, and is actively used as a cabinet management tool.

“In this connection, a ‘portfolio reassignment’ can be done quarterly, biannually or annually or whenever convenient; depending on the regularity or timeframe of the continuous results-based performance assessments of cabinet members.

“Through continuous results-based performance assessments, it is possible to align or realign the skills of a cabinet minister with responsibilities of a given ministry or portfolio and the performance expectations or requirements thereof.”

The former Information Minister added: “Where the results of performance assessments are strictly used to assign portfolio responsibilities, non-performers can – as they should – easily find themselves out of cabinet, when or where their skills are found to fall below the minimum delivery or performance required by their portfolio.

“This is how the ‘portfolio reassignment’ tool is different from a cabinet reshuffle, and why it is new, innovative and most welcome in the public interest!” Moyo added.