BILL WATCH SPECIAL

[14th February 2009]

Prime Minister and Deputies sworn in

The Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the two Deputy Prime Ministers, Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, were sworn in at State House on 11th February, meeting the deadline set by the SADC Summit of 26th-27th January. [Communiqué – para 7(ii) the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers shall be sworn in by 11th February 2009]

Swearing-in of new Ministers

[for list of Ministers by name and portfolio see below]

Ministers were sworn in yesterday, 13th February, the date the SADC Summit set for the finalisation of setting up an inclusive government by the swearing-in of Ministers and Deputy Ministers. [Communiqué – para 7(iii) the Ministers and Deputy Ministers shall be sworn in on 13th February 2009, which will conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive Government]

Note the SADC Summit deadline for the swearing-in of the Deputy Ministers has not been met

Agreed Number of Ministers under IPA - 31

Under the Interparty Political Agreement [IPA] signed September 15 by the political parties and by the President of South Africa and Chair of SADC, the number of Ministries allocated to each party was
specified: ZANU-PF 15; MDC-T 13; and MDC-M 3 - Total 31. [The principle underlying this was supposed to be that the number of Ministers each party gets was in proportion to votes won in the Parliamentary elections last March.]

Ten extra Ministers listed to be sworn in

The day before the swearing in, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet said the full list of ministerial appointees had been announced by President Mugabe. He said 39 people would be appointed Ministers, but gave no information about which portfolios they would be given. There were 21 names announced for ZANU-PF [6 more than their IPA quota], 14 for MDC-T [1 more than their IPA quota] and 4 for MDC-M [1 more than their IPA quota]. The next day 2 more names were added to the ZANU-PF list – Muchena and Kasukuwere – making a total of
23 for ZANU-PF [8 more that their IPA quota]. This brought the
number of Ministers expecting to be sworn in up from 31 to 41. The extra numbers listed were explained as follows:

· the parties had agreed that both MDC-T and ZANU-PF would have a
Minister of Home Affairs, so 1 was added to ZANU-PF’s allocation

· ZANU-PF claimed 7 extra as Ministers of State [Note: Ministers of
State are full Ministers and in previous governments have sat in Cabinet]

· Both MDC-T and MDC-M were each allocated 1 extra Minister [to be a
Minister of State]

MDC-T raised objections to the number of extra Ministers ZANU-PF were claiming. There was a delay of over five hours while parties disagreed about the extra ministries with President Motlanthe called in to mediate. [Comment: as the negotiations for the inclusive government have been going on for almost 7 months, it was disappointing that there are still disagreements over such a bedrock of the IPA as the numbers of Ministers for each party.]

Compromise for the Day - 36 Ministers

35 Ministers were sworn in. Giles Mutsekwa, on the MDC list was out of the country and it was reported that he would be sworn in at a later date. This makes a total of 36 Ministers.

ZANU-PF kept 1 for its co-Minister for Home Affairs and got 2 Ministers of State in the President’s Office [an extra 3 over the IPA allocation]. 5 on the list – all senior ministers in the last government – who had arrived with their guests expecting to be sworn in, were not sworn in [John Nkomo, David Parirenyatwa, Flora Buka, Paul Mangwana and Sylvester Nguni].

MDC-T got one Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office [an extra 1 over their IPA allocation]. Mr Gibson Sibanda on the MDC-M list was not sworn in.

SADC Statement to Press Incorrect

SADC Secretary General Salomao was reported as explaining that the problems were “technical problems”. He went on to say that “according to the agreement the Cabinet should have two Ministers of State in the President’s office and one for the Prime Minister’s Office”. Comment:
there is absolutely no provision for Ministers of State or any other additional Minister(s) in the IPA.

The compromise violates the Constitution of Zimbabwe

The number of Ministers laid down in the Constitution of Zimbabwe since Constitution Amendment 19 is 31. The slipping in of extra Ministries is a breach of our Constitution. [Comment: This is not sending out the right signals that the inclusive government intends to respect the principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law.]

A Continuing Saga

Welshman Ncube, Secretary General of MDC-M and their chief negotiator, was quoted after the swearing in ceremony as saying “the matter had not been conclusively resolved but had merely been set aside for this weekend.”

This ties in with a report that Motlanthe suggested Mugabe and Tsvangirai hold talks this weekend to decide whether they could both increase the number of their ministers to accommodate the extra five Zanu (PF) aspirant Ministers .This would result in a almost 50 Ministers. [Comment: If this is a correct report, President Motlanthe is not taking into account the constitutional issues or the extra burden this would place on the fiscus. It would also be perceived as bowing to last minute manipulation of the agreement by ZANU-PF.]

The ceremony was not only marred by disagreements, but also by the news of the arrest of the MDC-T Treasurer-General and Deputy Minister designate, Roy Bennett and by the continuing refusal to release other political detainees – one of the MDC-T conditions for embarking on an inclusive government. It is to be hoped that these issues will also be dealt with at the same time as continuing discussions about the ministerial posts.

Allocation of Ministerial Portfolios

This is the position Saturday morning but may of course be altered if the numbers of Ministries are cut down to meet constitutional requirements

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.