New Zimbabwe cabinet to be sworn in

13/02/2009| IslamWeb

 Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's new prime minister, is preparing to swear in a new cabinet as part of a power-sharing deal with Robert Mugabe, the country’s president.

 

Mugabe has yet to name the ministers that he will bring to the 15 portfolios reserved for his Zanu-PF party under the unity accord, which it is hoped will end nearly a year of political turmoil.

 

"This process has to involve a democratization process, national healing and respecting the rights of citizens," Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said on Friday.

 

Tsvangirai was sworn in as Zimbabwe's prime minister on Wednesday, sealing a tense deal agreed five months ago with his long-time rival following a disputed legislative and presidential election.

 

Serious challenges

 

The MDC leader faces a series of challenges in his role as prime minister – from tackling runaway inflation which has left millions of people reliant on food aid, to addressing a cholera epidemic that has left 3,400 dead since August.

 

Up to three million people have left the country, while only 20 per cent of children are going to school.

 

The new cabinet has to act quickly to address the country’s economic and healthcare crises, analysts say.

 

"It's really critical that this government comes together and delivers together," Isabella Matambanadzo, Zimbabwe programme director for the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said.

 

"We want to know that we can live in a Zimbabwe where we will not be tortured by our own security forces. We also want to live in a Zimbabwe where we have predictability in our economy."

 

Tsvangirai has selected 14 cabinet ministers, including a minister of home affairs who will share his portfolio with another minister named by Mugabe. An MDC splinter group, MDC Mutambara, has three cabinet posts.

 

Control of the home affairs ministry, which oversees Zimbabwe's police forces, was one of the sticking points in power-sharing talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

 

The key ministries of defense, justice and foreign affairs have remained under the control of Mugabe, who has been Zimbabwe's sole president since 1980.

 

'Willing to fight'

 

Tsvangirai has selected Tendai Biti to the post of finance minister, in an attempt to control soaring inflation which has rendered the Zimbabwe dollar practically worthless.

 

Biti, who has in the past been accused by Zanu-PF of treason, said that political unity depends on the actions of Mugabe's party.

 

"There has to be mutual respect - we are not going in to [the cabinet] to fight. If we do have to fight, we will give as much as we get. But that is not the spirit that I want to see," Biti told Al Jazeera.

 

"The spirit is that we are going to put Zimbabwe first."

 

Massive foreign investment is required to help rebuild the country, but western countries say that such investment depends on whether there is long-term political stability.

 

"Until the government of Zimbabwe could convince us that there were going to be free and fair elections, and at the same time that there was going to be the removal of repressive legislation ... until these things happened, we could not treat Zimbabwe as if it was an ordinary country," Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, said.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (left), head of the Movement for Democratic Change, is sworn in by President Robert Mugabe at the State House in Harare.

 

Al-Jazeera