Backlash as Mugabe's men face losing jobs
http://www.independent.ie
By Louis Weston in Harare
Wednesday September 17 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faced a backlash from his Zanu-PF
party over Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement yesterday, as several of
his ministers faced the prospect of imminent unemployment.
After benefiting from years of patronage and corruption, many of his
senior officials will lose their jobs when a new cabinet is agreed.
Only 15 seats are reserved for Zanu-PF, down from its previous total of
32 cabinet posts and 19 deputy ministerial jobs.
Senior Zanu-PF figures have been left "shattered" by the agreement with
the Movement for Democratic Change, sources said. At the weekend a
senior politburo member privately said: "Mugabe has sold out."
But Mr Mugabe (84) blamed his own party for the power-sharing deal with
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader and the new prime minister. "It's
because of your divisions I have had to sign this do***ent," the
president told a meeting of the politburo last weekend.
Ibbo Mandaza, once a senior official who remains well connected to Mr
Mugabe's party, said: "Zanu-PF has virtually lost its hold on the
country. Few, if any, Zanu-PF ministers will have allegiance to
Mugabe."
Nonetheless, Mr Mugabe remains president and chairman of the cabinet,
although a parallel "council of ministers" will be headed by Mr
Tsvangirai.
There is still an op****tunity for Mr Mugabe to wield his vaunted
political skills and attempt to impose himself on Zimbabwe's future.
Talks between the president, Mr Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, the
leader of a rival MDC faction and the new deputy prime minister, will
take place today. The three men must agree the composition of the new
31-member cabinet, in which the MDC's two wings will have 16 places.
Factions
Mr Mandaza does not expect Zanu-PF to turn against Mr Mugabe to the
point of deposing him. "They are lame, they don't know what to do. They
are disparate, too many factions, none of whom can commandeer the whole
party."
Mr Tsvangirai said that signing the agreement had been essential for
Zimbabwe's future. "If we had not settled for this, it would have been
a very devastating blow to the hopes and aspirations of Zimbabweans.''
"It would have been the last nail in their confidence in their own
country. So on that basis I find it not impossible to work with
President Mugabe," he said.
The Prime Minister added that addressing Zimbabwe's desperate food
shortage was the new government's priority: "If I can get food to every
part of the corner of the country, that is the first step and we are
working on that." (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Louis Weston in Harare
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