President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has dissolved his cabinet, his office said in a statement on Friday, in a long-awaited move that comes amid his government’s growing international isolation.
”His excellency the president, Comrade RG Mugabe, today, August 23, 2002, dissolved Cabinet,” the statement said.
”He is expected to work on a new cabinet over the weekend, with the swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet set for Monday” at State House, the two-line statement said.
The South African government said it would adopt a ”wait and see” approach.
”…we will be watching with keen interest the appointment of a new cabinet on Monday,” said Foreign Affairs Department representative Ronnie Mamoepa.
Mugabe has not changed his cabinet since he claimed victory in March presidential elections, although legal experts had said the move was due soon after his inauguration.
His delay in naming the cabinet became an issue in one of the court cases challenging his controversial land reform scheme.
In that case, farmer George Quinnell questioned the legitimacy of two cabinet ministers who signed the order notifying him that the government planned to resettle his farm with blacks.
Quinnell said Lands Minister Joseph Made and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had no power to authorise the acquisition order because their tenure of office had expired when Mugabe was re-elected in March.
The cabinet’s make-up was also a key issue in political talks brokered by Nigeria and South Africa in the wake of the presidential poll.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has never accepted Mugabe’s victory in the poll, and the mediators had proposed a government of national unity as a solution to the political impasse.
However, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has dismissed any suggestion that his party would join the cabinet.
Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) unilaterally postponed the talks in May.
Mugabe’s last major cabinet reshuffle was in July 2000, after his party was nearly defeated in parliamentary elections by the MDC, which took almost half the elected seats.
That reshuffle brought in several young new ministers who Zanu-PF had hoped would rejuvenate the government.
Instead, during the last two years, Mugabe’s government has faced western sanctions over alleged rights abuses and vote fraud during the presidential election.
At home, Mugabe is presiding over the nation’s worst-ever economic crisis, with inflation last month soaring to a record high of 123,5% and an estimated 80% of the population living in poverty.
He has staked his political fortunes on a controversial scheme to resettle white-owned farms with blacks, a programme plagued by violence and one in which his critics claim has mainly benefited Mugabe’s inner circle.
The resettlement scheme also threatens to worsen an already devastating food shortage, which has left at least six million people — about half the population — threatened by famine. – Sapa-AFP