Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday sacked Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and promoted several deputies in a Cabinet reshuffle announced through state radio.
Mugabe picked former minister of indigenisation Samuel Mumbengegwi as Murerwa’s replacement, while former deputy Minister of Higher Education Sikhanyiso Ndlovu is now the new Information and Publicity minister.
No reason was given for Murerwa’s dismissal but the move comes as Zimbabwe continues to be dogged by a world-record inflation rate, which stands at 1 281%.
In his budget speech at the end of last year, Murerwa forecast that inflation would drop to below 400% in the course of the following 12 months but in fact the rate has risen further.
Ndlovu has filled a post left vacant since July last year following the death of Tichaona Jokonya, who died at a Harare hotel. Paul Mangwana has been acting as information minister since Jokonya’s death.
Former economic development minister Rugare Gumbo has been shifted to agriculture, taking over from Joseph Made who has been appointed to the newly created Ministry of Agricultural Engineering and Mechanisation.
Sylvester Nguni, former deputy minister of agriculture, becomes the new Minister of Economic Development while for economic development, deputy minister Samuel Undenge becomes Minister of State for State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and Anti-Corruption. The post was occupied by Paul Mangwana, who now becomes Minister of Indigenisation and Empowerment.
Engineer Munacho Mutezo was appointed to the new Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development.
The latest Cabinet reshuffle came as the country is grappling with a battery of economic woes including shortages of basic goods like cooking oil and sugar with at least 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold.
Mugabe, the 82-year-old leader who has ruled the Southern African nation for 27 years since independence from Britain, last made a Cabinet reshuffle in April 2005.
Doctors sacked
Meanwhile, 60 Zimbabwean junior doctors have been sacked from Harare’s main hospital after going on strike in December demanding salary hikes, their union chief said on Wednesday.
”About 60 doctors have received dismissal letters,” said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors’ Association.
He said the doctors had defied calls from Health Minister David Parirenyatwa to return to work while their grievances were being looked into.
”The doctors are not going to bow down until their demands are met,” Nyamutukwa said.
Harare central hospital executive chairperson and chief executive officer Jealousy Nderere, signed the dismissal letters, saying the striking doctors were ”discharged from service with effect from 21 January 2007”.
”It has been noted that you have not been reporting for duty for a continuous period of 30 days since the 22nd of December 2006,” he added.
The junior doctors had been demanding a major increase in their current salaries of Z$56 000 ($224) a month, whose value is being slowly eroded by rampant inflation.
Parirenyatwa last month met representatives of the striking doctors saying they had agreed for them to return to work after both sides had ”looked at the challenges they are facing, especially the issues of salaries, accommodation transport in terms of car loans”.
State health institutions have been hit by an exodus of key staff including specialist doctors, pharmacists and nurses to countries such as Australia, Botswana, Britain, New Zealand and neighbouring South Africa.
According to Nyamutukwa, Zimbabwe has about 350 junior doctors, and up to 800 senior practitioners on the government payroll. – Sapa-AFP