Government dismisses media reports

office of the Head of State.
Dr Sibanda said the Head of State and Gov­ernment, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, assumed only one legal statute — the Radiation Protection Act — at the request of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, which formerly superin­tended it.
“The rest of the Acts mentioned in the news­paper reports have always been under the administration of the Office as per Statutory Instrument No 49 of 2010, dated 4 March 2010,” said Dr Sibanda in his statement.
“As per normal practice, the Attorney              Gen­eral’s Office printed the entirety of the  Acts assigned to the affected institutions, that is, the Office of the President and Cabinet              and the Ministry of Health and Child Wel-fare.”
The Radiation Protection Act, said Dr Sibanda, was assigned to the President’s Office as per last Friday’s Government Gazette follow­ing representations made by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.
“The ministry to which the Act was formerly assigned, had requested in writing that the Act be reassigned from itself to the Office (of the President), on the basis that the scope of the activities to be undertaken by the Radiation Protection Authority created under the Act were beyond the mandate of the ministry, eg issues of nuclear disarmament and non-prolif­eration of nuclear weapons and radioactive materials. A copy of the letter from the Min­istry of Health and Child Welfare is available,” said Dr Sibanda.
The Standard weekly newspaper had at the weekend reported that the President had re-assigned some crucial Acts without consulting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Profes­sor Welshman Ncube who are also principals to the Global Political Agreement.
The legal statutes are Commission of Inquiry Act, Emergence Powers Act, Honours and Awards Act, Interception of Communica­tion Act, Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act, Procurement Act and the Zim­babwe National Security Act.
The newspaper had claimed that the move was part of the President’s ploy to consolidate his powers ahead of next year elections slated for March.