Govt ministers still reporting for duty

Harare — Ministers from the three political parties in the inclusive Government are reporting for duty as usual although they cannot make fundamental decisions, a senior official said yesterday. The inclusive Government effectively ended on August 3 this year when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared President Mugabe winner of the presidential poll held on July 31 this year.

Section 15 of Part Four of the Sixth Schedule to the New Constitution provides that the President and Vice Presidents, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister and Deputy Minister “continue in existence until the effective date when the first President assumes office under this Constitution, and the persons who held those offices remain in them accordingly”.

Despite winning the presidential poll, President Mugabe has not yet been inaugurated to enable him to form a new government after MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai rejected the resulted and lodged a court challenge.

In terms of the new Constitution, lodging of a challenge suspends the election result and requires the Constitutional Court to deal with the matter within 14 days of declaration.

Mr Tsvangirai has applied to the Constitutional Court to nullify the election result alleging massive vote rigging by Zanu-PF and is demanding fresh polls within 60 days.

Establishment of a new government will therefore be delayed as the election challenge is likely to take longer than the stipulated 14 days.
Media Information and Publicity permanent secretary George Charamba confirmed that ministers and their deputies were reporting for duty as usual while they waited to hand over to a new government.

“Ministers, including those from the MDCs, are reporting for work as usual,” he said. “They cannot, however, make fundamental decisions of policy since they are a caretaker institution waiting to hand over to the new government,” he added.

MDC-T is renowned for criticising the Judiciary whenever it does not rule in its favour while hailing it when its verdicts are favourable.
Before the elections, the MDC-T made it clear that any outcome that did not hand it victory meant that the elections would not have been free and fair. — New Ziana.