New Cabinet perfectly balanced

Dr Obert Moses Mpofu

HIS Excellency President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa on September 11, 2023, announced what is undoubtedly the most balanced Cabinet in the country’s history. 

The new Cabinet contains a blend of both old and new faces and is further balanced in terms of gender and age, as well as regional representation. With this Cabinet, the President has taken all efforts to ensure both women and the youth are empowered and well-represented through giving them several influential positions.

Some of the notable appointments in this regard are Cde Tino Machakaire, our party’s Youth League leader, as well as Cde Tatenda Mavetera. Such empowerment is meant to ensure our country remains in the right hands now and going into the future. 

The President made sure all the country’s 10 provinces are adequately represented in the new Cabinet and this clearly proves he is indeed a nationalist and unifier of note. With such an approach to senior Government and party appointments, no one and no place will be left behind, as we develop our beloved Zimbabwe. 

In fact, this new Cabinet has the perfect ingredients for President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa to effectively implement his people-centric developmental policies and ensure Zimbabwe attains economic prosperity. 

President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa’s latest Cabinet appointments are meant to be instrumental in completing the work started through National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1), getting into NDS 2 and eventually attaining Vision 2030, which seeks to ensure that Zimbabwe is an upper middle-income economy. The new Cabinet is predominantly composed of a team that President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa has worked with in his previous term of office to ensure there is flawless continuity.

This was through the reappointments of Cde Professor Mthuli Ncube to continue the economic recovery efforts, as well as Cde Dr Anxious Masuka to continue improving the country’s agriculture sector, as well as ensuring that the food sufficiency we have now achieved for our people becomes a permanent feature. 

The Cabinet members who were serving in the previous Government will be joined by new members, who are also equally qualified and are capable of fitting into and delivering upon the President’s development agenda. 

Continuity is further ensured through the reappointment of Zanu-PF’s Second Secretaries, General (Retired) Dr CDGN Chiwenga and Colonel (Retired) Kembo Mohadi. These reappointments demonstrate that the President has trust and confidence in his lieutenants and his entire team at large. 

The appointed Ministers will carry the people’s agenda into Cabinet as they are also part of the Zanu-PF team that won the parliamentary elections and were, thus, given the mandate by the people. This is crucial as Ministers hold top public offices and should, therefore, always seek to serve the people. The people are at the centre of such appointments and should be the ones to benefit. 

Through the appointments, it is evident that President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa is a people-centred leader. 

Most importantly, the ever-faithful rural electorate was instrumental in voting their beloved colossal party back into office for another five-year mandate and, as such, a considerable amount of resources and developmental initiatives should be directed towards uplifting their livelihoods. 

They should be at the centre of our policies and developmental initiatives. The Cabinet announcement and swearing in of the new Ministers puts to rest the opposition members who were clamouring and seeking attention and relevance to be included in the Cabinet. It is apparent that President Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF have a huge majority, hence, there is no reason whatsoever for losers to be given seats amongst the winners. 

It would be good to remember that the fate of the nation, through Government, is always dictated by those who would have won and those that would have been given a mandate and trust by the people, and in this case, it is the colossal people’s party, Zanu-PF. The concept of democracy leaves very little room for losers, through the “rule by the majority” principle.

How delightful then it is that Zanu-PF enjoys the majority in this case, as the people, just like they have done before since the country’s independence in 1980, have again chosen Zanu-PF to continue governing our beloved country towards prosperity. 

Be that as it may, we should not rest on our laurels and must carry on the work to mobilise our people towards our common end, as well as continue working tirelessly to attain our President’s thrust and vision. Efforts should and will be placed towards winning those provinces such as Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Harare in which the party did not perform very well. 

Our party will seek to attract voters from these provinces through its infrastructural, as well as other massive projects, designed to improve the daily lives of every Zimbabwean. Zanu-PF is an all-inclusive party and no one will be left behind, even those who did not vote for us. As we forge ahead in building our great nation, it should be borne in mind that our party, Zanu-PF, and Government’s efforts are ALL FOR THE PEOPLE.

Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of Zanu-PF. He writes in his own capacity.