adminSources close to the matter, yesterday revealed that the workshop was organised by the PM and his secretary, Mr Ian Makone, while President Mugabe was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attending the 18th summit of the African Union.
As the Head of State and Government, President Mugabe should be notified of such high profile meetings before they are held, argued the source.
It emerged that President Mugabe was only notified of the meeting during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, which PM Tsvangirai did not attend.
It is understood that PM Tsvangirai failed to attend yesterday’s Cabinet meeting complaining of pain in his leg.
“The workshop was postponed because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the PM’s Office organised this workshop without notifying the President as the Head of State and Government and Commander In Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
“The PM also failed to pitch up for today (yesterday)’s Cabinet meeting and he did not communicate the reasons for his absence.
“It was, however, discovered that the PM has a plaster on his leg and was complaining of pain. The President then queried how then the PM was going to address the workshop if he was not feeling well.”
“The truth is the meeting was called off because of bungling by the PM, (Minister of State in the PM’s Office Jameson) Timba and Makone,” the source said.
The source said after debating the issue, it was then agreed that proper channels were not followed hence the postponement.
However, Minister Timba said in a statement yesterday that the workshop was cancelled because it clashed with the National Security Council meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
“The Office of the Prime Minister would like to advise all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Principal Directors and all senior government officials that the Government Work Plan workshop that had been scheduled for Nyanga has been postponed to next week,” he said.
“The workshop, which was scheduled for Thursday and Friday this week, has been moved to the same days next week to allow for an urgent National Security Council meeting on Friday.
“The objective of the Prime Minister’s GWP workshop was to enable government to adopt the key priorities for 2012 in line with the budget and the Medium Term Plan.”
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara yesterday concurred with Minister Timba that the meeting was called off because most of the ministers attending the same indaba were supposed to attend the National Security Council meeting tomorrow. “The meeting has been called off because of the National Security Council meeting on Friday,” he said.
By late yesterday, some of the officials who had left for Nyanga received some text messages advising them of the postponement of the meeting.
The messages read: “You are kindly advised that the GWP ministers’ workshop which was scheduled for Nyanga . . . 2 and 3 February has been moved to next week. We apologise for the inconvenience.”
Online Reporter