BILL WATCH 33/2023

[13th September 2023]

President Mnangagwa’s Ministerial Line-up

Section 105(1) of the Constitution provides that the Cabinet consists of the President as head of the Cabinet, the Vice-Presidents, and such Ministers as the President may appoint to the Cabinet.

President Mnangagwa began his current term when he took the oath of office on Monday 4th September 2023.  After he took the oath the members of his previous Cabinet –Vice-President and Ministers – went out of office in terms of sections 95 and 108(1) of the Constitution.  Hence there was an obvious need for new appointments.

Vice-Presidents

On Friday 8th September the President appointed and swore in Constantino Chiwenga as First Vice-President and Kembo Mohadi as Second Vice-President.

Ministers and Deputy Ministers

On Monday 11th September the President announced the appointment of 26 Cabinet Ministers, ten Provincial Affairs Ministers – one for each of Zimbabwe’s ten provinces – and an apparently incomplete list of Deputy Ministers.  These appointments are listed in the tables below.

The President conducted the swearing-in ceremony at State House on Tuesday 12th September.

Appointment of Ministers from Outside Parliament

In selecting his Cabinet ministers, the President appointed seven persons who were not members of the National Assembly or Senators, which he is allowed to do by section 104(3) of the Constitution as amended by the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Act of 2021 which raised the maximum of such persons he may appoint from five to seven.  The individuals concerned are identified in the appropriate table below by a hash sign #.  All other Ministers and Deputy Ministers have to be members of the National Assembly or Senators [In fact two appointments announced by the President on Monday evening had to be reversed because the proposed Minister of Provincial Affairs for Manicaland (Nokuthula Matsikenyere) and the proposed Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry (John Paradza) would have exceeded the maximum of seven persons from outside Parliament.]

Further points

It should be noted that neither Provincial Affairs Ministers nor Deputy Ministers are Cabinet members.

All Ministers and Deputy Ministers hold office at pleasure of the President, meaning that the President can remove them from office at any time and for any reason.

As noted above, all previous Ministers and Deputy Ministers went out of office when the President was inaugurated on the 4th September.  One wonders who was running their Ministries between that time and the 12th September, when the new Ministers were sworn in.