{"id":2376,"date":"2017-12-04T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2017-12-04T15:35:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T12:35:00","slug":"zimbabwes-mnangagwa-replaces-ministers-after-outcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-replaces-ministers-after-outcry\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe&#8217;s Mnangagwa replaces ministers after outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Zimbabwe&#8217;s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has replaced two ministers, two days after announcing his cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>Critics said the original line-up showed Mr Mnangagwa had no plans to bring real change to the country despite hailing a &#8220;new democracy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The education and labour ministers have now been replaced, ostensibly to comply with a constitutional provision.<\/p>\n<p>But military chiefs remain in charge of the foreign affairs and land portfolios.<\/p>\n<p>Ten days ago Mr Mnangagwa returned from exile following the military coup against Robert Mugabe, promising to serve all citizens equally.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, the government announced that two positions were being replaced to &#8220;ensure compliance with the constitution and considerations of gender, demography and special needs&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Reports suggest the initial list did not comply with a constitutional provision which limits the number of ministers who are not members of parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Some opposition supporters celebrated the most high profile decision &#8211; the removal of the education minister Lazarus Dokora &#8211; arguing that he was responsible for the decline in educational standards over the last few years.<\/p>\n<p>He is being replaced by his own deputy, Paul Mavima.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Zanu-PF deputy Petronella Kagonye becomes labour and social welfare minister in place of Clever Nyathi, who becomes a special adviser to the president on national peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>Following the news, Zimbabwean media mogul and commentator Trevor Ncube tweeted that the quick change meant the president was either &#8220;listening to the public&#8221; or &#8220;he rushed through this important task&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mnangagwa&#8217;s most controversial appointments on Friday included Sibusiso Moyo, the general who played a prominent role in the recent military takeover. He was given the role of foreign minister.<\/p>\n<p>The head of Zimbabwe&#8217;s air force, Perence Shiri, was named minister of agriculture and land affairs despite his notoriety in having led a military operation against opponents of Robert Mugabe in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition leader Tendai Biti said that until then, Zimbabweans had &#8220;given the putsch the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We did so in the genuine, perhaps naive view that the country could actually move forward,&#8221; he tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We craved change, peace &amp; stability in our country. How wrong we were&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Source: BBC<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has replaced two ministers, two days after announcing his cabinet. Critics said the original line-up showed Mr Mnangagwa had no plans to bring real change to the country despite hailing a &#8220;new democracy&#8221;. The education and labour ministers have now been replaced, ostensibly to comply with a constitutional provision. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":2377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[91,197],"class_list":["post-2376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-world","tag-zimbabwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2378,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions\/2378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}