Still 'war cabinet' for Zim

2004-02-10 22:07

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday said his newly appointed cabinet remained "a war cabinet", but this time to fight an internal war against corruption.

"It's still a war cabinet," Mugabe told reporters shortly after a ceremony to swear in the newcomers to the cabinet at State House, his official residence.

"The war is getting less and less political, that is vis-a-vis the British and vis-a-vis the Americans, those I think we have defeated now," he said referring to the political differences his government has with the West, particularly over Harare's controversial land reform programme.

"It is now the internal war to fight the evils within our system, to fight corruption, to fight tendencies to amass wealth at the expense of the nation, to fight indiscipline, to fight crime," he said.

Reshuffle

Mugabe created a new ministry of anti-corruption and anti-monopolies programmes to be headed by a veteran politician and ruling party stalwart, Didymus Mutasa.

The president on Monday night conducted his first reshuffle of a "war cabinet" he appointed in August 2002, following his re-election in controversial polls in March that year.

He dropped Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga but kept most of the other ministers from the old cabinet.

Mugabe elevated deputy finance minister Chris Kuruneri to head that ministry - seen as key in attempts to turn around the economy which has been recession in recent years.

Outgoing Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa has been re-assigned to the ministry of higher and tertiary education, a portfolio he has held once before.

Famine

Mugabe said he also shuffled his cabinet with the aim of correcting the damage resulting from a famine that has hit the country over three successive years, and sanctions imposed by the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

"We want to enhance the capacities of our own people to build their own country, to reverse the damage that has been done by a combination of drought and sanctions.

"This means of course that our agriculture has got to be propelled, it has got to be supported effectively," he said.

Mugabe also split the former ministry of land, agriculture and rural resettlement into two.

- AFP