Mugabe Allocates Ministries

Herald Reporters

PRESIDENT Mugabe has gazetted ministries allocated to Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC in terms of the power-sharing agreement signed by the three parties. Section (L) of the Functions and Powers of the President outlined in the power-sharing agreement states that the Head of State shall after consultation with the Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers, allocate ministerial portfolios in accordance with the agreement.After the assignment of ministries to the parties, President Mugabe is expected to sign the necessary papers for the appointment of the Vice Presidents, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers.After their appointments, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC counterpart Arthur Mutambara would have three months to find seats in Parliament.The President would then receive nominations of ministerial appointees from the two MDC formations for appointment into Cabinet.Highly placed sources last night said Zanu-PF has already agreed on its line-up of ministers. In the 31-member Cabinet, Zanu-PF — which won the popular vote on March 29 — has 15 ministries, MDC-T 13 while MDC has three.The principals would assign their members in the portfolios.No appointments would, however, be made until the facilitator, former South African president Cde Thabo Mbeki, has come to assist on the outstanding ministry — Finance, which Cde Mugabe provisionally assigned to Zanu-PF, according to the Government Gazette.The assignment of ministries was done in terms of Paragraph (a) of Subsection (1) of Section 31 D of the Constitution.
The ministries are as follows.
1. Defence 2. Home Affairs 3 . Foreign Affairs 4. Transport 5 . Local Government and Urban Development 6 . Mines and Mining Development 7. Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement8. Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism 9. Higher and Tertiary Education 10. Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development 11. Justice and Legal Affairs 12 . Media, Information and Publicity 13. Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development 14. Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment

MDC-T 1. Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs 2. Economic Planning and Investment Promotion 3. Energy and Power Development 4. Health and Child Welfare 5. Labour and Social Welfare6. Water Resources Development and Management 7 . Public Service 8. Sport, Arts and Culture 9. State Enterprise and Parastatals10 . Science and Technology Development 11. Information Communication Technology 12. Public Works 13 . National Housing and Social Amenities

MDC-M1. Regional Integration and International Co-operation2. Education3 . Industry and Commerce NB: Finance is still in dispute.