Politics

Zimbabwe: A look at the controversial cabinet featuring the president’s son, nephew

Published

8 months ago

September 12, 2023

Barely weeks after being declared winner of the presidential elections, Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed his son as the deputy finance minister, and his nephew as deputy minister of tourism and hospitality.

As part of the parliament’s youth quota, President Mnangagwa named Soda Zhemu to lead the mining ministry and named his son, David Mnangagwa to serve as deputy finance minister, Mthuli Ncube’s deputy. His nephew, Tongai Mafidhi Mnangagwa, was assigned the deputy tourism and hospitality minister post.

Winston Chitando, who had led the ministry since November 2017, was replaced as the Minister of Mines by Zhemu. Since 2020, he has served as the minister of energy and power development.

Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, national chairman of the governing ZANU-PF party, was reappointed as the defence minister.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had last month announced that the 80-year-old politician, who contested under the ruling ZANU-PF, had been re-elected after his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party, secured 44% of the presidential vote.

Mnangagwa, after announcing the new cabinet, had no opposition officials in it. He defended his decision not to appoint opposition members amid speculations on a possible unity government. “I have a huge majority and I think the opposition would enjoy being in actual opposition rather than in government”, he said.

The country is currently faced with a huge economic burden. According to the World Bank, Zimbabwe’s economic development continues to be hampered by price and exchange rate instability, misallocation of productive resources, high informality, low investment, and limited structural transformation.

More than half of Zimbabwe’s export revenue comes from mining, and Mnangagwa has declared that the industry, which is luring investors into the lithium mining industry, will underpin future economic growth.

Related Topics:Emmerson Mnangagwa Featured Zimbabwe

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

19 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.