Major split in Mugabe’s Cabinet as deputy premier refuses to quit

Sharp differences have emerged in Zimbabwe’s fragile unity government over the fate of one of the deputy Prime Ministers who was demoted by his party but has not left his post after receiving support from President Robert Mugabe.

Professor Arthur Mutambara who was toppled from the leadership of the small formation of the Movement for Democratic Change last month is supposed to make way for the new leader Professor Welshman Ncube.

Prof Ncube announced a fortnight ago that he would become the Deputy Prime Minister while his predecessor would be demoted to a ministerial post following the change in the party’s leadership structure.

But President Mugabe turned down an MDC request to re-assign Prof Mutambara citing legal reasons.

Zimbabwe has two deputy prime ministers, one each from the two MDC factions, following the formation of a unity government two years ago.

Prof Ncube’s party has accused Mr Mugabe of tribalism after his refusal to fire its former leader saying in June last year he eagerly accepted a request by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to reshuffle his cabinet line-up.

The smaller MDC has its largest support base in the Ndebele speaking south western parts of the country while Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC and Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF draw most of their support among the majority Shona population.

Mr George Charamba, the president’s spokesman, has dismissed the accusations that Mr Mugabe was being tribalistic and accused MDC of trying to use the veteran ruler to solve its internal problems.

“It is not the business of the president to use his powers as an appointing authority to resolve problems of a political party,” Mr Charamba told state media on Wednesday.

“Welshman Ncube must deal with the political problem in MDC arising from that party’s just ended congress.

“That congress yielded a contested leadership and that is not President Mugabe’s problem. Mr Charamba said Prof Ncube’s best bet was to persuade Prof Mutambara to agree to be re-deployed or leave the inclusive government.

Prof Ncube who is currently minister of Industry and Commerce announced a fortnight ago that Prof Mutambara had been redeployed to the Regional Integration and International Cooperation portfolio.

The robotics professor has not responded to the redeployment as he has been out of the country attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Despite signing a power sharing agreement in 2008 and forming a unity government with his rivals a year later, Mr Mugabe retained the sole prerogative to appoint or fire any cabinet member.

The two MDC formations can only make recommendations but not State appointments.

Ethnic divisions in the Zimbabwean government are not new.

Two years after the country’s independence in 1980, President Mugabe fired ministers from PF Zapu led by the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo who was popular in the south western parts of the country.

The expulsion was followed by a military excursion that killed 20,000 PF Zapu supporters and were described as a “moment of madness by” Mr Mugabe.