Fireworks Expected At Special Cabinet Meeting

Sources said the special session was agreed to by both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in order to tackle some of the thorny issues that have caused tensions in the shaky coalition government put in place in 2009.

Well-placed sources told Radio VOP: “They agreed that the haggling in the regular cabinet sessions was affecting the transaction of government business. They therefore agreed to hold the special session which shall deal with the problematic areas.”

Some of the issues that are expected to be discussed in the special cabinet session include audit of diamond mining and sales, the public service report which unearthed thousands of ghost workers, the controversial indigenisation regulations which are scaring away potential investors to the country, rampant corruption and the interference of Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo in the operations of local government.

The cabinet ministers are also expected to discuss the partisan actions of the Attorney General Johannes Tomana, the bias by the commissioner general of the police Augustine Chihuri and the level of involvement of the military in the violence currently unfolding in the country.

The special session will also deal with the implementation of agreed positions in the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed last month to call ministers responsible for some of the agreed positions to explain why they still have not implemented reforms in their sectors.

One such minister who is expected to be grilled by the special cabinet session is Media and Information minister Webster Shamu. Shamu’s ministry has not implemented the reforms in the media sector such as the reform of the public media including the public broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). The public media has been accused of hate speech and biased towards former ruling party, Zanu (PF).