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(HERALD) PM challenges Cabinet’s role

PM challenges Cabinet’s role
Deputy News Editor Hebert Zharare

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has challenged the role of Cabinet and is seeking to strengthen the functions of the Council of Ministers, which he chairs, The Herald has learnt.

It is also understood that the changes that the PM is seeking could result in him having the authority to craft a national budget that would be administered by his office rather than by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.

In a report entitled "Comments and Suggestions Alterations" that he forwarded to the Cabinet Office recently — a copy of which is in the possession of The Herald — the PM seeks to make sweeping changes to the Cabinet Handbook that guides the operations of the Executive and its various committees, organs and ministries.

The changes will see ministers reporting to the PM and not the President — who, as Head of State and Government, chairs Cabinet — a development observers said was an "affront to the tenets and principles of the Global Political Agreement and the Constitution of Zimbabwe".

Reads part of his report: "Ministers are required to report to the Prime Minister, not to the President, and the Prime Minister, in turn, reports to the President.

"And an Acting Minister should consult the Prime Minister rather than the President in matters involving policy initiatives or legislation since it is the Prime Minister who is responsible for overseeing initiatives and legislation."

He argued that acting ministers were supposed to be given the full authority of substantive ministers and should act only after consulting the PM.

All the proposals fly in the face of the Cabinet Handbook, the Constitution and the GPA, which make it clear that ministers report to the President as the Head of State.

The Cabinet Handbook, which, among other things, is derived from the Constitution of Zimbabwe, defines the operations of Cabinet, its committees and the organs, which fall under the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet.

Cabinet is the supreme administrative tool of Government and is constituted according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

The handbook also draws up Cabinet’s agenda as drafted by the President "mindful of the flow of Government business in the Cabinet".

PM Tsvangirai argued in his paper that because executive powers were shared equally between Cabinet, the President and Prime Minister, it was inappropriate to refer to President Mugabe as "Head of State and Government", but simply as "President" or "His Excellency the President".

This is despite the fact that the GPA makes it clear that although executive powers are shared, President Mugabe is Head of State and Government by dint of appointing the Vice Presidents, Prime Minister and all other ministers, in addition to being Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

Other changes PM Tsvangirai is seeking are that ministers be entitled to make public statements on policy issues without Cabinet approval.

He said Cabinet’s agenda was not supposed to be approved by the President alone — even though he chairs the body.

He also wants to strip the Media, Information and Publicity Ministry of its role as Government’s official public communicator by allowing every portfolio head to make his/her own announcements without any central co-ordination.

He added that the Council of Ministers was "Cabinet in all but name", while hinting that it was his duty to assign ministers which Acts of Parliament they should administer.

Oddly enough, while trying to strip the Presidency of all its powers, PM Tsvangirai claims in his report that his own powers have been diminished.

He said he had no obligation to report to Cabinet.

Government spokespersons were not in a position to comment on the report last night.

However, observers said PM Tsvangirai’s suggestions were "tantamount to usurping the

powers of the President", adding that there was "a need to educate new members to Government on the operations of the State".

"What these people must know is that President Mugabe and Cabinet are one . . . the President is Cabinet.

"They should know that there is a difference between the Government and political parties. Their constitutions and value systems regulate political parties.

"They are also affected and regulated by any agreement or understanding they may enter into with other parties in pursuance of shared or coincident interest.

"But parties as citizens of the country must submit themselves to the Constitution of the country," said an observer yesterday.

He elaborated that Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu united based on shared interests "whereas the unity between Zanu-PF and the MDC formations was driven by a need to solve the country’s political, economic and social problems".

He said the GPA only bound those that were party to it and when it came to Government, all party functionaries were supposed to abide by the country’s Constitution.

The observer said in Zimbabwe’s case, those portions of the GPA affecting the composition and operations of Government were consolidated in Constitutional Amendments Number 18 and 19.

"It is a mistake to try and invoke the GPA to reshape the Cabinet Handbook. If the handbook is seen to be out of sync with the political parties, the correct approach is to write into the national constitution the appropriate sections of the GPA," he said.

A Government official close to the developments, who requested anonymity, said it was "fatal to raise issues that were outside the Constitution", adding that the Cabinet Handbook was a legal document and the operations of Government were based on it.

The official said the report looked like "part of an MDC-T grand plan to weaken ministries that do not fall under its portfolios".

"MDC-T is trying to smuggle into Government issues it failed to have factored into the GPA and this is a wrong way to go about it because it shows that the party is not sincere about what it signed up to.

"This is a deliberate attempt to kill the Presidency and strengthen the Prime Minister’s Office. Strictly speaking, the Premier is a minister.

"He is the most senior minister, but a minister all the same. And this report tries to place a minister above the constitutional Head of State."

This is the second time this week that MDC-T has been accused of trying to undermine the President.

Earlier this week it emerged that Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa had drafted an ICT Bill that seeks to re-assign ministerial duties and leave the Media, Information and Publicity, and the Transport and Infrastructure Development ministers without any relevance.

Labels: CABINET, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 4:41 PM