Special advisor to the President Christopher Mutsvangwa says Zimbabweans must give President Emmerson Mnangagwa more time to prove himself because his hands are tied since he is just completing former President Robert Mugabe’s term.
He told The Standard that if people had strong feels on any of the legislators chosen into Mnangagwa’s cabinet, they should kick those MPs out at the next elections.
“The president of the Republic is completing the term on a mandate already decided by the 2013 elections. He has constitutional constraints that emanate from choosing ministers from that pool,” Mutsvangwa who was initially chosen as Minister of Information before the decision was rescinded, said.
Mnangagwa had selected nine ministers who are not legislators when he is only allowed five.
“If people have strong feelings on any of the MPs he chose, their chance will come in the next six to nine months as they vote in 2018 elections.
“The power to deal with all sorts of dissatisfaction emanating from criminality, sloth or incompetence lies primarily at the national electoral choices.”
Asked how come Mnangagwa’s cabinet still has people tainted with corruption allegations, Mutsvangwa responded: “Let us not load the new president with burdens that rightly should be assumed by the voter.”
On why Mnangagwa had retained most of the people that served under Mugabe’s governments that performed dismally, he responded: “Zimbabweans are a serious political entity as shown by their discipline and maturity as they brought Mugabe’s misrule to an end. They are definitely not a fickle lot. They are going to give their new president much more time than a week to judge him. After all, Mugabe got a whole gamut of 37 years.”