PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa Thursday registered displeasure with the information and communication departments of his office and government, saying they were not doing enough and often ignored his pronouncements.
The Zanu PF leader revealed his concern while addressing guests at State House Thursday when he announced the results of a performance review of cabinet ministers and heads of public institutions.
The exercise was meant to review their progress and foster a culture of accountability on public officials.
Mnangagwa said communication models should be put in place to enunciate his government’s success stories.
“In our journey to leapfrog the socio-economic development of our country, the importance of effective, robust and responsive communication cannot be over-emphasised. The success milestones of the Second Republic are many and evident for all to see,” he said.
“However, these are not reaching a broader cross-section of the citizenry due to gross short-comings in the communication and information dissemination strategy. The requisite communication models, together with the personnel with contemporary skills, must be deployed to address short-comings in this sector, as a matter of urgency.
“Additionally, the tendency to overlook the critical pronouncements I make as President, is most unfortunate. It is my expectation that as top public officials, you should follow up my observations and implement directives. I hope to see greater improvements in this regard,” said Mnangagwa.
The president’s office has a communications directorate headed by deputy chief secretary George Charamba, formerly long-serving permanent secretary in the information ministry.
Also responsible for government communications is the ministry of information and publicity which is headed by Monica Mutsvangwa and her permanent secretary Nick Mangwana.
Neither Mutsvangwa nor Mangwana were among the top performers in the performance review with the ministries and Agriculture and Foreign Affairs coming tops. – Newzim
