HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has threatened ‘dire consequences’ on ministers who are in the habit of dodging his weekly cabinet meetings while delegating their ‘bench warming’ deputies to cover for them.
He was chairing his last cabinet for 2024 at State House where he vowed that delegating clueless juniors would not be tolerated in the coming new year.
“The worrisome tendency by ministers to absent themselves from meetings is untenable.
“In some cases, junior officials are delegated to attend and merely bench-warm meetings.
“In the 2025 calendar year, the Chief Secretary is directed to strictly monitor attendance and ensure that errant ministers and officials toe the line, or face dire consequences.
“Permanent Secretaries should ensure that in their absence, only directors and above should attend Working Party Meetings.
“In the event that deputy ministers are assigned, they should be adequately capacitated to enable participation in the requisite deliberations; their deputies are comprehensively briefed to enable effective participation in requisite deliberations.”
Mnangagwa also said come next year, deputy ministers will have to start signing performance contracts just like substantive ministers.
“To this end, their deputies are comprehensively briefed on forward, deputy ministers must now sign performance contracts,” he said.
“It is incumbent upon ministers to ensure that in the 2025 calendar year, their deputies are comprehensively briefed on that cabinet business.”
He was also not impressed that only a few government ministries have working websites.
“It is a misnomer that with the abundant lCTs skills and capacities among our young people, our government has only a few functional and up-to-date ministry websites.
“Likewise, government communication dissemination strategies and overall messaging must be improved,” he said.
