HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s chief of protocol Munyaradzi Kajese has resigned after a career spanning over three decades in the presidency, reports said Thursday.
Kajese was one of former president Robert Mugabe’s top aides who found accommodation in the new regime of President Emmerson Mnangagwa following a military coup in November 2017.
Jonathan Moyo, one of Mugabe’s former ministers now living in exile, last month claimed Mugabe “was betrayed by aides who turned traitors in the November 2017 military coup”. The others were Mugabe’s former spokesman George Charamba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Misheck Sibanda.
The Business Times reports that Kajese retired after reaching the retirement age of 65 years.
Chitsaka Chipaziwa, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Geneva, Switzerland, is expected to take over from Kajese.
Meanwhile, Mnangagwa is reported to have sacked accountant-general, Daniel Muchemwa, for failing to manage public accounts.
The accountant-general’s office, according to auditor-general Mildred Chiri’s reports, has also been failing to do basic things like reconciliations on its account, resulting in huge variances on its books of accounts, which are currently in a shambles.
Tendai Biti, the chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee said: “There is always a monster hidden if you take a look at government financials, which are in shambles. It’s a narrative of State failure. We find basic issues like failure to produce annual statements, monthly reports etc.
“There are so many vulnerables but I hear the accountant general has been fired because of failure to deal with weak internal financial controls. When the gatekeeper becomes the gatecrasher, we need to pray.”
