Zimbabwe’s President Names Cabinet, Shuns Opposition

Zimbabwe’s new president appointed a cabinet that sees Patrick Chinamasa return as the southern African nation’s finance minister and the opposition excluded as the government returned party loyalists to power along with generals weeks after a military coup.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Winston Chitando as mines minister, while Simon Khaya Moyo will head up energy, Sibusiso Moyo will lead foreign affairs and Ziyambi Ziyambi will take on the justice portfolio, Cabinet Chief Secretary Misheck Sibanda said in an emailed statement. Chitando is the executive chairman of Mimosa, a unit of Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal.

Mnangagwa replaced Robert Mugabe after he resigned Nov. 19 to end 37 years in power. In his inaugural speech, the new president spoke about the need to revive an economy in free-fall, with a 90 percent jobless rate, a severe cash shortage and crumbling public infrastructure. Hopes of significant change have now been dashed, a leading opposition figure said.

“The honeymoon is over even before it had begun,” Tendai Biti, leader of the opposition People’s Democratic Party and a former finance minister, said on Twitter. “What a shame. What a missed opportunity.”

Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party said the cabinet was a disappointment.

“It’s the antithesis of most people’s expectations, more of the same old, same old,” the party’s vice president, Nelson Chamisa, said in a telephone interview. “Mnangagwa never reached out to us. That didn’t happen.”

The new cabinet, with “the same tired faces being recycled” means that a change in policy direction is unlikely, said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe.

“We had high expectations, but what we see is a ‘thank you’ cabinet — thanking the people that may have contributed in various ways to his ascendancy,” he said. “He promised to his the ground running. That is not going to happen — it’s more like hitting the ground crawling.”

Generals Ascend