REVELATIONS by Foreign Affairs deputy minister Chris Mutsvangwa that his boss Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and permanent secretary Joey Bimha were side-lining him in decision-making has exposed the irrelevance of deputy ministers and a crisis in foreign policy, analysts have said. NDUDUZO TSHUMA STAFF REPORTER
Mutsvangwa blasted Mumbengegwi for blundering by applying for a visa for First Lady Grace Mugabe to be part of Zimbabwe’s delegation to the European Union (EU)-Africa summit in Brussels, Belgium.
The application was rejected and Mugabe decided to boycott the summit.
Mutsvangwa accused Mumbengegwi of applying misdirected foreign policy.
Analysts told Southern Eye yesterday that the publicised friction between Mutsvangwa and Mumbengegwi showed that a deputy minister was a mere ceremonial post with no contribution to policy.
They said it was worrying that such discord existed in the Foreign Affairs ministry over issues concerning serious diplomacy.
“The disagreements show discord within government structures,” Bulawayo-based activist Dumisani Nkomo said.
“We assume that a government works in unison, but this has shown that it is not necessarily the case. There is no clear co-ordination between a minister and his deputy.”
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Nkomo said the issue raised questions on the actual role of a deputy minister.
“It is indicative of the manner in which government is working where we ask ourselves what really the role of a deputy minister is,” Nkomo said.
Another activist Godwin Phiri said he was not sure if the trend was the same in all ministries, but all was not well in the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
“It is a crisis to find officials within the same ministry failing to agree on foreign policy. It shows how ceremonial the role of a deputy minister is. There minister can make a decision and run the ministry without consulting his deputy,” Phiri said.
“The fact that there is no co-ordination in the ministry regarding foreign policy to the point that their disagreements are made public, is worrisome,” Phiri said.
Former Justice deputy minister in the inclusive government, Obert Gutu, sympathised with Mutsvangwa on his Facebook wall.
“I have read, with keen interest Mutsvangwa’s outburst concerning his relations with his minister and the permanent secretary. I really empathise with him. I have been in a similar situation before when I was Justice and Legal Affairs deputy minister. You are given this nice big office and all, but then you don’t get allocated any work to do,” Gutu said.
“You really get to feel like a zombie in that big and posh furnished office. You feel isolated, marginalised and trivialised. You feel like a real stooge; a puppet without a puppeteer.”
Gutu said Mutsvangwa “is not the type to put up with that kind of nonsense”.
