Chris Blattman

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Mugabe stacks the deck

Mugabe packs a record 61 ministers into his cabinet, reports the Times. Last year he described his own cabinet as the “worst in history”. Apparently he’s going for a new record low:

Of particular profligacy are the ministers of state, positions created for disgruntled Zanu (PF) members from the previous administration who had been left out of the new power-sharing executive. They are in effect Cabinet ministers with vague or no responsibilities – but with the offices, salaries, expenses allowances and accommodation that go with the job. Several have already been issued with new E-class Mercedes Benz limousines…

Survivors from the last Government include Didymus Mutasa, now a minister of state in the President’s office, who once welcomed the likelihood of half the population dying of starvation; Emmerson Mnangagwa, now Defence Minister, regarded as the Zanu (PF) party’s corrupt godfather; Sydney Sekeramayi, Minister of State for National Security, who has been in power for three decades; and Joseph Made, author of Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reforms, who returns to the Agriculture Ministry.

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