Zimbabwe's president Mnangagwa makes changes to his cabinet

HARARE, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday made minor changes to his cabinet to ensure compliance with constitutional, gender and other requirements.

The president notably dropped the "unpopular" primary and secondary education minister Lazarus Dokora, just a day after appointing him and replaced him with his deputy Paul Mavhima.

He also dropped one of the new faces he had appointed, university professor Clever Nyathi as labor minister and replaced with ZANU-PF lawmaker Petronella Kagonye.

Mnangagwa on Thursday appointed a 22-member cabinet which attracted mixed reactions from the public.

Among his appointments are two military officials. These are the head of the Zimbabwe Air Force Air Marshall Perence Shiri who was appointed lands and agriculture minister and former chief of staff (quarter-master) in the Zimbabwe National Army major general Sibusiso Moyo who was appointed foreign affairs minister.

Moyo is the man who appeared on television on Nov. 15 announcing the military takeover that eventually culminated in former president Robert Mugabe resigning on Nov. 21.

According to the constitution, Mnangagwa is allowed to appoint only five non-legislators into cabinet but he had appointed seven of them, two of which he dropped Saturday.

The opposition had begun threatening to sue him for violating the constitution.

Mnangagwa re-assigned Nyathi to be his special advisor on national peace and reconciliation which is expected to be headed by a vice president to be appointed after the party congress this month.

The president also appointed Christopher Mutsvangwa and Joshua Malinga as his other special advisors pending the outcome of the party's December congress.

Mutsvangwa was named as information minister in Mnangagwa's cabinet announced Thursday.

The new ministers will be sworn in on Dec. 4. Enditem