The confirmation of Ian Makone’s appointment as Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office and Council of Ministers by the Public Service is a significant step in the rationalization of the bureaucracy and the assertion of the Premier’s power over government functions.
Hitherto the PSC was maintaining close consultation and liaison with Dr Misheck Sibanda in matters relating to Senior Government appointments as the premier’s office had no officially recognized senior civil servant to sit in those consultative meetings and input suggestions and or opposition to some politically inspired appointments that have wormed into the Bureaucracy.
George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru had teamed up with Mariyawanda Nzuwah, Austin Zvoma and Dr Sibanda to exploit the void and push through appointments that many saw as Zanu PF inclined.
With the appointment of Makone all matters to do with senior Civil servants appointment will now be subject to him vetting the applicants and satisfying himself that they are on merit rather than political considerations.
The Premier’s Office was conceived in February this year and was not part of the bureaucracy. There are many administrative procedures that the aides in the office are not familiar with and that they have tumbled on as the old order threw them in their way to retard momentum of the Premier’s initiatives.
With the formalization of his appointment Makone will now have the responsibility of defining roles in the Premier’s office and ensuring that the positions are approved on the Public Service establishment and those already earmarked for the positions are formally confirmed to the fixed establishment.
After that Makone will ensure that all his staff will be properly inducted into Public Service administration through a planned battery of courses to appraise them of standing rules and regulations as well as protocols.
But perhaps the more critical task that Makone has at hand is to assert himself as the official information disseminator in matters pertaining to government operations in terms of policy formulation and implementation.
Media Information and Publicity Secretary and Presidential spokesman George Charamba has for long abused his fortuitous retention in the coalition government to distort his role as government spokesman to also extent and include the involvement of his Principal the President as Head Government.
Fortuitous yes, because the only reason why the MDC carved into the unilateral appointments of Permanent Secretaries by Mugabe on advice from Nzuwa, Sibanda and Charamba was because after reviewing the list of names of the appointees it turned out that 70% were pro MDC and the insistence on a power sharing quota would result in the party losing out and raffling feathers among the key position holders secretly in favour of its policies.
Forget the public posturing, Charamba and his acolytes now straining to remain relevant by destabilizing the coalition government are aware of this and know exactly the fate that awaits them when the coalition government folds after the Constitution making process.
The obsession in the MDC now is not with the trivia. MDC is preparing for a landslide election victory that will sweep it to power without the need for negotiations after the elections.
To achieve that the MDC is happy that it has halted the economic decline that characterized Zanu PF misrule and is keen to consolidate that and improve the country’s economic performance such that when elections are held people will decide on who is the better manager between Zanu PF and MDC.
The MDC is resolute that the best way to campaign for the next election is to improve the country’s productive capacity and ensure economic and social progression for the people.
The second critical agenda for the MDC is to ensure media reforms are in place before the next elections.
That is why there is so much push towards the appointment of the Media Commission.
At the top of MDC priorities is the democratization agenda. The MDC wants a new Constitution to be in place before the next elections are held and is not unduly concerned about the process that will led to the attainment of that objective.
The MDC wants a Constitution in place that will ease the Zanu PF stranglehold on the electoral process and that will minimize or eradicate military involvement with the process.
The target is to limit Presidential terms, defuse draconian Presidential powers over the electoral process through the establishment of a truly Independent Electoral Commission that is accountable to Parliament and the people rather than the President and the ruling party as is currently the case.
The concerns about the process are noted but the argument is that the flaws in the process will not be of material consequence if the results are such that the Presidential powers will be curtailed and shared between that office, Parliament, the Judiciary and the Executive and also the terms of office are limited.
If that is achieved by the flawed process the thinking is that it will be a major achievement and the government that comes out of that process will decide whether or not there is a need to embark on another flawless Constitution making process that is not aimed at managing a skewed political environment but rather that is forward looking in regulating future management of the country’s political management practices.
Makone being the Premier’s Office permanent secretary has the key role of ensuring government drives towards these objectives with the human, financial and structural resources available to the bureaucracy at present.
Basically Makone must move swiftly to ensure that the Office of the Premier is manned by well trained officials versed in all facets of government administration and capable of not just innovating policies but also carrying them through to fruition.
On the political front Makone has the arduous task of ensuring Civil servants work for the populace at large and not partisan political interests that seclude and induce corruption.
Public servants like Charamba must be tamed and put in their rightful place.
In his capacity as Media Information and publicity Secretary Charamba has prevailed upon the State Media to coin a lengthy title for the President and rebranded him as the Head of State, Head of government, Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces, Comrade, His Excellency, First Secretary and Supreme leader of Zanu PF.
It is a mouthful that many news readers are finding difficult to state accurately yet Charamba demands of them to pronounce at each mention of the President’s name.
With such titles Charamba and company think they are presenting Mugabe a the doyen of Zimbabwe politics when in reality many Zimbabweans believe he is nothing but a megalomaniac despot clinging onto power at the behest of a distraught party and misguided military command.
Makone is now better placed to discuss with Charamba and agree what his role is as a Government spokesman and how it is divorced from his role as Presidential spokesman and ensure that whatever is published by the State media is a true reflection of the realities of the power divide in the current government.
This will not be a stroll in the park for Makone but as was the case with the economic stabilization initiative that the MDC has so ably executed, there is no doubt Makone will be up to the task of taming the truant Charamba with the goodwill of the people and support of a neutral Media Commission.
The paranoia behind the long title is the misguided belief by Charamba and his Zanu PF acolytes that by repeatedly presenting President Mugabe as the Head of State, Head of Government, Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces, Supreme Leader of Zanu PF and First Secretary they will, entrench a lasting invincibility impression of Robert Mugabe in the minds of the electorate.
The aim is demoralize the electorate that come the next elections when he will be the uncontested Zanu PF presidential candidate, the electorate will know that he will remain at the helm of Zimbabwe politics regardless of whichever way they choose to vote.
Off course all this is sweet music to the MDC which believes that a Presidential election contest between a heavily decorated Mugabe against their party President Morgan Tsvangirai adoringly known to them by his totem Save or first name slang
Morgiza will produce a result no different to the March 2008 election result.
But what will win the next elections is not the titles bestowed on anyone but the perceived or realized ability attributed to each of the contestants for the Presidency
At present the electorate does not understand the discordant noise from Zanu PF about sanctions inhibiting the realization of the full potential of the coalition government to make a difference in their lives.
This is so because most if not all of the day to day necessities that had disappeared from retail outlets are there for anyone to buy and many of them imported from across the globe.
Surely a country under Western economic embargo cannot have so many products retailing from the same countries.
The point Mugabe and his Zanu PF diehards makes about Zidera and its negative effects on the country’s ability to secure international lines of credit becomes even more discordant when the RBZ Governor on whose fate the President has stacked his makes so much noise about $500million grant to the country from the very IMF they accuse of blocking credit access by the country.
Makone is fully aware that the Zanu PF strategy is not working because it is still too early for the electorate to have forgotten the trauma of 2008.
But that can all change as people become more and more economically and socially stable and start thinking of the higher needs in life that we all want to actualize.
What Makone does as the Permanent Secretary in the Premier’s office does or fails to do to ensure the momentum of the Premier’s Office initiatives thrives on will retain or alienate the Party with its grassroots.
There will be changes in how the Premier’s Office will be covered by the State media which hitherto has made it their paramount objective to demonize and ridicule it even when its achievements are there for everyone to see and ominously contrast Zanu PF and President Mugabe’s failed economic management practices.
Makone will need all the support he can from the party that most believe has come to their salvation by its selflessness and ability to listen and respond to national needs.
That is not to say the Party is squeaky clean because there are some really bad apples in its parliamentarians who need to be whipped into line and stop the stupid and ill conceived Trade unionism thrust under the misguided leadership of Makhosini Shongwane of Zanu PF.
They are not making it any easier for the Party if they tow the Zanu PF line on cars and start believing that being a Parliamentarian is a profession when it is a civic responsibility they volunteered to spearhead.
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