New Cabinet will turn around the economy

OUR people rarely agree politically but they appear to have over the figures that President Mnangagwa appointed into his Cabinet yesterday. He brought in new faces and a few surprises, youths, added more technocrats to those who were already in the previous team while retaining some veterans. It is a 20-member Cabinet which features six women, one of whom, Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, will head the influential Ministry of Defence and War Veterans. Overall, it is indeed a fresher team which should assist the President in driving his vision for an economically prosperous, corruption-free country by 2030.

Probably the President’s most interesting appointment was that of Professor Mthuli Ncube, an internationally respected banker as the Minister of Finance and Economic Development. Retired swimmer and Olympian, Kirsty Coventry is a fitting pick for the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation portfolio as that of Dr Obediah Moyo as Minister of Health and Child Care.

In addition to Prof Ncube, Ms Coventry and Dr Moyo, other new faces are Dr Sekai Nzenza who will serve as Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister and Cde Mangaliso Ndlovu the new Industry and Commerce Minister.

President Mnangagwa retained Professors Amon Murwira and Paul Mavima as Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, and Primary and Secondary Education ministers, respectively. Dr Joram Gumbo, who served as Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister in the previous Cabinet, was deployed to the Energy and Power Development portfolio. Cde Kazembe Kazembe was moved from Youth, Sport and Culture to Information Communication Technology and Courier Services. Cde Winston Chitando returns as Mines and Mining Development Minister. Cdes Ziyambi Ziyambi and Sithembiso Nyoni retained the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Ministries in that order. Cde Joel Biggie Matiza has served as Deputy Minister of Local Government and until recently, was Provincial Affairs Minister for Mashonaland East. He takes up the Transport and Infrastructural Development Ministry. About 11 of the ministers can be counted as technocrats.

With respect to deputy ministers, basically all of them are youthful. Those that stand out not only for their youth but also for their important skills are Cde Energy Mutodi, who will deputise Cde Mutsvangwa, Cde Raj Modi (Industry and Commerce), Cde Vangelis Haritatos (Lands, Agriculture, Water, Culture and Rural Resettlement) and Cde Fortune Chasi (Transport and Infrastructural Development).

Five women were appointed Ministers of Provincial Affairs, with one province, Harare, yet to get a minister. Only one of them, Cde Abednico Ncube (Matabeleland South) was retained.

President Mnangagwa posted on his Facebook page: “Today, as promised, I appointed a diverse, dynamic, youthful and streamlined Cabinet with the skills and experience required to achieve our goals. Now it is time to get to work.” He indeed nailed it. As pointed out earlier, Prof Ncube is an inspired appointment. He has experience in finance and economic development at a very high level not only as a lecturer at some of the world’s respected universities but also in industry. He was recently chief economist and vice-president at the African Development Bank and managing director and head of Quantum Global Research Lab in Switzerland.

On the local market many years ago, Prof Ncube founded and ran Barbican, an asset management firm that he grew into a bank. He therefore carries a name that is known in the world’s financial capitals. He is well known in business circles and is expected to use the connections he has built over the years to steer the economy to middle income status in the next 12 years. Ms Coventry’s reputation is well-known in the sports fraternity at the world stage. Many will know how passionate she is about her country, a quality she highlighted even at the pinnacle of her swimming career. She could have easily ditched her Zimbabwean citizenship to compete at the Olympics and other big international platforms for Britain or the United States to be paid handsomely for that. Many Africans have done that. Mo Farah was born in Somalia but competed and won medals for Britain. Dozens upon dozens of the world’s top footballers who were born in Africa chose to raise the flags of their adopted countries in the West.

However, Coventry stuck with the local passport.

Before his appointment as minister yesterday, Dr Obediah Moyo was instrumental in making Chitungwiza Hospital a reputable public health institution at a time when many governmentowned hospitals are synonymous with poor service and crumbling infrastructure. Through his work, we saw the hospital assisting many people access quality health services, among them the late Cephas Mashakada.

Cde Chitando, who is also a technocrat, should continue doing well in the Mines and Mining Development Ministry. The industry welcomed him with interest when he took up the post for the first time last year. We expect him to continue on that path in an industry that should drive the growth of the economy going forward.

Prof Murwira has similarly excelled, bringing very new ideas and approaches to tertiary education. The President has confidence in him, as many Zimbabweans do.

With this team, President Mnangagwa has united national opinion and brought hope that the economy will turn around very soon.

DO you love your job? Every morning as you wake up, are you looking forward to getting to work? How’s your work environment like? Work is fun when you do what you love, it’s like you’re doing your hobby all day long.

When you’re just in it for the money and the passion is non-existent, your workplace may tend to be hell on earth.

It’s not healthy arriving at work and starting to count down to knock off time, especially when you’re working a conventional 8AM to 5PM shift.

Considering the amount of time we spend at work, the workplace ought to be a pleasant place, if we’re to be physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy.

Having talked about lifestyle health audits last week, did you try to audit your personal lifestyle? If so how did you find it? If you’re happy, congratulations, but if you’re not, we’re in the same boat.

So, following my own health and lifestyle audit, I spent the week trying to make a few changes to how I do things.

For starters, my day now starts an hour earlier; I just hope I’ll manage to keep up with it, but so far so good.

My number one craving of French fries was a bit difficult to completely do away with, but I’m proud to share that I only had them twice this week.

I could eat chips and fried chicken week in, week out. These are small changes but it is better to start small than not to try at all. I went out running for two days and went for power walks another two days, for 30 minutes each session.

The other extra 30 minutes of my morning was for preparing breakfast. It’s cheaper to carry a home-made breakfast to work, and it’s much healthier too! I’m not sure how most people do it, but I’d recommend you make yourself a sandwich or two in the morning, or carry some cereal, for a morning fix.

The downside of my week is that I didn’t manage to eat a light breakfast early morning before going to work and I didn’t get time to rebuild relations with my jump rope. Nonetheless I’m happy because I’m now steps away from where I started.

Back to work, what do you think about your work ethic and wellness culture?

What’s your typical day at work like? Do you work during the weekend sometimes?

Does your workplace have a workplace wellness policy, for instance a group gym subscription?

A good workplace wellness programme may be a social sports club, for example, a soccer club or netball club. A few hours of running on the pitch on a Saturday or Sunday makes a difference.

You get to build relationships at work and it’s very healthy for your social life too. It keeps your body in shape, particularly if you spend most of your time in the office working from a desk. Not having a workplace wellness programme is no problem at all, as you can start one, yes, you.

Invite some friends over for a game of football. Next time a friend will bring a friend and that other friend will bring a colleague, and before you know it, your team is complete.

Zimpapers has a vibrant and supportive workplace wellness culture as sport plays a crucial part in the social lives of members of staff, across departments.

There’s a vibrant football club and a competent netball team. Of course not everyone attends all the time, but having such support systems around is encouraging and the clever ones make use of the opportunities to keep their fitness in check.

Till we meet next week, think about how you can make your time at work worthwhile and healthy.

Also think about how you can increase activity during your leisure time instead of becoming a couch potato or a slave to your smart phone.

For feedback, views and comments to make your Saturday health read better, send a message to 0778502449, email andilebongani1@gmail.com or catch up with me on Twitter handle @andile_tshuma.