ED chairs first Second Republic Cabinet
SECOND REPUBLIC CABINET IN FIRST SITTING:
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is today expected to deliver his first State of the National Address (SONA) and officially open the first session of the Ninth Parliament during which he will set the legislative agenda.
The President will this morning address a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate.
Preparations for the event were in place yesterday, while a number of roads around Parliament Building will be closed to motorists during the proceedings.
Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda said everything was in place for today’s event.
“Everything is in place and we are looking forward to the event,” he said.
The legislative agenda is expected to be dominated by laws that enhance the country’s attractiveness to investors and streamline investment laws to smoothen the ease of doing business.
The Ninth Parliament is expected to be seized with amending Chapter 14 of the Constitution to streamline the structure of Provincial and Metropolitan Councils as part of the devolution being advocated by President Mnangagwa and his Government.
President Mnangagwa has already indicated that Government’s thrust is to consolidate economic reforms that started with the coming in of the new dispensation.
During his inauguration speech, he reiterated that the focus of his administration was on the economy. Parliamentarians have also embraced the policy direction given by the President and pledged to speed up the passage of laws in the august house.
Parliament is dominated by ZANU-PF which retained its two-thirds majority in the justended harmonised elections.
Before addressing the legislators, the President is expected to inspect a guard of honour mounted by members of the Zimbabwe National Army while there will be a flypast by the Air Force of Zimbabwe as per tradition.
Following the President’s address, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing will host the traditional luncheon for legislators.
Roads that will be closed today are Nelson Mandela Avenue at Sam Nujoma to Simon Muzenda streets, Third Street at Jason Moyo Avenue, George Silundika Avenue at Third Street, St Mary’s Lane and Nelson Mandela Avenue, Kwame Nkrumah from Sam Nujoma to Simon Muzenda streets and Samora Machel Avenue and and Sam Nujoma Street.
The roads will be closed from 6am to 3pm.
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday chaired the first Cabinet meeting under the Second Republic where he introduced a new approach on the conduct of Government business and tasked the new ministers to identify at least five quick-win and high impact projects that improve the livelihoods of the people.
Under the new approach, ministers are expected to make presentations during the course of a Cabinet meeting while decisions will be communicated to the nation every Wednesday to ensure transparency.
All the projects will be strictly monitored and implemented under 100-day programme cycles. Giving his opening remarks during the meeting, President Mnangagwa said the new Ministers — a blend of new talent and experience — should lead the transformation process.
“You should be aware of the mammoth task before us, that is, to lead the transformation process, on our trajectory to become a middle income economy by 2030, characterised by job-rich economic growth and a globally competitive society,” he said.
“Each portfolio should now identify a minimum of five quick-win and high impact projects in order that work on them commences in earnest. Where appropriate, it is permissible to go beyond the five, subject to approval by Cabinet.”
President Mnangagwa said Ministers were expected to speak with one voice.
“Our approach will entail four or five Ministers making presentations during the course of a Cabinet meeting like this one until the 100day cycle ends,” he said.
“The decision taken by Cabinet will be communicated to the nation every Wednesday after we have met. Thus, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services (Monica Mutsvangwa), will issue a Press statement in the presence of the Chief Secretary (to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda) and the implementing Ministers. This will help us entrench transparency and a culture of responsiveness as we seek to transform the quality of life of our people.”
President Mnangagwa said the 100-day cycles would continue and new Ministers should embrace them as the norm of doing business in Cabinet.
“Since the advent of the new dispensation on the 24th of November, 2017, we adopted a new methodology of ensuring that Government Ministries and agencies deliver quality services to the people through the Integrated Results Based Management System with its accompanying Rapid Results Approach,” he said.
“We also adopted the 100-day programme cycle as a new model of doing business to support our drive to attain Vision 2030. The 100day programme cycle helped us to accentuate the rapid and efficient implementation of priority projects with an immediate impact on the livelihoods of our people. Going forward, we should continue to apply the 100-day cycles as a way of doing business in Government supported by the monitoring of performance outcomes using the Executive Electronic Dashboard. This means that, at the click of a button, projects performance tracking has been made easy across Cabinet, Ministries and parastatals.”
He said workshops would be held to enable Ministers to familiarise themselves with the 100-day cycle.
“In the coming week, while I will be away on the international business at the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly meeting, half-day workshops will be organised to enable all Ministers to adequately acquaint themselves with the essential components of the 100-day cycle, the Integrated Results Based Management System, The Results Rapid Approach and the Executive Dashboard.
“A similar exercise will be conducted for permanent secretaries and other senior Government officials.”
The Cabinet now has new faces after President Mnangagwa dropped several big names from previous administrations.
The President’s dream team is expected to address a host of challenges, from persistent fiscal and balance of payments deficits to infrastructural and social decay accruing from the previous administration.
Government is currently seized with overcoming the cholera outbreak which has so far claimed 30 lives.