Cabinet Ministers are reported to have defied President Robert Mugabe after they ignored the summons to meet at the State House for a cabinet meeting today. Only five cabinet ministers and the attorney general are reported to have shown up for the meeting which was announced yesterday by Chief secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Dr Misheck Sibanda. The four who showed up are
- Edgar Mbwembwe, the Minister of Tourism, Environment and Hospitality Industry.
- Mike Bimha, Minister of Industry and Commerce.
- Joseph Made, Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.
- Happyton Bonyongwe, Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
- Walter Chidhakwa, Minister of Mines and Mining Development.
- Prince Machaya, attorney general.
The other ministers are reported to have reported to Zanu-PF’s headquarters. This would have been the first time that Cabinet would be meeting ever since the Zimbabwe Defence Forces seized power in a military takeover last week. The military intervention took place a few hours after a cabinet meeting was held on Tuesday last week.
Earlier on, Zanu-PF Secretary for Information and Publicity, Simon Khaya Moyo had told Reuters:
I do not know whether anyone will attend,
The Cabinet meeting was due to start at 9:30 am, a few hours before parliament was due to sit to start proceedings to impeach President Robert Mugabe. The cabinet meeting had to be called off.
In an earlier version of this article, we had written that only four people had shown up. We have since updated after receiving more information.
More: Reuters