Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has named a new cabinet that retains most of the loyal stalwarts who have presided over his controversial land redistribution programme.
Only finance minister Mr Simba Makoni, seen by many as one of the more moderate members of the cabinet, and the ailing white member of the cabinet, health minister Mr Timothy Stamps were dropped.
Mr Makoni had called for policies unpopular with Mr Mugabe such as devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar.
Minister for Lands, Mr Joseph Made, whose ministry has presided over Zimbabwe's eviction of white farmers to make way for landless blacks, and Minister of Information Mr Jonathan Moyo, who has crafted tough new information laws, retained their posts.
Mr Mugabe, who this month has faced mounting international criticism over his eviction of white farmers, announced that he was dissolving his cabinet on Friday, five months after a disputed win in March presidential elections.
The leader of the country's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, who has dismissed last March’s elections as a fraud, refused to comment.
"How do you expect me to make a comment on a cabinet appointed by an illegitimate President?" he said.
AFP