The post of Prime Minister will be scrapped under the new constitution while Presidential powers will be trimmed, the three co-chairpersons of the constitution-making body, Copac, told NewsDay yesterday.
The chairpersons — Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (Zanu PF), Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) and Edward Mkhosi (MDC) — told NewsDay in separate interviews the new governance charter would also slash the bloated Cabinet by over half, from the current 74 to between 25 and 30.
“The position by the Copac select committee was that the post of Prime Minister did not find support from the people,” said Mwonzora.
“The post of Prime Minister therefore becomes a superfluous position as it may create many other posts; for example, it creates posts of Deputy Prime Ministers.
On the issue of ministerial posts, what we can do in the constitution is to provide a maximum possible number of ministers in the Cabinet. We have also said the President can appoint a certain number of them (ministers), but we are still debating on the number of ministers, which will be around 25 to 30 posts,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s post was reactivated at the formation of the inclusive government in 2009 after it was dumped following enactment of the Executive Presidency in 1987.
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MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai currently occupies the Prime Minister’s Office.
Mangwana and Mkhosi concurred with Mwonzora’s comments and said the Prime Minister’s post would not be retained in the new constitution.
“People said they wanted an Executive President who chairs Cabinet and appoints ministers as well as the people to occupy key government posts like what we have in the inclusive