President Emmerson Mnangagwa has issued a stern warning to cabinet ministers who habitually skip his weekly cabinet meetings, delegating their deputies to attend in their place.
While chairing his final cabinet meeting of 2024 at State House on Tuesday, December 17, Mnangagwa emphasized that such delegations would not be tolerated in the coming year. He said:
The worrisome tendency by ministers to absent themselves from meetings is untenable.
In some cases, junior officials are delegated to attend and merely bench-warm meetings.
In the 2025 calendar year, the Chief Secretary is directed to strictly monitor attendance and ensure that errant ministers and officials toe the line, or face dire consequences.
Permanent Secretaries should ensure that in their absence, only directors and above should attend Working Party Meetings.
In the event that deputy ministers are assigned, they should be adequately capacitated to enable participation in the requisite deliberations; their deputies are comprehensively briefed to enable effective participation in requisite deliberations.
Mnangagwa also announced that starting next year, deputy ministers will be required to sign performance contracts, similar to those of substantive ministers.
He further criticized the current state of government websites, calling it a misnomer that despite the abundant ICT skills and capacities among young people, there are only a few functional and up-to-date ministry websites.
Mnangagwa also called for an improvement in government communication dissemination strategies.
