ED fires Energy minister

BUSINESS REPORTER

Energy and Power Development minister Fortune Chasi has been fired for conduct incompatible with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s expectations, the Presidency has said.

In a statement Friday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said Muzarabani North legislator Soda Zhemu will take over the reins at the ministry.

“The latter [Chasi] has been relieved of his ministerial post in terms of section 108(1a) of the Zimbabwe Constitution as his conduct of government business had become incompatible with President’s expectations,” Sibanda said, adding that the removal of Chasi and the appointment of Zhemu was with immediate effect.

Chasi was appointed Energy minister in May last year in a Cabinet reshuffle to replace Jorum Gumbo who was reassigned to be Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in charge of Implementation and Monitoring of government programmes. Before the elevation to a Cabinet minister position, Chasi was deputy minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development.

The Mazowe South legislator was recently in the news after he sparred with suspended Zesa executive chairman Sydney Gata. When Chasi ordered the Zesa board to suspend Gata, the executive chairman turned the tables and suspended the entire board. President Mnangagwa later suspended Gata and the entire board and directed the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the affairs at the power utility.

Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa has appointed Anxious Masuka as the new Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Rural Resettlement. He succeeds the late Retired Air Chief Marshall Perrance Shiri who succumbed to Covid-19 last month.

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