Soldier who announced Mugabe ouster is new Zimbabwe foreign minister

Major General Sibusiso Moyo, the soldier who announced the ouster of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, has been named the country’s new Foreign Affairs chief.

Moyo is one of two army top guns named in the cabinet of new president President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The other is Air Marshal Perrance Shiri who also landed the land minister portfolio.

Moyo appeared on national broadcaster ZBC after the army has seized the facility saying: “We wish to assure the nation that His Excellency Mugabe and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed.

“We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are bringing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.”

President Mnangagwa also chose a veteran cabinet minister to head the finance ministry. Patrick Chinamasa was a long serving finance minister under Mugabe until he was moved to the ministry of cyber security in what became Mugabe’s last ministerial reshuffle.

Meanwhile, the cyber portfolio, which got lots of Zimbabweans talking, according to the new cabinet list has been folded into the information ministry headed by a former deputy minister in Mugabe’s government, Supa Mandiwanzira.

Mnangagwa was sworn in as president last Friday after 93-year-old Robert Mugabe quit under pressure from the army.

The list is said to have brought back many faces from the Robert Mugabe era, which could disapppoint Zimbabweans who had been expecting a broad-based government and a break with the past.

Mnangagwa is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give customers cash.

He told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a “leaner” government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency.