Emmerson Appoints Senior Military Figures Cabinet Berths

Harare: Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa named his cabinet on Friday, appointing senior military figures to high-profile positions. Mnangagwa has made Sibusiso Moyo, the general who appeared on state TV after the military takeover on November 14, the new Foreign Minister, reports the BBC. The head of Zimbabwe's air force, Perence Shiri, was named the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.

Mnangagwa was sworn in last week after former President Robert Mugabe agreed to resign after 37 years in power. While the new President has chosen to keep many of Mugabe's former cabinet ministers in office, he has also awarded positions to military leaders who have previously supported him. Aside from Moyo and Shiri, leaders of the powerful war veterans' association, who pushed for Mugabe to go after the military intervention, also got cabinet jobs, the BBC reported.

Chris Mutsvangwa, who heads the group, is now in charge at the Information Ministry.Shiri is notorious for having led the military operation against opponents of Mugabe in Matabeleland in the early 1980s. The operation resulted in the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians. (IANS)