Brilliant Mukaro
MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO – Analysts have said Masvingo North MP Davis Marapira’s recent reassignment from reporting to the President to reporting to a Minister is not a demotion.
Several analysts said Marapira’s post in the President’s office was redundant as he was doing almost nothing there. They said he was probably in that comfort zone because he is a son-in-law to Zion Christian Church (ZCC) Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi who is believed to be President Mnangagwa’s relative.
Marapira was Minister of State in the President’s Office and Cabinet in charge of Monitoring the Implementation of Special Agricultural and Related Programmes until last week. He is now the Minister of State responsible for Agricultural Colleges, Water Resources, Irrigation, Water and Sanitation.

Chief of Staff of the Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda said in a statement that Marapira will report to Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement, Anxious Masuka.
University of Zimbabwe Political analysts, Professor Eldred Masunungure, said Marapira’s transfer cannot be referred to as a demotion, but rather a reappointment of someone who had become idle and redundant in the President’s Office.
“He was only being kept in a position for political expediency,” said Masunungure.
Masunungure further said the position of Minister of State is similar to that of a deputy minister. He highlighted that the fact that he is now reporting to Masuka does not mean he was demoted because he is carrying with him the Minister of State title.

A Minister of State does not attend Cabinet meetings so does the Deputy Minister.
Marapira scoffed at assertions that he was demoted. He said he is still a Minister of State, the only difference being the duties he will be performing.
“I am not worried whether I have been promoted or demoted. I only do the work I am assigned to do. I take this as a transfer,” said Marapira.
However, some analysts said theoretically there is no demotion but practically Marapira now holds a far less influential position. They also argued that one becomes less powerful as he drifts away from the centre of power. Marapira is now far away from the Office of the President and worse he reports to someone who then reports to the President.
“I would not like to refer to Marapira’s transfer as a demotion, but he is finally being given a position where he will be productive. I think he had little to do in the President’s office. I do not think there are ugly machinations behind his transfer. Constitutionally State Ministers are not Cabinet ministers so reporting to Masuka does not mean demotion though he may not like it,” said Masunungure.

Another political analyst, Dr Takavafira Zhou, said the post of Minister of State is crafted to draw the President’s cronies nearer the feeding trough, and Marapira is one such beneficiary who gets paid for doing nothing. He said the Minister of State position is Mnangagwa’s version of Mugabe’s Minister Without Portfolio.
“Marapira is one lucky beneficiary. His position draws him nearer to the feeding trough, nothing else. We cannot say his transfer was a demotion, but it’s just another transfer based on nepotism,” said Zhou.https://masvingomirror.com