Chiluba re-shuffles cabinet

A mini-reshuffle, announced by Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba’s spokesman Richard Sakala late on Wednesday, saw the promotion to cabinet of five parliamentary backbenchers who have advocated a constitutional change to allow Chiluba to run for another term, news reports said.

Chiluba dropped Eastern province Minister Solomon Mbuzi and replaced him
with a pro-third term parliamentarian, Levison Mumba. Chiluba also gave
deputy labour minister Bates Namuyamba a full cabinet post, in charge of
local government, taking over from Ackson Sejani who was sacked last week
for allegedly inciting tribal politics, reports said. Sejani was one of the most vocal ministerial opponents of plans for Chiluba to stand again in elections after his second five-year term in office comes to an end in November.

Zambian political analysts were quoted as saying that Chiluba could undertake a purge to flush out of his government those who might attempt to bar him from standing in the presidential elections.

Meanwhile, PANA said on Thursday that Zambian Foreign Minister Keli Walubita has backed the continuation of the debate on the bid to amend the country’s constitution to allow Chiluba to run for a third term. In an interview with the Namibian news agency on Wednesday, Walubita said that Chiluba “has support from the masses and will run for the third term if need be”.