Harare — ANOTHER potentially explosive threat to the inclusive government is looming large after President Robert Mugabe unilaterally altered the ministerial mandate of Nelson Chamisa, the Minister of Information Communication Technology.

Tensions within the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) heightened at the weekend after the Office of the President and Cabinet announced that Chamisa had been stripped of control over the communication portfolio, which was handed to Nicholas Goche, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development.

Goche's ministry has now been changed to the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development.

The change effectively transferred key parastatals such as TelOne, the Zimbabwe Post, Net*One and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe to Goche, the former Minister of State Security.

Chamisa and the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu, had been haggling over control of the parastatals.

Goche will now also oversee the implementation of the Interception of Communications Act, which gives the state authority to snoop into private communications.

Technically, it means that Chamisa has been left jobless.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reacted angrily to the tinkering with the ministerial portfolios defined during the lengthy inter-party negotiations concluded early this year.

He described the changes as "null and void".

"This does not only fly in the face of the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), but is also an illegality as the GPA has legal effect," said the Prime Minister in a statement.

The MDC-T leader said the allocation of mandates to ministries came into effect via a process of negotiation by the three political parties to the GPA and as such no one party to that negotiating process can unilaterally alter such mandates without effecting the due process of negotiation.

Tsvangirai warned that such "blatant violations of the GPA to suit individuals" were a cause for concern as they had the effect of taking people off the course of restoration and reconstruction.

International financiers have since adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the power-sharing deal arguing they need evidence of sincerity before they pump money into the country.

Analysts were quick to interpret the latest controversy as yet another impediment to the power-sharing deal signed in September last year after nearly a decade of political violence and economic stagnation.

They said the clash over Chamisa's portfolio presented a further complication to the coalition government of President Mugabe, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara formed on February 13 this year.

"It seems there is still some mistrust within the all-inclusive government if the reports are anything to go by," said Eldred Masunungure, a professor of Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe.

"One would have expected the three principals to consult, but just changing another party's allocated ministerial portfolio has the danger of poisoning the already poisoned atmosphere," said Masunungure.

He said it was generally accepted that the aspects handed to Goche should naturally be under Chamisa's mandate.

Jonathan Moyo, the independent legislator for Tsholotsho North, was quoted in the international media slamming the move to trim Chamisa's mandate as "inherently preposterous."

Moyo said: "The suggestion by some in government quarters that the Information Communication Technology Ministry is about software is inherently preposterous. You don't need a Ministry of Software and indeed you don't need a Ministry of Hardware. That suggestion is either mischievous, ignorant, or both."

Phillip Pasirayi, the co-ordinator of the Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe, pointed out that the "elbowing" of Chamisa, whom MDC-T sources claimed had brought some sanity in the country's telecommunications sector after holding meetings with all stakeholders, came at a time when there were still crucial outstanding issues that needed to be urgently dealt with by the three principals.

Pasirayi said the debacle indicated that the road to economic and political stability was going to be long and bumpy.

"The trimming of Minister Chamisa's powers could be an indication that President Mugabe is not prepared to genuinely share power with Prime Minister Tsvangirai," he said.

"It is time for PM Tsvangirai to show real leadership and refuse to give into demands which run contrary to people's expectations. PM Tsvangirai must demand that all the outstanding issues, including the appointment of governors, permanent secretaries and ambassadors be concluded within two weeks if the coalition government is to work properly," said Pasirayi.

Pasirayi suggested that the latest impasse and all other outstanding issues should be referred to the Southern African Development Community and the African Union, the guarantors of the GPA.

"The MDC formations cannot continue to be held to ransom by ZANU-PF, which unilaterally continues to make changes and appointments without consultation," he said.