At the end of each year Chigumura normally rank the performance of government Ministers during the year and unfortunately due to issues beyond my control, I did not do that last year. However as we start a new year, there is no harm in saying one or two things about the performance of our beloved one or two Ministers last year.

To be frank, looking at the whole list of Cabinet Ministers, no one stood out last year. There is absolutely none whom I can say deserve anything above 50 percent performance rating from the President himself and his two Vice[1]President to Resident Ministers. We must not forget that most of the Ministers were appointed due to their 'loyalty' to Mugabe instead of performance.

We must also not forget that most of these Minister were much more preoccupied by issues to do with the ruling party succession at the expense of running their ministries. At the same time their performance was affected by the fact that they either aligned themselves with either Lacoste or G40 factions. As labour movement, our eyes were also on the Minister of Labour.

Of cause Chigumura was disappointed with the performance of Minister Prisca Mupfumira. She has proved to be one of the worst Ministers ever to grace the Ministry. Perhaps some would argue that she did quite well by fast tracking the Labour Act Amendment number 5 to reverse the July 17 Supreme Court Judgement which saw thousands of workers losing their jobs, Chigumura believes that she only acted after pressure from workers in the same way she was forced to ask President Robert Mugabe to withdraw the Special Economic Zones Bill that exempted the application of the labour Act in the Special Economic Zones.

But if you talk of noise makers, then Jonathan Moyo took the lead last year. He was always busy on twitter talking about either Mnangangwa, the silly thing call STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) or fighting the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC).

Frankly speaking I think this STEM thing needs to be investigated as I smell a rat. All of a sudden, a number of schools have sprouted offering science subjects and I hope there are not connected to the Minister's cronies. Perhaps ZACC should move in. In any case, why is STEM under the ministry of Higher Education rather than the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education? I thought the Ministry of Higher Education should focus on tertiary education not secondary education.

Talking of the Ministry of Education, Minister Lazarus Dokora should rate as one of the worst ministers, obviously with his friends Joseph Made and Patrick Zhuwao. Dokora made a raft of changes in the Ministry to spite parents. They range from introduction of the so-called 'national pledge' to changes in the curriculum. Infact, he tried everything in the book to make life difficult for parents, including children enrolment methods. The ministry of Education seems to be a cursed Ministry.

Remember the days of Aeneas Chigwedere (who is now battling witchcraft allegations levelled against him by his son and his clan) who tried to change the names of all schools as well as introduce a single school uniform for all schools in Zimbabwe? Joseph Made has dismally failed to run the Agriculture Ministry resulting in the country getting hungry. In fact, by giving the “command Agriculture” programme to other people to run, it's an admission by the government that Made has failed. Despite clear failure, Mugabe keeps appointing him. Then we have Patrick Zhuwao, Mugabe's nephew, who admitted that he failed to interpret the country’s Indigenisation laws. He should have been ashamed of himself and resigned. In a nutshell, we have a useless cabinet whose performance last year averaged 30 percent. We are not going anywhere comrades.

THE last issue offing, Chigumura was subject to discussion in one social Whatsapp platform that I will not name. Chigumura was at the receiving end for saying that there are still some trade unionists who are bitter about the outcome of the ZCTU Congress and that they have failed to move on. Of cause I stand by my comments. Professionally, people who have issues with items in the paper should write to the paper. People who were talking much on the platform are the same known empty - big headed goons who are never taken seriously. People who spend hours in the pub writing messages on behalf of their handlers and when they are drunk, expose their foolishness. To make matters worse, they Mugabe's Cabinet: We are going nowhere President Robert Mugabe Professor Jonathan Moyo Lazarus Dokora are top union officials and I wonder what their subordinates think of them! Next time, I will name them!

FINALLY, sometimes I wonder what gets into the minds of some of us scribes. The way we have been giving Themba Mlsiwa publicity has become nauseating. Hardly a week passes without extensive coverage of Mliswa on trivial issues. All of a sudden, Mliswa has become an expert in how to win an election. Chigumura hopes that Mliswa is not greasing some hands.