Zimbabwean vice-president loses out in Cabinet reshuffle

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sworn in new ministers, a day after a Cabinet reshuffle in which he stripped the justice ministry from a vice-president accused of harbouring presidential ambitions.

The eight new ministers who took office on Tuesday include Happyton Bonyongwe, the former intelligence chief who is now justice minister. He replaced Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was once viewed a front-runner to succeed 93-year-old Mugabe but has been harshly criticized recently by the president and his wife for allegedly leading a faction angling for power.

Mnangagwa, a close ally of Mugabe since the 1970s war for independence from white minority rule, became vice-president in 2014. He had held the justice portfolio since 2013.

Mugabe also appointed new finance and information ministers in this week’s reshuffle.