Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s initially 26-member Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) has all but collapsed after becoming dysfunctional due to a number of reasons, including a disjuncture between the appointer and the appointees, and vastly incongruous expectations.
Although desirable and used around the world to help Presidents improve their leadership quality and make the right decisions to better serve their countries, the PAC concept in Zimbabwe was fatally flawed from the start due to incongruent expectations among its members.
The quitting of the chaotic PAC by publisher Trevor Ncube, its first communication tsar, and later deputy chair brought to light the collapse of the advisory body dysfunctional for a long time as some members quietly resigned and others endured without conviction and commitment.
The PAC was dysfunctional from day one: Some members refused to participate such as Zimbabwe Council of Churches Secretary General Reverend Dr Kenneth Mtata, others were just not committed like tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei and some resigned in the case of clergyman Shingi Munyeza.
Ncube’s bitter resignation, which was a public secret for a while now, threw further light into the revealing issue that was known in official and media circles as the PAC slowly, but surely collapsed without anything to show for the hype and noise made when it was appointed.
After seizing power through a coup in 2017 and stealing elections in 2018, Mnangagwa needed a public relations body that would clean his reputation and revamp his battered image, and one of them was to be PAC.
However, some PAC members wanted to give him genuine advice and help.
-Newshawks
