HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s pick for the Home Affairs Minister, Cain Mathema, is illegally carrying out ministerial duties, legal experts said on Friday.

Mathema has not been sworn-in as a Member of Parliament and therefore cannot take up the appointment, lawyers said.

“He is not a minister,” constitutional law expert Professor Welshman Ncube told ZimLive.

Mnangagwa, in what was later described as an “oversight”, appointed one more than his constitutionally allowed five appointees from outside Parliament when he named his Cabinet in September.

Section 104(3) of the constitution allows the President to appoint an additional five ministers from outside Parliament “for their professional skills and competence.”

In a Cabinet announced on September 7, Mnangagwa named six instead – Kirsty Coventry (Youth, Sports and Arts), Mthuli Ncube (Finance), Obadiah Moyo (Health), Professor Amon Murwira (Higher Education), July Moyo (Local Government) and Cain Mathema (Home Affairs).

While five of his appointees have already been sworn-in as Members of Parliament on September 11, Mathema is still waiting his turn after Mnangagwa forced Obert Mpofu to give up his Matabeleland North Senate seat for Mathema.

Last Friday, ZEC gazetted Mpofu’s resignation from Parliament and declared a vacancy. ZEC will go on to invite Zanu PF to fill the vacancy because the Senators are drawn from a party list and only then will Mathema be declared by ZEC as a Senator, before he is sworn-in by Parliament.

But even before he is sworn-in, Mathema has been attending Cabinet meetings and making himself felt at the Home Affairs Ministry, where one of his first major actions was to sign an extradition treaty with the United States for criminals.

This week, he threatened Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union leaders from going ahead with street demonstrations – in his capacity as Home Affairs Minister.

Alex Magaisa, a prominent law expert, said Mnangagwa was abetting an illegality.

“As President, he is legally obliged to uphold the constitution. By appointing six non-Members of Parliament he is in breach and should have known,” Magaisa said.

The Kent University law lecturer said the situation was “made worse by the fact that this is not the first time he has done it. It shows a blatant disregard of the constitution.”

When Mnangagwa was first catapulted to power in a military coup that ousted President Robert Mugabe last November, he was forced to drop Chris Mutsvangwa from his Cabinet after also overlapping his allocation of five ministers from outside Parliament.