KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves Friday confirmed that government legislator Rochard “Pitbull” Ballah will demit office next month to take up the vacant post of communications director.
Gonsalves told reporters that Ballah, a government senator and parliamentary, would replace the retired Elson Crickand that he would be returned to the Parliament by attorney Shackell Bobb.
Gonsalves said that Bobb, who has been an officer at the island’s Financial Services Authority for the last eight months, will have oversight of the Prime Ministerial Council on Youth, which the Cabinet has decided to establish.
He said that the Council, which is to be chaired by 27-year-old budget analyst Anson Latchman, will be the link between the Prime Minister’s Office and the youth.
He said that Bobb, a former Crown counsel at the National Prosecution Service and a former Miss St. Vincent contestant, is “a young lady who has already distinguished herself in all her activities in which she is engaged and comes from the bowels of the working people in the Marriaqua valley, another child of the education revolution.
“And I repeat, I am very honored and pleased and blessed to have been someone who has worked with the generation above me … worked with a person of my generation, molded the generation below me … and then going to the generation even below that one now.”
Gonsalves said that by 2050, Bobb will be 47 years old.
“In other words, we are dealing with the leadership into the second half of the 21st century. What a fantastic blessing the good Lord has expressed through the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Not many persons have had that blessing, and I thank almighty God and the people for that particular blessing.”
The minor cabinet reshuffle is the latest among changes to the government that Gonsalves said last month that the country would witness.
Earlier this month, Benarva Browne, 33, a town planner, was appointed a senator and minister of urban development, energy, seaport development, seaport administration, Grenadine affairs, and local government.
She replaced 71-year-old Julian Francis, who had been a senator since the ruling United Labour Party (ULP) came to office in March 2001 but suffered a stroke in July last year.
Francis has since been appointed an advisor to the government.
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