… ministers besiege him
Cabinet Minsiters are visiting and calling the President every hour that it has become impossible for the President Lazarus Chakwera to appoint any new faces in his promised ‘soon’ lean cabinet.
The President made the promise to reorganise his Cabinet on 19 October 2022 when he fired the Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe for a K750 million scandal paid to a butchery in London to procurement fertiliser.
He repeated the pledge on New Year’s day promised a “lean” cabinet that would ‘deliver for Malawians.’
10 days the new year, Malawians are still waiting for the re start after the previous cabinet has been deemed as ‘corrupt and clueless’ by several commentators.
But President Chakwera is well known for making pronouncements he has no intention of keeping, one of his well known attributes. Many do not expect any changes at all. A source close to the President told iDigital on Saturday that the President is being harrased by his Ministers with memos and calls, some of them ridiculous.
“The power play within Chakweras office is with three people and now Colleen Zamba who is busy building her own network of loyalists as seen in the Private Council and NOCMA boards,” said the source.
Another well placed MCP Exceutive Member said it was obvious the President did not realise the impact of his sentiments.
“His speeches seem to come from somewhere not from someone in charge. I wouldn’t expect any serious changes to whatever he has been saying so far,” said the member.
The iDigital cabinet review indicates that only six Ministers can be retained and the overall score for the outgoing cabinet is 3 out of 10. Read our review and suggested cabinet here.
A seasoned Journalist Malice Mnela writing in response to a call by another Journalist Suzgo Chitete to submit names of potential cabinet observed that the President already had recommendations from the evaluation of his cabinet done between 2020 and early 2021.
“if HE followed through the evaluation of his cabinet as promised, we would have had a meritocracy cabinet system in place. It would have been a natural selection process. But it appears that was just some political jazz that was never implemented,” he observed.
He said he needs a cabinet that will help him achieve impact and results in their respective portfolios. Cabinet posts should not be given to please incompetent and suspected corrupt party loyalists.
“He needs a cabinet that will help him to change public perception on areas his government has seemingly lost public confidence [corruption, mostly!]
“The truth is that Chakwera’s reign is being marred by scandals [corruption], pandemics [Covid-19, cholera …] and incompetence … He needs a lean cabinet that should help deal with the mess not sustain it,” he adds.
