Cut the chaff: Chakwera burning political capital with string of blunders
President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera speaks earnestly, passionately and sounds like someone who means what he says. He is likable and has a face that exudes honesty and trust. The fact that he has been a respected man of God throughout most of his adult life does not hurt either. He smells piety.
So, when he says he will root out corruption, sternly deal with abuse of office, do away with executive arrogance, govern by the rule of law and through servant leadership, one cannot help, but give the man the benefit of the doubt.
So far, he appears to have brought dignity to the presidency with his measured tone, a careful choice of language and, yes, even looking and sounding damn presidential. But the string of blunders he is piling since assuming power tells me that either Chakwera does not believe in what he says in public or he just does not talk to or listen to advisors.
For example, when he came into power, Chakwera replaced the Commissioner General of the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), yet the law says that only the tax collector’s body can hire and fire its head. Did he seek legal advice on the matter? Does that read like the behaviour of a man who respects the rule of law?
In defence, the President said at the time that the two appointments were temporary while a new MRA board was being reconstituted.
“I have made these provisional appointments to stop the free-for-all pilferage of taxes and the destruction of evidence that have been taking place there in the last few weeks, crimes which need to be stopped as a matter of urgency,” claimed Chakwera. But this explanation did not make sense for two reasons. First, where on earth do you pick someone from outside the organisation to work in an acting capacity? MRA has a lot of career professionals who would have acted in this position unless Chakwera produces evidence that they were all too compromised.
Second, why didn’t the President first appoint the board and instruct them to expedite the recruitment of the MRA chief? Meanwhile, it is roughly three months since the new MRA board assumed their duties and there have been no adverts to float the ‘vacant’ position.
The President unceremoniously sacked the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi Dalitso Kabambe and packed him somewhere in the Office of the President and Cabinet while the man’s contract as Governor is still running.
Now I hear Kabambe is not taking the insult lying down and is demanding hundreds of millions of kwacha from the taxpayer for the tasteless removal.
Just last week, Chakwera sparked another controversy with the appointments of boards of directors of parastatals and other subvented organisations.
Ignoring Malawi’s gender laws, the percentage of women in the boards is well below the threshold that the laws prescribe. Prominent women, lawyers, gender activities and organisations protested heavily and demanded that the boards be reconstituted. In response, Chakwera—the man who promised to do away with executive arrogance and work to respect rule of law—dispatched his Information Minister Gospel Kadzako, who basically told everyone complaining about the illegal composition of the boards to go to hell.
The President’s silence is a tacit approval of Kadzako’s arrogant response to serious concerns.
Chakwera also messed up the rollout of his Cabinet in which people from the Central Region grabbed more than half of the portfolios, centralizing power to a region the President comes from and which is the bedrock of Malawi Congress Party support.
Yet, this is the man who said he would do things differently and consistently condemned Peter Mutharika’s staffing of top jobs with people from the Southern Region, especially from the so-called Lhomwe belt.
He also filled his Cabinet with families—including spouses and siblings—much to the chagrin of the general public. Even then people demanded that he dissolves the Cabinet and re-appoint a new one that helps to re-unite the country and share national power in a more representative way.
Chakwera refused not because he wanted to show his decisiveness, but he was too afraid of the families and his party that have captured him to change anything.
It has only been three months, but at the rate President Chakwera is alienating certain constituencies, he won’t have enough political capital to do much
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CHAKWERA WAS NOT A GOOD CHOICE TO BE VOTED AS MALAWI’S PRESIDENT.SOME VOTERS HAD THEIR OWN CHOICE THAT THE FORMER CHRISTIAN HAS AN AMERICAN VOCABULARY,WHAT FOOLS OF THE MALAWIAN PEOPLE? BANDA CAME INTO MALAWI WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF MALAWIAN LANGUAGE AND YET HE CHEATED THEM THAT HE WAS A CHEWA BY TRIBE.THIS IDIOTIC BRUTAL KILLER FRANKLY SPEAKING,HIS PARENTS CAME FROM GHANA AND NIGERIA.THERE ARE BANDAS IN NIGERIA AND GHANA.YOU MUST WONDER WHY HE COULD NOT SPEAK CHEWA AND YET THE ROGUE CLAIMED THAT HE WAS. A CHEWA BY TRIBE HOWEVER,HE IS ON LINE WITH MIA AND HIS WIFE,IN SHORT,HE WAS NOT A NYASALAND GUY.MIA AND HIS WIFE ARE 100 PER CENT ARABS WHOSE FORE-FATHERS ENSLAVED OUR FOREFATHERS AND TODAY,OUR BOSES,WHAT A SHAME? ALUTA CONTINUA,VENCEREMOS !!!!!!!!!!
What else can Ephraim say?
Time to accept the fact staring us Malawians in the face. There is no country in the world where a clergyman be it Rev, Bishop or Archbishop has been a successful. Cyprus lost half the country to Turkey because of the incompetence of Archbishop Makarios, look at Haiti and the poverty the clergyman who was President has reduced Haiti too. Look at what Rasputin did to Russia and it’s Royal family. This Rev Chakwera is made of the same mould, he has dictatorial streaks in him, he is arrogant and oblivious to criticism. Let dump him and support SKC.
This is not CYPRUS and stop showing us that you know history than the rest.Were you happy with what was happening at MRA?
Lego – Why are you feeling jealous that I know history? If you go back to school they will teach you that history repeats itself. I know the history of Cyprus, but do you even know where Cyprus is?
The president needs to cut the chaff. The useless foreign trips he has lined up, are they not part of the chaffy???? Kkkk
Osamalemba zopanda mutu ,mmene MRA inaliri muli inu mukanatani,reserve bank governor anadzipanga yekha kukhala kadet muli inu mukanatani ,give this man time zinamukunenazo za gender olo panyumba panu palibepo zitayeni
No one is 100% perfect.we all have shortfalls.Chakwera is the best president we’ve ever had in Malawi.stop discouraging him with your useless posts.
Of all the presidents Malawi has ever had, this is the dullest.
Za ziiii. DPP article as usual. Compare him with ur old man. How did he appoint board members?
The author of this article is insincere! He should not expect drastic changes in the Govt. overnight, give the President and his Govt. ample time to fix this ailing nation. Looks like the author is taking sides!!………..
Well said and well written. here is a man who doesnt believe that he is the president of Malawi and run things as if he is running a grocer. He was not ready to be president and this came as windfall and he is yet tocome to terms
Remember what brought Joice Banda down was the fact that she left people who were corrupt in Bingu’s government in vital key areas. Do the writer want Chakwela fall into the same trap. Please be of sobber reason mind.
If these blunders are indicators for one to asses the man, one can see: arrogance, vengeance, hate, nepotism, regionalism, tribalism, unaunthentic etc.These attributes can be in conflict with his values in H5.
Mr. Talk , No action wont do much to benefit Malawians. He is obsessed with Central Region. Trying so hard to please every one from Nyau Camp.
He has done so well tho openning DPP Projects.
Useless and amorphous article. These are just procedural issues. Kabambe was not fired. He is on secondment to Treasury. It was important to pick an outsider in an inherently corrupt MRA with deep state residues who will cover up the theft and corruption. Get a life Ephraim.look for another red herring
If you are expecting a perfect presidency immediately after the failures and lootings that’s happened in the past 26 years then I am afraid you are in for a long ride. Give him and Chilima time to sweep off the mess the other guys have left.
By the way you seem to be repeating matters that have already come and gone – why? Haven’t some of the matters you raise here gone stale. Please write current staff only so the nation can move on unless you write with a hidden sponsored agenda. My views.
I think this self acclaimed analysis article is so premature and ill conceived……to me this article shows that the Tonse government is doing very well to the point that most journalists who thrive on writing negative stories have nothing bad to go after this government….
Ephraim you are just bringing things that are old for today, stay with your past my friend, uchila zako izo! Your DPP is now in court looking justice to the same who didn’t deliver the same from May last year up to February. Lakula ndi tsoka Wawa. Chakwera is the President of the Republic of Malawi period! Kafike!
Mwasowa cholemba akulu u mean u don’t know that it was planned game by DPP to change the laws on how to apoint these people? amadziwa kuti ayikako a nthu awo wokhawokha so kusankhako azisankhanaso eni wokha.azanu anakuwelengani kalekale kuti it’s planned game.brave ur Excellency Dr LMC a and Lt Hon Veep.nyenkwe is real simunati.ife pheeee pa chiongoleri zathu zikuyenda.
Honest assessment by cut the chaff, they set the expectations very high and swayed us to protest and nullify the disputed elections. We’ve pressed the re-set button! And the follow through was suppossed to be a new way of operating the Govt machinery, to an extent this has happened for instance HE availing himself to account in Parly through MPs questioning. However, some critical changes havent been seen through, the major weakness being the appointment of the cabinet and parastatal boards. The appointments have been short in most cases failing to fulfill professionalism and violating some major acts in the process. One would ask, is the President listening to his advisors? Or his advisors are bootlickers who will ascent to everything HE does. These people are suppossed to provide an independent, well-thought advice after considering the positives and negatives of a particular decision. They are suppossed to provide non political advice. Slowly if this continues, they will begin to lose the consensus which they enjoy at the moment. Once this happens, they will put themselves in a tight corner as citizens will no longer trust their decisions. They need to be very careful as citizens patience may run thin!
Chakwera is doing exactly like what Yowel Museveni does. Himself has become the advisor to his numerous advisors.
The only challenge we face as soccer lovers or die-hards of any political party makes us want to hear or see what is good for our eyes or ears. That’s the biggest chronic infection we have as humans though not everyone. When you are a diehard, everything seems going on well and no one can question of our leader and their subordinates. It will take a while when one realises that no all is well after everything has almost collapsed and can never be recovered. Look at what is happening with DPP, die hards don’t see anything wrong, what Chakwera is doing, Tonse Alliance or should I say, MCP supporters don’t see anything wrong. It is until when the boat is almost have full that things will be irreversible. Being a President does not demand experience!!
Palibe nkhani apa. You wanted Chakwera to keep Kabambe and other well known cadets in government? I can’t read this inspid article.
during dpp ela, lot of things went into chaos, to avert from dpp chaos lots of sacrifices need to be done. that includes sacking kabambe, subverting gender nonsense and etc. we want development and nothing else. kudos chakwera
Its time to eat. Until 2025. (..real eating. . .. .. and it’s nice to eat and drink .)
this is just the beginning
Once upon time, there was Bingu, the President and Peter, Minister. I don’t know if they were related. If they were, maybe there were not a family according to the author. Kabambe is an open DPP supporter and reported to be building massive structures from his “salary”. It must have been a huge salary. Why would the Tonse Government keep a DPP functionary in such a sensitive position? To continue what! The same goes for MRA. A DPP functionary should be kept by a Tonse Government! The author is. Confused and has no brains at all.
Saulosi is at some corner watching these mistake happen, knowing they will usher him into power.
You can go and suck your bosses (DPP) backsides. Leave chakwera alone, he is on a mission to cleat the rubble, and it is never cheap He is human and not God, to hell with your stupid and idiotic analogy. He is better than your sleepy useless APM
My assessment every leadership has a philosophy to govern, hence Chakwera is exceptional servant leader through his imperfections remains teachable & reachable to shape shared concerns of voices. We’re coming from autocratic dynasty that thrived on impunity that has wounded the soul of Malawians.
Stewardship is the strength of Tonse government, that’ll raise a standard against the odds from 100 days of fine turning towards completion of projects with new ventures that’ll eventually equalize social economics of 80 percent rural and 20 percent of urban.
Mbwelera zokha zokha. Wishful thinking
Total madness
What does this even mean, parking management speaks that means nothing at all… “ati stewardship is the strength of tonse govt”.
Running govt is not some marketing brand slogganism.
And it’s sad that you lot are more concerned with style over substance ( policies, policies)
Because with this admin we have non. The cabinet didn’t meet for over a month, the budget is in a vacuum from social economic situation on the ground. This pandemic is not just a health crisis, it’s an economic one too, and we are heading into recession.
Over 100 days and we don’t know any development policy direction for this govt. Finance ministry without r&d, planning and development in a standalone just for show, top down reforms, where in the world has that ever worked. You don’t impose reform, they require buy-ins and culture changes to work.
Attempting to make public sectors work like private sector is the worst thing that can happen to a country, financialization of public sector is dangerous
Brilliant narrative!
How can Chakwera be held accountable on “stewardship”? What are the deliverables in the entire Hi5 rousey package? Chakwera is simply clueless.
Who said?
THE DECISION TO REMOVE DR DALITSO KABAMBE FROM RBM WAS VERY RIGHT ON GROUNDS THAT HE ACTED UNPROFESSIONALLY WHILE HE WAS GOVERNOR AS WE WERE APPROACHING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.HOW COULD HE BE SPONSORING DPP POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES AND EXPECT TO KEEP HIS JOB?
What a disappointing little article.