Mutharika bashed over ‘bloody mistake’: Malawi paper hit on rewarding political hand clappers

Malawi’s  flagship newspaper  has  branded  President Peter Mutharika’s t appointment of Paramount Chief Lundu as Chairperson of the Malawi Blood Transfusion Service (MBTS) as “bloody mistake.”

The Daily Times on Friday’s  leader piece  attacked Mutharika continued politics of patronage of  not appointing people  in public  positions on merit but  as a “ way of rewarding political hand clappers.”

It also attacks  Mutharika for “a  series of blunders” , saying he is  only human and is bound to make mistakes but “it looks like the President is enjoying exhausting the quota of his mistakes.”

The newspaper noted that Mutharika’s appointment of Lundu as Chairperson of MBTS has attracted criticism from “well-meaning Malawians”, saying it agree with those that have expressed reservations on the premise that the chief does not have the technical know-how to head an institution as critical as MBTS.

“Lundu, for all who care to know, has never hidden his political colours and it would be sheer hypocrisy for anyone to defend this appointment to such a critical institution that deals with matters of life and death,” the paper states.

The paper said it is not only the appointment of Lundu that must concern the nation buts all appointments to boards of parastatals have, regrettably, become a dangerous way of rewarding political patronage, and this has had a negative effect on the performance of the parastatals.

“The country’s parastatals have been known for performing badly and, surprisingly, people tend to wonder why this is the case. It is obvious that parastatals have failed to perform because people entrusted to make policies in boards are mostly politically attached. Some of whom do not even have education let alone professional qualification suitable for the operations of the parastatals,” reads the comment.

The paper reminds Mutharika that appointing people to boards of parastatals is an archaic practice that does nothing but slow down the country’s progress.

It said Mutharika must find another way of rewarding his political allies other than placing them in institutions as critical as MBTS.