Political scientists fault Chakwera over cabinet review process
A grouping of political scientists have given a sharp criticism to President Lazarus Chakwera for his failure to be accountable in the way the review of cabinet as he indicated that he was going to subject the ministers to a follow up assessment where each minister will have to make a report on how they have fared before hiring new team.
The Political Science Association (PSA) say the Presidency did not give a convincing reason on its failure to reshuffle the cabinet.
Presidential Press Secretary Brian Banda has indicated that the process of reviewing the performance of cabinet ministers has not been finalised.
This was announced on Wednesday night, contradicting his Monday statement in which he said the new cabinet would be announced within 48 hours.
This is not the first time President Chakwera has failed to reshuffle his cabinet, as he did the same in December last year, a departure to his promises.
PSA President Joseph Chunga believes the presidency is not truthful on its failure to review the cabinet.
Political scientist, governance expert and secretary general of PSA, Makhumbo Munthali observed that there was pledge that the President made that each Cabinet Minister would give a report to Malawians publicly on their progress on each of the key governance indicators given to them by the President.
“Many Malawians were excited about it that maybe now we are having new way of doing things, the President is now opening up his cabinet.
“It is not about the President releasing the Cabinet, he had pledged beyond that., he pledged that there will be certain processes where there will merit based assessment of his Cabinet,” said Munthali.
He said the assumption is that these key performance indicators would be made public for Malawians to objectively appreciate the merits and demerits of such progress reports.
“Besides, the public would be allowed to comment on the very key performance indicators. Not clear however as to what platform or channel to be used for Cabinet Ministers to publicly share their five months progress reports,” said Munthali.
He said Chakwera still has an opportunity to ensure that this processes are adhered to which he had committed to, saying “it’s good practice in as far as good governance is concerned.”
The governance expert said President has the prerogative guided by the law to change Cabinet or even keep it without any changes for his full term of office.
“However, good governance is beyond rule of law,” he said.
Munthali said active citizenship and accountability requires that the President fulfils the pledge in its entirety.
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Maybe some of the existing Ministers are involved in the K6.2b scum and reshuffle is awaiting results of the Forensic Audit currently underway. It wouldn’t serve any purpose appointing ministers today and do a reshuffle a month down the line after some of them have been implicated.
You had unfounded expectation. kkkk taking Laza serious is the same as having faith in a prostitute. Zitayanin nthawi
Pulpit President! Why a Malawi tikumupanga hold Chakwera with soft white baby gloves. We are seeing things are not going anywhere. It’s at stand still. We are doing nothing. We just satisfied kuti tinachotsa Dphiphi basi. We gone react again when we will be near voting. Zithu zikuonongeka. Tinamuika pa mpando with the influences of these so called lawyers. Mphamvu zili kwa ife anthu tsopano not ma lawyers now they just eating money very comfortable while we are the one tikuvutika kumangodyetsa misonkho ndi kuonetsera kuti akupita ku nyanja. Amalawi Amalawi tiyese kuti apange step down timuchotsepo abwerapo wina. Nafe tisamangolankhula ngati iyeyo koma tichite. Ma bishop chaka chili chonse amalemba chikalata kumatokota lero kunali zii ngati si Esther ya Pasitolo letter, chikalata cha mabisho nao akudyapo tiziti kuyiwala nkhosa. Zithu zikuonongeka. Kuli covid inde koma pang’ono pokha zithu ziziyenda. Mwatiyenjeza pano a Chakwera.
What Chakwera is doing when he want to reshufle his cabinet is but setting a very bad precedence. Everywhere in the world a president reshufles his cabinet even without giving reasons. These are political positions and can even be terminated politically. I don’t support the so called PSA that the review be made public. A person is appointed minister without looking at his/her qualifications. Then we would always have retired Army commanders or IGs appointed as defence ministers
A Malawi sanavotere cabinet but Chakwera n Chilima,cabinet no cabinet Malawi will move on,ma analyst zibweretsani nkhani zotukura Malawi than ndale why not discussing nkhani ngati parliament deliberations which lacks substance
No cabinet reshuffle coming soon….all these ministers are not there by merit but are basically there for appeasement and if they are chopped Chakwera knows well that it will be the beginning of his end .He will bring back the same cabinet with only two or three ministers chopped and redeployed.Mark my words.
Why is everyone so bent on reshuffle? Ofcourse chakwera promised but is it realistic? I think a year or two is best to make a good performance analysis. Otherwise I feel Malawians just simply want someone to fall and they get satisfaction in that only without really having the interest of the country at heart “tafanana syndrome” realistically let’s not put pressure on chakwera to the reshuffle. He can review and advise the minister’s areas to improve without reshuffling. Some need to grow on the job.
Powerful, kukhala mmalawi nkulimba mtima, pulling down syndrome is destroying Malawi… Discuss about development and not individuals, do like Onjezani Kenani. Bring up solutions, don’t wait for others or presidents. Cabinet or no cabinet let’s work to make Malawi great ourselves….
The treuth of the matter is that the Preident knows most of the failures in the Cabinet are from MCP and should he dismiss them he may face a rebellion.This is dangerous for our democracy because he will not be hiring the cabinet based on merit buitrather on appeasement. Chakwera is not ready to dismiss Mtambo who in people minds has completely failed to perform for he fear he may go back to HRDC and give him sleepless nights.Till now the people in my village don’t know that there is vaccine in the country and those that that heard it don’t have the information as to where they can get it.
PSA itself is a bunch of fools. What they call an analysis has always been general understanding of even the illeterate. Pezani china chochita.
100% agree. They’re mostly politician wannabes who repeat the recent Zeitgeist and love the convoluted minutea of poltical rhetoric, without any thought to practical outcomes.
Failing on your own promises and deadlines is seldom a sign of successful leadership, Mr. President! You and your Tonse government loose momentum like this with every passing day! Pull your socks up and walk the talk!
To evaluate something means knowing what you want to evaluate. Here is a man who interdicted his CEOs for not meeting his given deadline. He gave himself the deadline which he has failed twice: December claimed as after five months in office. Then end of March. Second flop! Atu. Said and I quote: ” Galimoto sampatsa wophunzira itanyamua katundu. A Chakwera sanakhalepo ngakhale unduna. ” Why telling people that reshuffle will be done there? Awadziwa a Malawi- angomusambira masamba nkumangobalalika kulephera kusankha!! A busa mudziona, mwakula mwatha! Koma kulephera kukwaniritsa deadlin yodzipatsa nokha????? Mmmmmm za manyazi ndithu!!!
Kodi kabinetiyo muchite kumukakamiza?inu osasankha yanu bwanji? Fwe Fwe Fwe Fwe. Choosing a cabinet is a prerogative of the president not inuyo. Sankhani yanu and allocate jobs .
Is anyone forcing him? Did he not say it himself? You must be one of the failed ministers
Nothing worth writing
Ndi abusa akhululukireni
Palace Intrigue has gripped Malawi too much.
Most people don’t even know or care who is in the cabinet, however, some just want to know who is up and who is down so they can berate those who are down; and feel good about themselves for a week then back to square one…. new Palace Intrigue.
The president can change a pledge on his cabinet composition without having to explain anything to anyone. The mistake here was made by the communications team, who ill-advised the President towards this path.
Enawa a India trip ya dazi improvement on government payroll shd have a second though on them. Just my thought
Mukuwuza mwala
Except for 1 or 2 the rest have performed very well. For the first time we have a cabinet that works for Malawians osati aja anangonenepa khosi lokha kuli kudya misonkho ya a malawi osauka. Anthu opanda chisoni. Lero muli ku? Muzingobwebwetuka kumenyana mitu chipani. We now have a smart cabinet. No need to change. The two only need to be warned to pull up their socks. Hope this performance will continue . God bless our current cabinet.
So what???????
We need to reshuffle the whole ‘thing’. !