Analysts weigh in on Cabinet reshuffle
Political commentators have said survivors in President Peter Mutharika’s Monday evening Cabinet reshuffle are merely serving government politically while those left out must have committed a political blunder.
Reacting to the Cabinet reshuffle that saw Trasizio Gowelo (Local Government and Rural Development) and Paul Chibingu (Lands, Housing and Urban Development) dropped, political analyst Blessings Chinsinga on Tuesday said United Democratic Front (UDF) president Atupele Muluzi—who has been moved thrice since June last year—is a victim of political gossip because he is an outsider.
He said: “For those who have survived, [it] does not mean they are working hard, driving the economy. It simply means they are dancing to the tune of politics; now such people cannot help steer the country in the right direction. They cannot bring the change that is desired by the majority.”
Chinsinga contended that Chibingu and Gowelo have been fired because they blundered.
Another political analyst, Mustapha Hussein, said the President should have made radical changes even if it meant bringing on board non-politicians.
He said the old faces have been tried and tested and the results have spoken for themselves.
Said Hussein: “I know that a minister is not a driver of a ministry, but the principal secretaries, ministers are merely managers of political and policy guidance, whose post does not require any qualification, now if we have technical people heading ministers, and working with the principal secretaries, and then we might achieve the desired results this country is looking for.
“We need technical people to correct issues of governance in this country. We have the economy not moving in the right direction at the moment, a solution to all these is to have people with the right expertise.”
However, social commentator Chris Chisoni has hailed the Cabinet reshuffle, saying the President has reorganised his Cabinet in the best way he knows how.
Mutharika reshuffled his Cabinet on Monday, firing the two, roping in a pair of new faces and moved around several ministers.
The President appointed Blantyre Rural West member of Parliament (MP) Peter Kumpalume as Minister of Health and the Reverend Malison Ndau, Ntcheu Central MP, as Deputy Minister of Defence.
