City council CEOs yet to be transferred
Almost two months after government announced that all chief executive officers (CEOs) for the three cities of Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu were being deployed to districts, The Nation has established that the CEOs are yet to be transferred
The three—Lilongwe’s Richard Hara, Zomba’s Ali Phiri and Mzuzu’s Thomas Chirwa—are still carrying out their duties as before.
In an interview last week, principal secretary for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Kester Kaphaizi said the move has been affected by some district commissioners’ (DCs) court injunctions, protesting their transfers.
“The whole issue is very complicated now with the injunctions in place. We are waiting for the matter to be resolved in court first, but the transfers are still in effect and nothing has changed,” said Kaphaizi.
In an interview last week, Chirwa said he could not go to the district where he was transferred because the office is not vacant.
“It is true that we are still in office. For instance, I was supposed to go to Mzimba and the DC for Mzimba was supposed to go to Lilongwe and the DC for Lilongwe was supposed to go to Kasungu, but there is an injunction, as such, we are waiting for the resolution of the injunctions,” Chirwa said.
Hara was posted to Blantyre District Council while Phiri is supposed to go to Chiradzulu and Chirwa to Mzimba.
In August, the High Court in Blantyre granted an injunction to six DCs, stopping the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development from demoting them after government said their (DCs) new posts did not exist in the civil service.
