HRCC faults PAC, otherson SPC replacement
Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) has described calls for the replacement of Secretary to President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba as lacking because the SPC only executes Executive orders.
HRCC executive director Robert Mkwezalamba in an interview at the weekend argued that by singling out the SPC, the groups such as Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and other individuals pushing for Zamba’s removal must show that they did some due diligence and concluded that she was acting on her own.
He said Malawi has more problems than an SPC who is executing Executive orders.
Said Mkwezalamba: “It looks like it is a gender and political issue as several male public officers were listed for firing but the voices have died down.
“We are in the period of 16-days of activism against gender-based violence; hence, our call for sanity and respect of equality and justice for all.”
He has since urged President Lazarus Chakwera to make informed decisions and not to be pressured like in 2021 when he fired former minister of Labour Ken Kandodo.
Mkwezalamba further stressed on the need to review the public service regulations and systems so as to address such concerns.
He said: “Let us review our appointment systems and make it public like the Kenyan situation so that we all own and support the successful candidate as opposed to people trying to make the President fail by eliminating his trusted servants. The nation needs to run, with or without challenges.”
He also called for a complete staff needs assessment and full implementation of public service reforms, saying a dynamic civil service will see people rewarded but a bloated one is recipe for a disaster as some deliberately create discomfort for others.
During a recent meeting in Lilongwe with the President, PAC chairperson Monsignor Patrick Thawale outlined complaints to the President on some civil service appointments, recruitments and postings by the SPC as being unprocedural and partisan.
PAC, a quasi-religious body, among others argued that despite the euphoria over Zamba’s appointment as SPC last year, the civil service is in no better state than it was before.
In an earlier interview, presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda said the President was exercising patience on the matter, benefiting from a wealth of advisory sources.
Zamba replaced Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi, who was fired on June 1 2022.
Demands to have Chikhosi removed as SPC were first made public eight months into his appointment in February 2021, a splinter group of the Malawi Congress Party, a key partner in the governing Tonse Alliance, asked Chakwera to fire Chikhosi and some State Residences employees.
The SPC is the head of the public service and chief adviser of the President on public service operations.
