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Mutharika faulted on appointments

Has been appeased?: Bamusi
Has been appeased?: Bamusi

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) manifesto promised Malawians a number of positives, including revamping the ailing economy, total security for businesses and people and freedom for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to freely carry out their work.

But analysts doubt whether these ambitions will be achieved considering the nature of people that President Peter Mutharika has started putting in place.

On Friday last week, President Mutharika appointed economist Goodall Gondwe as Finance, Economic Planning and Development minister. His main task is to revamp the economy, which Mutharika described as dysfunctional.

On Sunday, the President appointed Mabvuto Bamusi as special assistant to the President on NGOs; DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi as National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) director general and Commissioner of Police for the Southern Region Lexten Kachama as deputy inspector general of police.

However, the appointments have been deemed “a bad start” with renowned commentators Boniface Dulani and Joseph Chunga from University of Malawi’s Chancellor College describing Gondwe as “someone beyond his prime”.

“At 78 (years), Gondwe is old and needs resting. Much as he did well previously, we need to be moving forward by appointing young people on these positions. We have many young and capable people who can equally do well,” said Dulani.

Chunga said at his age, Gondwe is not expected to be as vibrant as he used to be and that a younger person was needed.

On Bamusi, both analysts suspect that it was an appeasement policy since he has been close to the party all along.

“This [appointment] is probably the most disappointing of all, which brings into question the President’s promise of appointing people on merit. Is he the right person who can give honest advice or he is there because he is sympathetic to the party?” asked Dulani .

Dausi was not spared either as Dulani said much as he comes from a background of security matters after working as former president Kamuzu Banda’s bodyguard; his political connection dents the whole professionalism that is required on the job.

Chunga noted that because of careless appointments on critical positions like that of intelligence, it turns out to be a branch that works on rumour mongering and gossip.

“One would question whether Dausi, a DPP party official will be spying on other political parties. That is why it is important to have people from the military or police to head such institutions,” he said.

They, however, did not comment much on Kachama’s appointment apart from saying it could be that the President might not be comfortable to work with Bophani who was appointed by the previous administration.

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One Comment

  1. Seriously?? i didn’t even bother to read the rest of the article, ageism seems to be the prevalent issue here. Firstly if i can remind you, Gondwe did well in his tenure as minister of finance and that’s the merrit, secondly: his age doesn’t state his mental capability hence experience. the list is endless for the amount of characters i can post here.

    There are many people over 80 years holding senior possitions of power, if he’s not ready to write his memoirs don’t make him. I don’t know him personally but as a leader i am sure he’s capable of revamping the stagnant economy of ours after what PP did to it.
    If you hire anyone to do a job for you i am sure you are going to demand total commitment and loyalty, gime APM a chance, he’s still in his honeymoon period and if it all goes sour then let’s judge him on his choices.I am sure if he had selected a younger candidate you would be the first to jump thegun and say that the candidate is too young what experience does he have. Let’s see how APM and his crew perfom. Noxy Chipendo.

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