HOBBS GAMA, Blantyre | Thursday
MALAWI President Bakili Muluzi unexpectedly fired his entire 33 member cabinet on Thursday morning amidst growing corruption and financial mismanagement charges.
President Muluzi’s office announced on State radio that all executive government matters would be handled directly by the presidency until a new cabinet is appointed.
Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) secretary Alfred Upindi also attempted to dismiss widespread speculation in local media that the unexpected mass sacking was linked to growing international pressure for Malawi to pro-actively tackle State corruption.
Malawi’s largest international donor and foreign trade partner, Britain, has been particularly scathing of Malawi’s handling of a US$2,5m education department scandal which reportedly saw cabinet ministers and other senior politicians award large tenders for new schools, boreholes, roads and other rural infrastructure to non-existent companies, or organisations owned and managed by relatives and business acquaintances.
Transparency International, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and a range of local and international human rights watchdog bodies joined in the protests after Muluzi’s office confirmed last month that government had splurged an estimated US$2,5m on 39 new top-of-the-range S-Class Mercedes Benz limousines for cabinet members.
Muluzi announced the immediate sale of the luxury fleet on Wednesday in what he described as a “cost-recovery” measure.
Government has repeatedly denied indications, however, that it used British donor funding or balance of payments meant for poverty alleviation to purchase the vehicles. Malawi is ranked as the world’s 16th poorest nation, with 60% of Malawi’s 10 million population living below the IMF/World Bank poverty breadline of US$1 per day.
“I do not know why the president dissolved the cabinet. The constitution does not require him to say why he has dissolved his cabinet,” said Upindi.
Upindi meanwhile confirmed that Muluzi had finally received a long-awaited Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation report into the education ministry scandal and related scandals in the health and land affairs departments.
The report is set to be reviewed by Malawi’s Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, which originally stumbled on the scams, on November 13.
Muluzi has not indicated when a new cabinet will be appointed, or what the political fate of the axed ministers will be. The cabinet dissolution follows a mini-reshuffle earlier this year. – African Eye News Service