Government fires three Principal Secretaries
By Wezzie Gausi:
Government has terminated services of three Principal Secretaries (PSs) namely Joseph Mwandidya (Energy), Harry Kanjwe (Home Affairs) and Wilson Moleni (Lands) with immediate effect.
While not clearly indicating reasons for the decision, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Gospel Kazako, said services of the three are no longer required and that the government is cleaning up the system.
Kazako said in building a new Malawi, people who fit in the Tonse Alliance agenda of one Malawi for all and a government system that meets the aspirations of everyone will be needed to work for the improvement that the nation needs.
“Every contract that one signs when they are employed gives the government the mandate to terminate it or, better still, the employee to resign. Others may be given other responsibilities, so let everyone be ready for a massive cleanup in our system,” Kazako said.
He further said when building a new thing, in an apparent reference to the so-called cleansing of the nation, everyone is mandated to use only those materials that are useful and that time has come for Malawi to be rebuilt.
Governance commentator Joseph Mhango, said while government needs to be careful when it terminates public officials’ contracts so that it does not end up paying them heftily if they successfully sue it, it is expected that “many officials who presided over the plunder that is being seen now cannot be left in their positions”.
“It is ridiculous to expect that those who failed to do their work or sanctioned the plunder of public resources can be left in their positions. In fact, there are several politically-connected officials who have to go whatever the case if the new government is serious about cleaning the system.
“On the other hand, there are hardworking public servants who should be retained not only for institutional continuity but also because they have done nothing wrong in their respective capacities,” Mhango said.
Both President Lazarus Chakwera and his vice Saulos Chilima have been preaching about correcting things that were “terribly” wrong in the government system and that in this case, casualties would be there.
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