By Deogratias:
President Lazarus Chakwera has appointed Natural Resources and Climate Change Minister Michael Usi as the country’s vice president.
Usi replaces Saulos Chilima, who was killed along eight others in a plane crash on June 10 2024 in Chikangawa Forest.
A statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet, which was released last evening, said Chakwera made the appointment in exercise of the powers vested in him under Section 84 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
“The appointment is with immediate effect. The Vice President-designate, the Right Honourable Dr Michael Bizwick Usi, shall take his oath of office on Friday, 21 June 2024, at the Parliament Building at 15.00 hours,’ reads the statement signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba.
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According to the Constitution, the President was required to appoint the vice president within seven days after the death declaration of Chilima on Tuesday last week.
Malawi Law Society said following the tragic death of Chilima while serving in office as Vice President, and considering that the deceased and the incumbent President took the oath of office on June 28 2020, in terms of Section 83 of the Constitution, “the Malawi Law Society advises the general public that under Section 84 and 88 of the Constitution, as read with Section 45 of the General Interpretation Act, His Excellency President Lazarus Chakwera is required to appoint a replacement Vice President within seven days after the death of the Vice President, excluding any Sunday or public holiday”.
Usi is vice president for UTM, a party founded by Chilima together with Newton Kambala of the United Transformation Party and others in 2018.
Before going to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Usi was Tourism minister.
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We tried to get a comment from Usi last evening but his phone was constantly busy.
This was also the case with UTM spokesperson Felix Njawala.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Gift Trapence has described Usi as a capable man.
“He has the capacity and leadership skills. Even the late Vice President nominated him as his running mate because he saw the leadership skills in him. What is more important is for him to live up to Malawians’ expectations,” Trapence said.
During the 2019 presidential election, Chilima picked Usi as running mate.
