President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera faced an eagerly waiting nation anxious to hear his word. As usual like other National Addresses in the past, he did not disappoint.
In what can be described as a “decisive leadership”, President Chakwera went straight to announce dismissal from his cabinet Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe and his deputy on grounds of incompetency and negligence.
“I come before you to inform you that in exercise of the powers vested in me by Section 89 of the Constitution, I relieved the Minister of Agriculture and his deputy of their posts in my cabinet with immediate effect”
And to ensure that there is no vacuum in the Ministry, the Malawi leader swiftly announced Sam Kawale as the new Agriculture Minister.
Lowe may be the only casualty and Sam Kawale may be riding on his pedigree which has seen him move to a more senior cabinet portfolio but that is just for now as the Malawi Head of State had hinted of the imminent cabinet reshuffle.
In an affirmative tone, President Chakwera announced that going forward he will not keep any none performing individuals in his cabinet. The Malawi State President reiterated his commitment to deliver the promise he made to Malawians of a better Malawi as such he will not allow any lazy member of the cabinet make him side-track from the promise.
“And speaking of cabinet, I am to make it clear that I will be announcing other changes in the cabinet in due course, because the time for keeping people as Ministers without any noticeable contributions or difference they are making to my efforts to transform Government performance in delivering better public service to Malawians is past”
President Chakwera’s tone was quite telling that he meant business and the message clear: Perform or you are out of my cabinet
For how soon the “due course” may be, only the President knows, until then the remaining members of the cabinet will be waiting for their fate in suspense as they are all on knife’s edge.