Why did Mutharika reshuffle Malawi Cabinet?

The President has just reshuffled the Cabinet, and I feel it is the duty of every citizen to get interested in reshuffles when they happen, especially in times of governance crises of the kind our government is going through.

The President has the exclusive right enshrined in the constitution of our republic to reshuffle the cabinet at will, without owing anybody a singular explanation. We can therefore not expect government to explain the reshuffle even when we feel it falls short of a real reshuffle that we would expect in these hard times. However, the same supreme law of our land does not prevent us from asking why he reshuffled the Cabinet and expressing our views about it.

Therefore, while proudly embracing my democratic right to publicly express my views on the reshuffle, I declare that this reshuffle is another failure of government to address our challenges:

You see, though a Cabinet reshuffle is at the prerogative of our Presidents, so much that they can even reshuffle at their own pleasure, the reshuffles must be relevant and aimed at addressing every of the challenges of government and the people of Malawi. And though at times and often so, to remedy the President’s own leadership conveniences, but never must a President reshuffle Cabinet for political expedience, at the expense of the public’s welfare.

The reshuffle should have clearly demonstrated how government is re-positioning itself, in a much aggressive and strategic manner, to tackle the general failure of government. But this reshuffle lacks boldness, because it has left nearly the whole cabinet intact, and even the three Ministers that have been shifted from one ministry to another, do not really inspire confidence of performing in their new portfolios. Actually, one is left to wonder which one of the many challenges of government, does the shifts of Ministers really resolve here.

All I am saying is that Malawi is going through a worrisome aggregate failure of government departments, institutions and agencies, and one would expect a major reshuffle, that would define a new direction and approach. I strongly feel that when a nation is on the verge of collapsing, not out of political instability that threatens leadership, but through technocratic and decision making failure, then the leadership can cast the net wider and beyond Party politics to hire new talent and skill; after all, there are about 16 Million Malawians, locally and abroad.

Otherwise, one might get tempted to conclude that the reshuffle has nothing to do with seeking redress for the challenges that government is experiencing, but it is yet another stunt to fool Malawians into thinking that the government is doing something about the endless suffering of Malawians.

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