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(NYASATIMES) Bingu’s cabinet: 2014 succession master plan

Bingu’s cabinet: 2014 succession master plan

Commentators have described the new cabinet appointed by President Bingu wa Mutharika as a political master plan aimed at consolidating his grip to power and preparing his brother Peter Arthur Mutharika for succession in 2014 if he fails to secure a third term of office.

In keeping with the true Bingu, full of intrigue and surprise the President on Wednesday unveiled the cabinet that has witnessed crushing out of senior colleagues in the NGC.

Henry Mussa the treasure general of the party, Henry Phoya the legal affairs director of the party who only last week was boasting as the longest serving minister of constitutional affairs, Davis Katsonga campaign director and heir apparent, Dr. Ken Lipenga the professional communications man; the maverick Symon Vuwa Kaunda, desertees of MCP Ted Kalebe and Bintoni Kutsaira, upstart homeboys Charles Mchacha and Roy Commsy; the Nyasa political gurus Henry Mumba, Mwerekete Kalua and Frank Mwenefumbo; and not forgetting the Kabula hill giant Rashid Gaffar.

These casualties were last week during an international football match upbeat about their automatic inclusion into the cabinet based on their contribution to the party in the name of financial, material and moral.

“We’re Bingu’s blue eyed boys, nothing can happen without us and there is no way we can be left out in the next cabinet,” charged one lawyer casualty from a rural constituency in Blantyre.

Phoya was on TVM boasting to have been the most efficient minister to have served longest in the same capacity.

Vuwa-Kaunda was also boasting at the High Court on Tuesday that he is rushing to Lilongwe to collect his ministerial limousine because he had been tipped that he is included in the new cabinet.

The cabinet appointment has seen Malawi’s star performer finance minister Goodall Gondwe demoted to the local government ministry sacrificed for late dictator Kamuzu Banda’s nephew Ken Kandodo.

The unexpected departure from the finance ministry of Gondwe has sent the country into panic mode because the successor is a novice in a trade that requires long experience and international connections which Gondwe had as former World Bank employee.

Kandodo on the other hand is a qualified young man but without international finance experience. Most people in Blantyre remember him as comrade to the underworld as evidenced by the loss of classy Mercedes company car to a money shark Rodgers Mwitha.

Probably he is now grown out of it, like all life experiences he may use the past to guide him into the future.

The movement of Dr George Chaponda to the education ministry is another surprise because Chaponda has spent a large cut of his life in refugee camps as an employee of UNHCR.

Conspicuously missing are the several individuals who registered new love for the DPP strategically timed to be considered into the new cabinet.

They include, former vice president Cassim Chilumpha, Uladi Mussa, Yusuf Matumula, Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda, fired MCP publicist Ishmael Chafukira, former MBC employer Jolly Kalero, Dr. Paul Shaba, Dr. Allan Chiyembekeza, Rev. Ngwira, UDF’s Henry Shaba, Nicholas Dausi among several others.

Also left out are PhD holders Donton Mkandawire, David Mphande, Maggie Kalirani and Bofomo Nyirenda.

The President has not given any ministerial position to the vice president Joyce Banda despite the Head of State grabbing the portfolio of minister of agriculture.

The cabinet has also shut out hopes completely of former desertees of UDF from regrouping in readiness for 2014.

Labels: BINGU WA MUTHARIKA, ELECTIONS

posted by MrK @ 2:21 AM