LILONGWE - MALAWI:
President Joyce Banda fired Malawi's former first lady, Callista Mutharika, from her position as the coordinator for the Safe Motherhood Initiative, in which she earned $7500 a month despite the country's dire economic circumstances of late.
President Banda replaced Mrs. Mutharika with well-known human rights activist, Dorothy Ngema. Some see this as a continuation of a process of cleaning up the late President Bingu wa Mutharika's loyalists that President Banda embarked upon a day into her presidency with the dismissal of the corrupt Police Chief.
It therefore came as no surprise when President Banda reshuffled cabinet and announced a 23-member one in which she designated herself several key human security and development centered portfolios including civil service, disaster management, HIV/AIDS and nutrition.This can be viewed as a strategic move to use her identity as a civil society activist to consolidate her power base in view of the 2014 presidential elections.
The new 'reconciliation' government (President Banda has stressed 'reconciliation' following the death of her predecessor) includes representatives of all the main opposition parties including members of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
As part of the reshuffle, President Banda has reinstated several former officials who were also thrown out of former President Mutharika's DDP. ( By Jamii Forum)
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