* Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on the changes I need to make at the start of this New Year
* In order to bring renewed energy, focus, efficiency, and speed to the services that we provide to you as Government
By Duncan Mlanjira
In his New Year’s message to the nation, President Lazarus Chakwera said he looks forward to 2025 with a new sense of resolve to push for more gains for Malawians.
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But despite some of the national gains, he also looked back at 2024 and its national losses — one biggest one being the loss of late Vice-President, Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others in the plane accident in June as well as the loss of close to half of the country’s food crops due to El-Nino weather that devastated 23 of the country’s 28 districts.
He also reflects on the loss of life and property caused by excessive rain and thunder last month through effects of tropical storm CHIDA.
“As we carry these crosses into the New Year, I call upon each of you to take it as your responsibility to care for each other and comfort one another, and to keep away from those who try to use these national losses as an opportunity to divide us and rub salt into our injuries,” he said.
“Similarly, when we are reflecting on the New Year, the second thing we see when we each look back over the year that just ended is where we have done well so that we can take new steps to do better, but also where we have not done well so that we can make new resolutions to make changes.
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“And again, as much as this reflection is important to do at a personal level, it is also good to do in matters of Governance at a national level. That is why over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on the changes I need to make at the start of this New Year in order to bring renewed energy, focus, efficiency, and speed to the services that we provide to you as Government.
“I am therefore happy to announce that I have concluded this exercise by creating a new configuration for my Cabinet. With this team, we will work harder than ever to make your lives better this year and beyond this year.
“But as always, for that to happen, I will be counting on your support every step of the way, because the Government that I lead is your Government.”
Chakwera implored on Malawians to look back over the just ended 2024’s “pleasant gains God accrued to us so that we can carry those things into the New Year with a renewed spirit of gratitude, as well as the painful losses God allowed us to suffer so that we can carry those crosses in the New Year with a renewed spirit of faith”.
“While it is good to do this reflection at a personal level, it is just as crucial to do that at a national level,” he said.
National gains
Chakwera highlighted that progress made in 2024 included construction of roads around the country; a train arriving in Lilongwe from outside Malawi for the first time in two decades and arriving in the Lower Shire from outside Malawi for the first time in four decades.
Each constituency was provided with K200 million for development projects “that are now visible in every constituency”, including new district council offices, new bridges, new stadia, new markets and new police stations.
He also mentioned of mobilisastion over K300 billion in off-budget support to procure emergency food for 5.7 million people who lost their crops to drought conditions brought on by El-Nino weather and reached millions of vulnerable Malawians with various forms of support.
This included social cash transfers, AIP fertilizers, collateral-free loans from NEEF and bags of maize from Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA).
“We saw the restoration of donor confidence in our finance management reforms and the return of budgetary support to Malawi for the first time in a decade,” he continued.
“We saw the Consumer Price Index drop for the first time in months to signal the stabilisation of inflation; we brought happiness to thousands of families and communities of teachers, police officers, soldiers, and chiefs who received promotions for the first time in years.
“We raised wages for civil servants and built houses for our security agencies — two groups of people who work hard and deserve our support [and] we saw 7 million Malawians registering to vote; beating the numbers who registered in the last election, doing so peacefully and freely.
President Lazarus Chakwera registering for the 2025 elections
“And most importantly — despite many attempts by some to divide us and descend the country into chaos by committing or encouraging acts of political violence and tribal discrimination — we have maintained a spirit of unity as Malawians and lived in peace with each other.”
Cabinet reshuffle
He thus emphasised that “these are just a few of the national gains” that he is thankful for as he looks back at 2024 and looks forward to 2025 with a new sense of resolve to push for even more gains.
That start with the configuration of the Cabinet, in which Vice-President Michael Usi has been appointed as Minister of State for Public Service Delivery from his previous post as Minister of Natural Resources & Climate Change.
Owen Chomanika has since replaced Usi as Minister of Natural Resources & Climate Change while Ezekiel Peter Ching’oma replaces Ken Zikhale Ng’oma as Minister of Homeland Security.
Zikhale Ng’oma has been given portfolio of Minister of Mining while Jessie Kabwila is in as Minister of Higher Education.
Top portfolios that have been maintained include of Finance & Economic Affairs, held by Simplex Chithyola Banda, Energy (Ibrahim Matola), Agriculture (Sam Kawale), Justice (Titus Mvalo), Foreign Affairs (Nancy Tembo), Health (Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda) and Local Government, Unity & Culture (Richard Chimwendo Banda).
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Other Minister that have maintained their posts are Jean Sendeza (Gender); Vera Kamtukule (Tourism); Abida Sidik Mia (Water & Sanitation); Moses Kunkuyu (Information & Digitalisation); Uchizi Mkandawire (Youth & Sports); and Jacob Hara (Transport & Public Works).
Monica Chang’anamuno is for Defence; Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima (Basic & Secondary Education); Deus Gumba (Lands); Eng. Vitumbiko Mumba (Labour).
Deputy Ministers are Joyce Chitsulo (Local Government, Unity & Culture); Noah Chimpeni (Health); Peter Dimba (Transport & Public Works); Benedicto Kaluwa-AdweII Chambo (Agriculture); Patricia Nangozo-Kainga (Foreign Affairs); Halima Alima Daud (Gender); Liana Chapota Munthali (Water & Sanitation), who replaces Liana Kakhobwe Chapota.
