The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) have maintained that President Peter Mutharika should appoint a new minister of agriculture, irrigation and water Development to replace George Chaponda who was fired a few weeks ago.
Chairperson of the Committee, Joseph Chidanti Malunga, and National Secretary of the CCJP Martin Chiphwanya made the sentiments following yesterday’s announcement by the Office of the President and Cabinet of the appointment of Aggrey Masi as Deputy Minister of Agriculture with immediate effect.
Malunga said the relevance of the ministry requires that it has a fulltime minister saying Mutharika cannot continue serving as the line minister.
“Much as having the Deputy Minister of Agriculture is commendable, there is need to have a full minister. Our position still stands that the full time minister should not be the President. He should appoint someone to be assisted by the new deputy.
“The President has many roles while the ministry which is at the centre of the country’s economy needs someone who will be active to be on call on daily basis. Already, the president is serving as minister of defence, he also has other roles. Being in charge of the country is good enough for him,” Malunga said.
On his part, Chiphwanya said having the deputy minister reporting directly to the President will lead to the delay of some important decisions as he will have no full autonomy to make own decisions.
“The vacancy that was in the ministry was that of a full minister and not a deputy. What it means is that the deputy minister will have a delegated discretion and that will have implications in terms of the speed at which decisions will be made because he will be consulting the President time and again. That will delay decision making process in some areas,” Chiphwanya said.
Masi’s appointment comes barely a day after CCJP and the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture called on Mutharika to appoint a minister to replace Chaponda.
Before his appointment, Masi deputised Grace Chiumia in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Leave a Reply