By Sarah Munthali

Lilongwe, February 2, Mana: President, Dr Lazarus Chakwera has advised the newly appointed Cabinet Ministers to always abide by the oath they have taken, when discharging their duties.

He made the call at Kamuzu Palace on Thursday, when he presided over the swearing in ceremony of 10 new Cabinet Ministers.

“For those of you who have taken the oath of office today, know that this oath is sacred, solemn and serious, I feel duty bound to remind you that keeping the oath will sometimes be a painful and unpopular thing to do.

When that moment comes for you to choose between your affection or favour and the constitution, remember that this oath you have taken today requires you to choose the constitution every time,” Chakwera explained.

The President said if the Ministers do not choose the constitution out of desire, to be popular or out of fear, they would find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

“I want you to know that, that is a side on which I will not join you, despite the great favour and affection I hold for you today,” he warned.

Chakwera cited an example where an Ombudsman investigation report revealed that some COVID-19 funds had been abused by public officials, six months after he took oath of office

He referred to Anti-corruption Bureau’s investigations report, on some public officials who  had conducted themselves corruptly in their dealings with businessman Zuneth Sattar.

“When my office received the Ombudsman report it was clear to me that the Malawi public Service Regulations and other laws required that those public officers who were responsible for the usage of those funds needed to be interdicted until they were cleared of any violations of the law.

“This was painful for me to hear, because I knew that many of those public officers were men and women I had appointed and I regarded favourably and for whom  I had much affection, but because I took an oath I knew that no matter how painful it was for me , I was bound by my oath to uphold the constitution and doing right,” Chakwera added.

 In an interview, Minister of Information and Digitization Moses Kunkuyu said as a new Minister his main focus would be to give people information  on what they need.

“I will make sure that Malawians have access to information they need, we are living in an the age where there are many channels of communication and a lot is changing, but we need to give  the people  so that the nation is well informed, a well informed nation society will make  good decisions based on the information they get.

There is a lot of distortions of information these days because of the free media that is out there, we need to give information which is truthful,” he pointed out.

The Minister said he and fellow cabinet ministers would uphold the constitution as they serve the nation and as emphasized by the President.

The newly appointed Cabinet Ministers include, Minister of Homeland Security,  Kenneth Zikhale Ng’oma, Minister of Trade and Industry, Smplex Chithyola, Minister  of Information and Digitalization, Moses Kunkuyu, Minister of Defence, Minister of Mining, Monica Chang’anamuno, Minister of Education, Madalitso Wilima, Minister of Youth and Sports, Uchizi Mkandawire and Minister of Lands, Deus Gumba.

Newly appointed Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Owen Chomanika and Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Liana Kakhobwe Chapitawere were sworn in.

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