{"id":8729,"date":"2012-04-12T08:52:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=8729"},"modified":"2012-04-12T08:52:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T08:52:16","slug":"malawis-new-president-fires-predecessors-appointees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/12\/malawis-new-president-fires-predecessors-appointees\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi’s new president fires predecessor’s appointees"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOYCE BANDA, southern Africa\u2019s first female president, has shown herself to be a woman of action by purging the Malawian government of members loyal to her predecessor on her first official day in office.<\/p>\n

Malawi\u2019s former vice-president, who was thrust into the spotlight last week when president Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart attack, said on Tuesday she had also entered into talks with\"\"<\/a> the United Kingdom and the United States to resume the $1 billion (\u20ac761 million) in donor aid packages they suspended recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have started speaking to donor partners both inside and outside the country on the economic challenges the country is facing, and I pressed them to resume relations with the country,\u201d Ms Banda told a press conference. She added: \u201cI assured Right Honourable Henry Bellingham [Britain\u2019s parliamentary under secretary of state at the foreign and commonwealth office] that I am personally committed to ensuring that the government of Malawi addresses issues that negatively affected our relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a bid to consolidate her power Ms Banda sacked information minister Patricia Kaliati, who reportedly tried to stop her becoming president despite Malawi\u2019s constitution stating that as vice-president she was next in line to take over.<\/p>\n

Police chief Peter Mukhito, the man accused by civil society groups of being responsible for the deadly attack by police on anti-government protesters last July, was also fired. In addition, Ms Banda has promised more changes over the coming days, with many believing more Mutharika loyalists face the chop.<\/p>\n

Ordinary Malawians have rallied around Ms Banda since she became Malawi\u2019s president on Saturday, in the hope she can arrest the country\u2019s recent economic decline, the blame for which has been placed squarely at the feet of Mr Mutharika and his supporters.<\/p>\n

Mr Mutharika, who was 78 when he died, was accused by the US and UK of having authoritarian tendencies, a suggestion that prompted him to expel the British high commissioner to Malawi, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, last year.<\/p>\n

In response the UK, Malawi\u2019s largest donor, expelled the Malawian envoy to London and cut direct aid. The US withheld funding worth $350 million (\u20ac267 million) after police killed 20 people in a crackdown on anti-government protests last July over food, fuel and foreign exchange shortages. Up to 40 per cent of the country\u2019s annual budget comes from overseas donor aid, so the decision by the UK and US to withdraw support hit hard.<\/p>\n

The daughter of a former policeman, Ms Banda first gained recognition in Malawi as a women\u2019s rights activists.<\/p>\n

In 2010, she fell out with Mr Mutharika and was expelled from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party after an argument about the succession, but she kept her post as vice-president. The DPP had chosen foreign minister Peter wa Mutharika, the president\u2019s brother, as its candidate for the 2014 presidential election despite Ms Banda\u2019s senior position.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Mutharika\u2019s remains will be returned to Malawi on Saturday from South Africa, where they were taken to be embalmed after he died from heart failure, a foreign ministry official said yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOYCE BANDA, southern Africa\u2019s first female president, has shown herself to be a woman of action by purging the Malawian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[699,2034,466,1472,258],"class_list":["post-8729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-malawi-news","tag-africa","tag-femae-resident","tag-joyce-banda","tag-mukhitho","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}