{"id":9316,"date":"2012-04-21T09:07:30","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T09:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=9316"},"modified":"2012-04-21T09:07:30","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T09:07:30","slug":"malawi-minister-pays-dearly-for-denying-mutharika-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/21\/malawi-minister-pays-dearly-for-denying-mutharika-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi Minister Pays Dearly For Denying Mutharika Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malawi\u2019s new President Joyce Banda has sacked Patricia Kaliati, the Information minister who publicly insisted that Bingu wa Mutharika was alive more than one day after his death Thursday.<\/p>\n

The sacking was part of the shake-up of top officials unveiled by President Banda Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ms Banda also purged Mutharika loyalists in charge of government finances and media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we are in mourning, certain decisions cannot wait,\u201d President Banda told a news conference in the capital Lilongwe, three days after taking office.
\nShe also announced an investigation into the mysterious murder of student activist Robert Chasowa.<\/p>\n

Mr Mutharika\u2019s critics have accused police of staging a hit against Mr Chasowa, implicating former police chief Peter Mukhito, who was sacked on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a mother, I feel for my fellow mother who doesn\u2019t know what killed her son. I understand how painful it is, and I will make sure we find out who killed our son Chasowa,\u201d President Banda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people to go about murdering people fearlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top among Banda\u2019s new appointments was Mary Nkosi as Reserve Bank Governor, making her the first woman to hold the job.<\/p>\n

A long-time deputy governor, she replaces Mr Perks Ligoya, a close ally of Mutharika who pursued a rigid exchange rate policy that the International Monetary Fund has blamed for much of Malawi\u2019s economic woes.<\/p>\n

Former diplomat<\/p>\n

She named a new secretary to the Treasury, appointing career bureaucrat Radson Mwadiwa, who also becomes chairman of the state-owned Malawi Savings Bank.
\n

\"\"<\/a>

Patricia Kaliati - Among the 'sacked' ministers<\/p><\/div>
\nThe new Information minister is Mr Moses Kunkuyu, a parliamentarian who broke away from Mutharika\u2019s Democratic Progressive Party to press for reforms.<\/p>\n

The President Banda also sacked the head of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Bright Malopa, another Mutharika ally who used state media to campaign against Banda after her expulsion from the DPP.<\/p>\n

The new director general is Mr Benson Tembo, a veteran broadcaster and former diplomat whose last posting was as ambassador to Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has welcomed Ms Banda as the second woman leader in Africa.<\/p>\n

The continent\u2019s first woman president said her \u2018loneliness\u2019 was over with the coming of Ms Banda, who she offered some advice as she occupies the top seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means I no longer will be lonely. The potential for more women leadership at the highest level is now being made even stronger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the BBC on Monday, President Sirleaf narrated how being the only woman leader among over 50 of her colleagues had been discomforting for her.<\/p>\n

But she also had words of caution in terms of her relationship with her government and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe will have some difficulties; there will be some male leaders that will not accept her fully,\u201d said President Sirleaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think once she sets that example, it will not be difficult for them to accept and to work with her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malawi\u2019s new President Joyce Banda has sacked Patricia Kaliati, the Information minister who publicly insisted that Bingu wa Mutharika was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[300,465,466,2145,1034,258,2146,953,2147],"class_list":["post-9316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-bingu-wa-mutharika","tag-dpp","tag-joyce-banda","tag-moses-kunkuyu","tag-mutharika","tag-malawi","tag-patricia-kaliati","tag-pp","tag-presiednt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316","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=9316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}