Youth Activist Hails Chakwera for Roping in New Faces in Cabinet

Malawi: A youth activist has praised President Lazarus Chakwera for including new faces in the recently released 27-member cabinet, writes Gloria Masanza-Kanyang’wa.

Lucky Mbewe stated: "I wish to commend the president for bringing in very new faces who I feel will help drive key decisions towards national development, although we still see some political zealots in it who could have been assigned other tasks elsewhere."

However, Mbewe has expressed his disappointment over the lack of meaningful youth inclusion in the cabinet, as Malawi is considered a youthful nation where the majority of the population is comprised of youth.

He said: "The cabinet misses the youth lens considering that Malawi is a youthful nation where the majority are youth and the president could have considered meaningful youth involvement and inclusion."

Despite the lack of youth inclusion, Mbewe praised the president for appointing a gender-sensitive cabinet, with 40% of ministerial positions held by women.

The youth activist also reminded the President that the number of portfolios remains high, breaking his initial promise of a lean cabinet, and that maintaining a 27-member cabinet would still drain the national purse.

In the previous cabinet, President Chakwera had 30 ministers, but this number has been reduced to 27, a 13% decrease.