Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera on Wednesday dismissed the Minister of Agriculture, Lobin Lowe, and his ‘number two’, Madalitso Kambauwa, for what he considered «gross negligence and incompetence».
This was announced by the head of state in a televised message after the minister in question was accused of scuttling a program to provide fertilizer to farmers in rural areas of the country.
The president, who has indicated that there will be more changes within the government, explained that the minister decided to contract the purchase of fertilizers to a British company that charged the country 750 million kwacha (about 730,000 euros) just to terminate the contract, an issue that he has called «unacceptable», while stating that he is doing «everything possible to recover the money,» as reported by the news portal ‘Nyasa Times’.
In this sense, he has ruled out that the sum of money amounted to 30,000 million kwacha (about 29 million euros), as indicated by the first reports on the matter.
However, Lowe has not made any statement. His position will be taken over by Sam Kuwale, who previously worked as Minister of Lands and who, according to Chakwera, has the tools to get the remaining fertilizers to the affected farmers.
