Malawi's weekly defends its cabinet assessment
A number of cabinet ministers have already started complaining, as was the case when the newspaper became the second after South Africa's Mail and Guardian in Southern Africa to assess cabinet.
In the current assessment Information and Civic Education Minister Leckford Thotho at three points has scored the least while National Defence Minister Sidik Mia and Education Minister Dr. George Chaponda at eight points respectively have scored the highest.
President Mutharika and his deputy Joyce Banda have both scored seven points.
The previous assessment was accused by readers as being too apologetic in its approach as it carried an editorial commentary that begged those concerned to look positively at the cabinet assessments.
“We are usually flooded with angry queries from ministers, unfortunately from those that score lowly and we have been explaining the criteria to those that were taking the initiative to ask for explanation,” explains Sunday Times editor James Mphande.
Mphande described the assessment process as objective and rigorous which involves a month long consultation conducted by the whole Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL) team.
Mphande said the president, his vice and the ministers are servants of the people and they need to be assessed and appraised of their performances.
About Gregory Gondwe
Gregory Gondwe is a Malawian journalist who started writing in 1993. He is also a media consultant assisting several international journalists pursuing assignments in Malawi. He holds a Diploma and an Intermediate Certificate in Journalism among other media-related certificates. He can be contacted on moc.liamg@ewdnogyrogerg. Follow him on Twitter at @Kalipochi.
