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Africa News afrol News
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Africa News afrol News
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Misanet.com / The Nation / afrol.com, 2 November - President Bakili Muluzi yesterday fired his entire cabinet, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) announced in a brief statement on national radio and TV tonight. The announcement came barely a day after the President revealed to the press on his arrival in Blantyre from a Comesa heads of state meet in Lusaka, Zambia that he had received a report from the Anti-Corruption Bureau on the K125 million Ministry of Education fraud scandal. Muluzi told a rally at Njamba Freedom Park in Blantyre on October 14 that he would not hesitate to dismiss any cabinet minister or civil servant found to have been involved in the massive fraud. "I am determined to fight corruption in this country; that is why I formed the Anti-Corruption Bureau," said Muluzi. However, Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Alfred Upindi yesterday brushed aside suggestions that the dissolution of the cabinet had anything to do with the Anti-Corruption Bureau report, saying the President dissolves and appoints his cabinet at his discretion and is not obliged to explain why he does so. "The Constitution does not require the President to say why he has dissolved his cabinet and that's how it is," said Upindi. He said he neither knew why the President had dissolved the cabinet nor when he would hire another one. This is the second time Muluzi has dissolved his cabinet after the June 15, 1999 general elections. He first dissolved the cabinet on February 27 and hired another one on March 1 this year and made a minor reshuffle later in August to include a few new faces. The president has been under heavy criticism from donor countries and agencies, opposition parties, religious leaders and civil rights groups over his inaction in the face of reports of fraud and corruption in his government, the BBC reports. Thus, the move comes as little surprise to Malawians, and is actually welcomed by the opposition. Source: Based on article in The Nation (Malawi)
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