Malawi state house Press Officer Fredrick Ndala is set to be redeployed to Ministry of information for unspecified reasons, only MaraviPost can reveal.
Sources at the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) reveal that President Mutharika is set to replace Ndala Jnr with Gedion Munthali, a senior journalist working for Nations Publications Limited in Blantyre.
Munthali is a close friend of the Minister of Information and Civic Education, Kondwani Nankhumwa and a relation of the Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, Chimwemwe Banda. In September, he was the only journalist from the private media to accompany President Mutharika to New York where he attended the UN General Assembly.
Until his appointment in June, 2014, Ndala Jnr was an Editor for Malawi News, a weekly tabloid published by Blantyre Newspapers Limited. His contract was supposed to run until 2019. Ndala was employed on Grade P3. He was entitled to a monthly salary of close to K500, 000, a 4 X 4 vehicle, free housing, free water and electricity, cell phone use and a monthly fuel allocation of 500 litres.
However, a source close to the Director of State Residences (Peter Mukhito) revealed that the President’s decision emanates from an embarrassing episode where Ndala had given journalists K50,000s when President Mutharika had directed that each journalist be given K200,000. This was at Sanjika Palace a couple of weeks ago where President Mutharika had organized an interface with members of the media.
“They had agreed that K200, 000 could be a reasonable amount looking at the caliber of journalists and media managers invited to the event. President Mutharika was extremely furious and embarrassed when he learnt from the media that only K50, 000 was given to each journalist, at least those from Blantyre,” explained the source.
President Mutharika simply wanted to fire Ndala Jnr immediately after the revelation but he was advised against it to avoid a public condemnation hence the redeployment.
