A WORD ON PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS

With Walter Moyo

2018 has started on an interesting note. There's a lot to write about. From musicians seeking fame the wrong way, to endless wrangles in political parties carried forward from the previous years, to droughts of countrywide proportions. But we'll avoid the temptation of discussing those stories and focus on something else instead.

At the turn of the year, one story that made headlines was that of the appointment of Chief Lundu to the position of chairmanship for the Malawi Blood Transfusion Service (MBTS). The announcement of this was met with widespread criticism, perhaps most noticeably from outspoken opposition parliamentarian, Juliana Lunguzi. While some commented based on factors such as their emotional integrity (or lack thereof) and political party affiliations, I decided to dissect this issue as soberly as possible.
The key argument raised by those against the appointment centered around the incompetence of the appointed person regarding medical matters. A counterargument that was most noticeable in the social media frenzy that followed, pointed out that the previous holder of the same position- Justice Anastasia Msosa- was equally incompetent in medical understanding. Her legal background was not a warrant for her to assume any position, according to those views.
The purpose of this article is not to revive the debates that ensued around that period. It is to highlight how interesting public appointments can be.

Therefore, it is best that we stop here regarding the MBTS appointment debate, and continue with past examples of similar developments that threw the public into frenzies in the past. I was told that the board Chair for ESCOM was an economist and not electrical expert. Of course it is easy to defend this appointment for the reason that economics is a multipurpose qualification whose principles can be applied in every industry. After all, with our insufficient power generation capacity, economic decisions are needed to ensure equitable; and so are they needed to ensure proper management of the resources of the organization. But despite this appointment being more of a no-brainer, there are others that would rather see the position being taken by actual electrical engineers.

Now this takes us to another interesting discussion. There is a tendency for members of certain professions to desire that matters relating to those fields be left exclusively to those well-versed in those areas. I once witnessed a law student argue that parliamentary candidates ought to have a minimum of a certificate in law. This line of thinking is probably why the Malawi Law Society recently "ruled" that the National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE) is unqualified to regulate legal education. These are interesting points worth noting.

I hope you are noticing that the NCHE could become less relevant if the accreditation for all professional programs were to be left in the hands of the respective professional bodies (eg nurses council regulating nursing studies, engineering being regulated by the Malawi institute of engineers, the same for pharmacy, journalism, etc). Whether this would be good or not is beyond the scope of this article.

Anyway, back to our discussion on public appointments: there was a point in time where the State President had appointed a Dr. Grace Chiudzu, an obstetrician-gynecologist, as chairperson of the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi. Despite medicine and nursing being related fields, this appointment was also questionable somehow. It is understandable that a non-nurse cannot have firsthand experience of being a nurse, therefore he/ she cannot be the best candidate to serve nurses' interest. I also want to think that most medical doctors would not like other people from outside of their profession to chair their professional organization (irrespective of whether they are healthcare workers and however educated they may be).

The conclusion here is clear: most public appointments are made without thorough consultations and if we dig many statutory corporations, perhaps we might find questionable appointments in several of them. Have a good weekend.

Walter Moyo is an author, theorist, innovator and upcoming epidemiologist. He is also a social commentator who has voiced his views on politics, religion and career progression among other things.