President Michal Sata’s decision to change the entire Cabinet leadership was been inspired by the continued leak of State House information to online media, according to sources.
President Sata recently fired Secretary to Cabinet Evans Chibiliti and later dismissed his deputy Teddy Mulonga before dropping Cabinet Permanent Secretary Ann Sinyangwe to Kabwe as Central Province Permanent Secretary.
Explaining the changes, State House sources said the clean up was necessitated by his lack of trust for the senior most civil servants at Cabinet.
“There are a number of reasons from what I know. Firstly, it seems the President lost trust in Cabinet leadership. He felt some people were working independently. You know that is a very sensitive office, if the President begins to see thing happen that he does not know about he gets worried,”
The sources said before his dismissal Chibiliti offered to step down but President Sata refused to accept his resignation.
“He was not happy with the fact that the H.E (His Excellency the President) always rebuked him in front of the media on certain things during State House functions. If you remember once he told Chibiliti that State House surroundings were dirty and he wondered what his job was. After that he said it in front of the media that he does not trust his Cabinet. When the police chaplain offered a prayer that day at State House, he told him ‘don’t pray for this Cabinet I don’t trust them’. After that event, Chibiliti offered to resign. He told H.E to retire him if he was not happy with his performance, but he refused.
The source said President Sata also believed that the questionable loyalty by the Cabinet leadership was responsible for the leak of information to online media.
“One time H.E told Cabinet members that they were the ones leaking information to Watchdog. He said they were with the Brazil trip were he had to travel economy on such a long journey. But that is one of the reasons. In fjust orking behind his back with their own agendas.”
Asked if the Cabinet ‘clean up had anything to do with the travel arrangements for the President, the source said, “that could be one of the reasons. In fact the President is likely to make big changes to the Cabinet at ministerial level soon,” said the source.