Malawi Chief Justice swears Local Government Commissioners

The Local Government Service Commission in Malawi (LASCOM) has new commissioners. President Joyce Banda appointed the six commissioners to rejuvenate the LASCOM which had none since 2008.

The Commissioners, chaired by Sophie Kalimba, have since been sworn in by the country’s Chief Justice Kalimba, who once served in the local government service as chief executive officer for Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre should be proud to have a committee that has a 50-50 gender representation. The other commissioners are Patrick Ngauma, Wilfred Chinthochi, Andrina Mchiera, Mac Donald Maliro and Agnes Nkusa-Nkhoma.

The coming in of the new commissioners is good for the Southern Africa country as it will sort out the gaps were being experienced in higher level decision making like regulating appointments, terms and conditions of service and making rules prescribing measures for the discipline of staff in the local authorities.

Malawi has 28 districts but in districts where they have the status of city or town council, other than the district’s council, there is also a city or town council, respectively, headed by a Chief Executive. District councils are controlled by District Commissioners. LASCOM was established in 1981 through the local government act to unify local government services of all local authorities in Malawi.