The day Joyce Banda appointed Hawa Ndilowe and Willie Samute (both from the Yao belt like her) as Deputy Chief Secretaries, Bright Msaka should have known that his time was up by the very script that Bakili Muluzi used to bring him to OPC.
These changes were going to happen even if Msaka had not been implicated by the inquiry because Joyce Banda seems to hate everyone who appears to have been serving her predecessor loyally.
When Muluzi knew his time was up, he started making decisions that would help him continue to control the government machinery from his retirement. One of such decisions was the appointment of Bright Msaka.
He returned from London where he was Malawi High Commissioner to Great Britain to join Michael Kamphambe Nkhoma as deputy secretaries to the president and cabinet under Alfred Upindi (a Yao like Muluzi).
Upindi was retiring and Muluzi never trusted Kamphambe Nkhoma on suspicion he was an opposition MCP loyalist, so he decided to bring Msaka ( a fellow yao) to take over OPC after Upindi finally bowed out.
Interestingly Bingu wa Mutharika (a Lomwe) comfortably maintained Msaka ( a Yao) for his two terms despite his proximity to his nemesis Muluzi.
Talk about nepotism, Joyce Banda has it all.
With the appointment made today, OPC has four yao big wigs: Joyce Banda herself, Ndilowe, Samute and Joseph Aironi, the New Director of Intelligence.
