Africa-Press – Malawi. Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) Executive Director Prince Phwetekere has once again stood his ground, openly defying a government secondment he insists is illegal, irrational, and a gross misinterpretation of the law.
His latest communication lays bare the chaos and confusion gripping the secondment saga—painting a picture of a government that is determined to bend rules, ignore statutory mandates, and bulldoze institutions into political obedience.
Phwetekere and Capital Hill have been at war ever since government ordered his redeployment to Domasi Teachers College of Education in Zomba. What should have been an administrative decision has now exploded into a full-scale legal and governance confrontation.
In a strongly worded letter dated November 24, 2025, addressed to Chief Secretary to Government Justin Saidi, Phwetekere accuses government of misapplying the very laws they are supposed to uphold. He argues that the decision to uproot him from HESLGB is not only irregular, but outright unlawful.
“I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter, dated 12th November 2025, which was delivered to me on 19th November 2025. I have taken careful note of the contents thereof. I respectfully recall that the broad and general principles outlined in your letter have no application to my employment, which is governed by the Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Act, the terms of my contract of employment, as well as the staff terms and conditions made by the board,” he writes.
He goes further, dismantling government’s position point by point.
“These instruments do not envisage, nor do they provide for, the purported secondment referred to in your letter; and or any deployment whatsoever outside the board. Furthermore, it appears that even ‘civil servants must first consent’ to the secondment proposal,” the letter reads.
Phwetekere’s stance reveals a deeper dysfunction: the government is attempting to use broad “public service” principles to override a clear statutory framework, creating legal confusion and triggering institutional paralysis.
His rebuttal follows a letter dated November 12, 2025 from Chief Secretary Saidi, who insists that Phwetekere—by virtue of working for a statutory corporation—is a public servant who can be transferred at will.
“I wish to advise that as an employee of the Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board, where [you are] on a fixed term contract or on a contract for an unspecified period of time, you are a public officer by virtue of your employment with a statutory corporation,” Saidi wrote.
He further claimed that this gives government sweeping authority to redeploy him anywhere, adding:
“Therefore, as a public officer, your employment in the public [service] is not regulated by your employment contract with HESLGB or HESLGB staff terms and conditions of service but it is also regulated by several other legal instruments including the Public Service Act (1994).”
This clash of interpretations has now exposed the extent of disorder within the administration—an administration that claims to champion reforms and professionalism, yet appears unable to follow its own laws.
Instead of clarity, the secondment saga has produced contradictions, bureaucratic fights, legal uncertainty, and growing evidence of a government stretching its powers beyond legally defined limits.
The end result is a governance crisis entirely of the government’s own making—one that now threatens the integrity of statutory bodies, the independence of boards, and the credibility of the public service itself.
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