{"id":76550,"date":"2026-02-21T13:21:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:23:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:23:59","slug":"former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment","title":{"rendered":"Former Health Minister Muchima Accepts Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>FORMER Minister of Health Elijah Muchima says he sees no reason to question his dismissal, just as he did not question his appointment, stating that he remains loyal to the Head of State.<\/p>\n<p>Muchima has also said that if he did anything wrong, he is ready to be punished by God, adding that he respects and understands President Hakainde Hichilema\u2019s decision to fire him.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, President Hichilema relieved Muchima and Minister of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Elias Mubanga of their duties with immediate effect.<\/p>\n<p>The President thanked the two for their service and wished them well, stating that their replacements would be announced in due course.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on Diamond TV last night, Muchima reflected on the sudden end to his Cabinet career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst and foremost, what did I question when he appointed me? Out of the many members of Parliament, 115, I become one of the 25 ministers. It\u2019s a prerogative. I would not question. I did not question my appointment, why should I question my disappointment? He\u2019s my leader. He\u2019s my supervisor. He knows why. There should be no explanation,\u201d said Muchima.<\/p>\n<p>Muchima said he remained grateful for the opportunity to serve as a minister under President Hichilema\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>He also shared how he learnt of his dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, we had a meeting in the morning. Cabinet meeting. As I was walking out in the evenings, I saw my letter of being fired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether he knew the reasons behind his dismissal, Muchima compared the situation to parental discipline, saying sometimes, parents may not tell their children what they could have done wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt times, my mother can be unhappy with me. And for certain reasons, she cannot tell me,\u201d he explained. \u201cLet\u2019s be grateful. Don\u2019t just look at the negative side. Look at the positive side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Head of State is my leader and supervisor who knows why I was relieved of my duties. There may be something that the appointing authority may not be happy with me but I swear to God that I am clean,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Muchima also dismissed claims that his dismissal was linked to his alleged stance against Bill 7, insisting that he fully supported every directive issued by the appointing authority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not do any of the things people are accusing me of doing and God should punish me if I did. Why do people get excited and create stories? I am the champion for bill 7 and if I had an issue I would have raised it with the President. Let us be sober in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former minister further said he was pleased with the President\u2019s speech in Parliament during his address on the progress made in the application of national values and principles yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>He said the speech touched on key aspects of governance and that citizens needed to understand how government has been working tirelessly to put the country back on track.<\/p>\n<p>By Daniel Banda and Sanfrossa Mberi<\/p>\n<p>Kalemba, February 21, 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Malawi<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. FORMER Minister of Health Elijah Muchima says he sees no reason to question his dismissal, just as he did not question his appointment, stating that he remains loyal to the Head of State. Muchima has also said that if he did anything wrong, he is ready to be punished by God, adding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":76549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,410],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-76550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Health Minister Muchima Accepts Punishment - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FORMER Minister of Health Elijah Muchima says he sees no reason to question his dismissal, just as he did not question h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Health Minister Muchima Accepts Punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FORMER Minister of Health Elijah Muchima says he sees no reason to question his dismissal, just as he did not question h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-21T13:21:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-21T13:23:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2026\/02\/sm_1771680208.002102.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Former Health Minister Muchima Accepts Punishment\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-21T13:21:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-21T13:23:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\"},\"wordCount\":520,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2026\/02\/sm_1771680208.002102.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/former-health-minister-muchima-accepts-punishment\",\"name\":\"Former Health Minister Muchima Accepts Punishment - 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