Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board executive director Prince Phwetekere has once again refused to be dragged into what many insiders say is government's increasingly controversial secondment spree targeting heads of parastatals.
For the second time, Phwetekere has flatly rejected an order from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to relocate to Domasi College of Education in Zomba -- a move critics argue smacks of administrative bullying and deliberate weakening of key public institutions.
The latest clash started on October 24 2025 when Chief Secretary Justin Saidi wrote informing him of a secondment. But Phwetekere fired back in a November 6 response: "I decline." He reminded Saidi that he ceased to be a civil servant in February 2023, after OPC approved his voluntary retirement, and is now on a five-year contractual appointment with the Loans Board, effective March 1 2023.
His position was unambiguous: retirement processed, contract valid, no legal basis for deployment.
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But OPC would not let go.
In a November 12 follow-up, Saidi insisted that because the Loans Board is a public body, Phwetekere remains a public officer subject to the Public Service Act, Malawi Public Service Regulations and a trail of administrative circulars that government issues at will.
But the executive director, in yet another response dated November 24, did not budge. He argued that his employment is governed strictly by the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board Act, his signed contract, and the board's internal conditions of service -- none of which empower OPC to uproot him or deploy him elsewhere.
"These instruments do not envisage, nor do they provide for, the purported secondment... and/or any deployment whatsoever outside the board," he wrote.
Phwetekere is not alone. His name appears on a growing list of heads of State enterprises -- including CEOs of the five water boards, Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) and Escom -- who have been abruptly reassigned to public universities.
What remains unanswered is the biggest question of all:
Why is government determined to strip parastatals of their leaders and force them into unrelated institutions at a time the economy desperately needs strong public-sector governance?
For now, Phwetekere has drawn a line in the sand. And the OPC, determined to push ahead, appears equally unwilling to blink -- setting the stage for yet another bruising confrontation in Malawi's already troubled public service.
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