‘All the best, Minister’
Labour and social security ministry says goodbye to Samuda
AHEAD OF any announcement from Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security said goodbye to portfolio Minister Karl Samuda yesterday.
“All the best, Minister,” the ministry said in a post on its Instagram page, which was accompanied by two photos of Samuda at a table with ministry officials, including Permanent Secretary Colette Roberts Risden.
The post was later removed. The 81-year-old, who is seeking to become the longest-serving member of parliament (MP) in independent Jamaica, was appointed labour and social security minister in September 2020 following his party’s re-election to office that month. He was first elected MP of St Andrew North Central in October 1980 and has remained in Gordon House since.
Clarendon Central MP, Mike Henry, has also been serving since 1980.
The record of 43 unbroken years is held by the late former Prime Minister Edward Seaga.
Samuda is among those tipped for months to be replaced in the Holness Cabinet. Several announcements are expected soon, with insiders saying they could come as early as this weekend.
“The prime minister indicated that the changes are part of a broader reorganisation, refresh and revitalisation of the Government,” said the Office of the Prime Minister in a statement on Thursday, on the appointment Dr Dana Morris Dixon and Abka Fitz-Henley to the Senate.
They replaced Natalie Campbell-Rodriques and Leslie Campbell, who resigned.
Samuda is reportedly keen on not having his departure from the Cabinet ranks seen as a ‘removal’, but the fulfilment of an agreement he struck with the head of government that he would step down from his ministerial role at midterm.
Changes are also reportedly being considered at the Kamina Johnson Smith-led Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Audley Shaw’s transport and mining ministry and the education ministry run by Fayval Williams.
The changes at the Cabinet and executive levels of government come amid unflattering poll results and as Holness marks the midterm with a turn towards the local government elections due by February next year and general election the following year.