Malawi's President Bingu Wa Mutharika on Wednesday announced his new cabinet almost a month after being re-elected.

The 41-member cabinet, excluding the President and the Deputy President, was appointed with effect from June 15, according to a statement issued by the Office of the President and Cabinet.

"The new cabinet will be sworn in on Thursday at the New State House in Lilongwe," said the statement.

Mutharika's cabinet, which has been widely described as surprising, has many new faces with some unexpected changes to his previous cabinet.

The most shocking move is former finance minister Goodall Gondwe, who has been shifted to Local Government and Rural Development.

Other surprises are the dropping from cabinet of former ministers of economic planning and development, industry and trade, housing and urban development, and youth and sports development, Ken Lipenga, Henry Mussa, Jaffalie Mussa and Vuwa Kaunda, respectively.

Undule Mwakasungura, an influential political commentator in the southern African country, told Xinhua that the new cabinet was "too bloated for a small economy like Malawi."

"A small country like Malawi does not require over 40 ministers and there is no need to have all those deputy ministers, "he said.

Mwakasungura is also critical of some appointments, citing Gondwe's move from finance to local government and rural development as a big misplacement.

"Gondwe performed extremely well as finance minister in the past five years and we expected him to continue serving in the same capacity and it is yet to be seen if he will still be effective in the new ministry," he said.

Mwakasungura, however, hailed the president for appointing many women into the cabinet, saying it was impressive that many women had been given space in the new government.

"Appointing many women into key decision making positions like the cabinet is moving in the right direction for Malawi's efforts of empowering women," he said.