The Malawi social media forums are awash with disappointments from the citizens across the country and those abroad for the appointments of the embassies personnel which include the president’s daughter Violet Chakwera and three top members of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) who are among 40 other newly appointed diplomats.
People are not happy that nepotism is being continued by President Chakwera while he had vehemently opposed it during the DPP regime while he was on the opposition benches. In total contrast to this, he has now appointed own daughter to be the secretary at the embassy in Brussels, Belgium. Rubbing more salt on the wounds of malawians as the new president had previously appointed his son inlaw and other family friends at the State House positions.
On the flip side of the coin, the new government continues to appoint people from various organisations that had voiced alot against the DPP government as a token of appriciation. “The new government is systematically silencing all the barking dogs by offering them large chunks of bones”, said Mphatso Gwaza when spoken to Low Profile Malawi. “Look at what what happenned to our noisy private media houses? They have all been given positions and businesses by the government and are now on mute”, he further said.
The vocal HRDC group is of late completely silent and will no longer be relevant to any fight against human rights as their integrity has been critically compromised and people think the organisation was only fighting for their own personal interests and not malawian citizens at large. It started with their former chairman, Timothy Mtambo who was given a ministerial post last year. The current three HRDC appointed for various foregn missions are Luke Tembo, Billy Mayaya and MacDonald Sembereka.
In an interview with Sembereka, he insisted that their appointment does not mean that activism has ended saying they are now part of systems meant to further other human rights fighting.
Sembereka is slotted for a role at the United Nations in New York, USA.
Eisenhower Mkaka, Foreign Affairs Minister advised the diplomats to represent Malawi and work hard when he spoke at the Orientation event under the theme “Development Diplomacy: a Catalyst for Sustainable Development”.
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