MEC chair Mbendera’s death shocks colleagues
The Judiciary and the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) were on Thursday shocked by the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Maxon Mbendera, the commission’s chairperson.
Mbendera died suddenly on Thursday after taking ill while attending a meeting at the National Audit Office (NAO) in Lilongwe.
Both Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula and MEC director of communication Sangwani Mwafulirwa confirmed Mbendera’s death.
However, Mvula was non-committal on the cause of death, saying they were awaiting Mbendera’s family to provide details.
In an interview yesterday, Mvula said Mbendera, who was a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, will be greatly missed as he was “a very professional, committed and hardworking judge who was always there for Malawians to access justice”.
In a written communication shared on social media platform, WhatsApp, Mwafulirwa said Mbendera was attending a meeting at NAO in Lilongwe around 11am when he was rushed to City Centre Clinic where he was pronounced dead shortly after being admitted to the facility.
He said Mbendera was in good health, hence news of his death had come as a shock.
Mvula had also indicated that Mbendera was on duty in Blantyre on Wednesday and had travelled to Lilongwe for yesterday’s meeting.
Born on November 4 1958, Mbendera, who was among distinguished lawyers conferred the honour of Senior Counsel (SC), was appointed judge of the High Court of Malawi by former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika on September 12 2009 and on December 14 2012 former president Joyce Banda promoted him to the Supreme Court.
Mbendera also served as Attorney General and became MEC chairperson in October 2012. He replaced now retired chief justice Anastasia Msosa as MEC chairperson.
Prior to his appointment as judge, Mbendera had an illustrious career in private practice through the legal firm, Mbendera & Nkhono Associates where he was a partner.
As MEC chair, the usually calm and collected Mbendera will be remembered for publicly and uncharacteristically weeping on May 30 2014 as he announced final results of the May 201 2014 Tripartite Elections at the National Tally Centre in Blantyre.
His gesture shocked many Malawians, especially coming against a background of reports of disagreements among MEC commissioners on results.
However, in his usual ice cold calmness, Mbendera told our sister newspaper Nation on Sunday later on June 1 2014 that he had an emotional attack after realising that he was about to make a declaration that would spark wild celebrations for the winning party when one family elsewhere was mourning.
He was referring to the man who died in Mangochi during electoral protests earlier that day.
Mbendera also bemoaned the fact that MEC was not allowed to work independently as there was a lot of political interference in the May 2014 elections.
He emphasised the need for quick political and legal reforms pertaining to elections.
But his reign on as MEC chair was not without blemish. Audits into the commission indicated that under his watch, millions of kwacha of electoral funds may have been mismanaged.
His term of office at MEC was due to expire this October.
Funeral arrangements were also yet to be worked out as we went to press.
