Chakwera sits on peace commission

 President Lazarus Chakwera is yet to appoint commissioners for the National Unity and Peace Commission eight months after a list of nominees was submitted to him for appointment.

The process to institute the commission begun last year after Parliament passed the Peace and Unity Bill in March, which the President assented to in May 2022.

According to the National Peace Policy of August 2017, the commission’s mandate is to defuse conflicts and political violence, like what the country has already started witnessing in the major political groupings—the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Tonse Alliance.

Sources that corroborated, and are privy to the matter, said the team submitted the names to Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture in February this year, which then forwarded them to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) for the President’s attention.

The establishment of the commission is one of the key provisions in the Peace and Unity Act, which also provides for the establishment of district unity and peace committees.

The panel entrusted to select the commissioners comprised leaders of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, Malawi Law Society and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Former minister of Civic Education and National Unity Timothy Mtambo who facilitated the establishment of the commission when he was serving as minister of Unity and Peace, said in an interview this week, that he was shocked that eight months after leaving office, the commissioners were yet to be appointed.

Chakwera dropped Mtambo in his first Cabinet reshuffle of 2023 alongside Gospel Kazako, Eisenhower Mkaka, Patricia Kaliati, Blessings Chinsinga, Mark Katsonga Phiri, Albert Mbawala, Agnes Nkusa Nkhoma, Enock Phale and John Bande.

Mtambo’s firing came after he had appointed September 5 2023 as the roll-out date for the implementation of the Peace and Unity Act (2022).

Initially, Mtambo announced that the commission would be up and running by December 2023.

Said Mtambo: “In fact, I am shocked by this delay because the time I was leaving office, the commission was about to be instituted. We had reached an advanced stage with the processes.

“Knowing the significance of the commission, I would really urge government to fast-track the appointment of the commissioners.

“Let me also confirm that very distinguished Malawians were selected and I was contented as minister responsible then that we would form a formidable commission like never before.”

Mtambo, who is founder and president of the Citizens for Transformation, explained that by early February all procedures had been finalised and what remained was submitting names to Chakwera for approval.

Master Dicks Mfune, a peace ambassador and peace and security studies expert claimed stakeholders had endeavoured to follow up with OPC on the progress of the appointments, but to no avail.

Mfune, a lecturer at Malawi School of Government, formerly Malawi Institute of Management as well as adjunct lecturer at the University of Malawi, has been a key factor in facilitating the formation of the commission.

“The names were submitted to the President. We have tried to contact OPC and State House but they are non-committal. They are not saying anything.

“This is an issue of indecisiveness we have been talking about. He [Chakwera] is the one delaying the process because the names were already submitted to him.”

But when contacted for reaction on the matter, presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda referred Weekend Nation to OPC as

 the office that handles presidential announcements and appointments.

For more than three weeks OPC chief communications officer Robert Kalindiza has been dodgy to respond to our inquiry on the matter, always promising to revert after his meetings.

However, Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda, in a brief statement, justified the delay saying the commission will be appointed a few weeks from now.

He said there are some administrative issues that needed to be sorted out to establish the commission since it is a new entity.

“We needed to look into those matters as well. I am glad we will be having it soon,” he said.

But transparency and accountability commentator Boniface Chibwana observed that by delaying or failing to put the commission in place, the President was violating the Peace and Unity Act.

Said Chibwana: “If they don’t need the commission, let them deal with the Act, but it was in the best interest of Parliament to have it so

 that we are always put in constant check in as far as moving and thriving together is concerned.”

Chibwana, who is national coordinator of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, said considering the prevailing fragmentation of the country’s operations, it is paramount to urgently set up the commission.

“On the surface, we might see Malawi as a united nation but looking at a number of issues bordering on cultural and political dimensions we are a country that needs constant checks and balances in as far as unity and peace is concerned,” he observed.

Last week, the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture organised a stakeholders’ conference to thrash out key issues on how the country can sustain peace and come up with key action points to be read out during this year’s International Day of Peace commemorations on October 12.

The ministry’s Principal Secretary Elizabeth Gomani Chindebvu told the delegates that her ministry fulfilled all the requirements needed for the appointment of the commissioners and was only waiting for the appointing authority.

“We followed the law and submitted [the names] to the Head of State and we are waiting from there,” she said.

The Peace and Unity Act (2022) is a culmination of extensive stakeholder consultations dating to 2013 that also birthed the National Peace Policy 2017.

According to Mtambo, the commission is crucial in facilitating the country’s unity and peace.

“Beyond that, we will be having the 2025 general elections which will be very contentious so, my plan when I was minister, was to ensure that by now the commission should have been full-throttle, with district unity and peace committees in place to facilitate peace,” he said.