Mwaungulu now at Supreme Court

President Joyce Banda yesterday swore in outspoken High Court judge Dunstain Mwaungulu as a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal.

During the ceremony held at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre, the President also swore in Lloyd Muhara, former commissioner general of the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), as a High Court judge.

Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) Hawa Ndilowe said Mwaungulu and Muhara were appointed in their respective capacities in March and May this year.

Banda, delivering a word of advice, said the two appointments were coming at a time the Judiciary was facing daunting challenges such as shortage of resources and prosecution of suspects in the infamous Cashgate cases.

She said the primary duty of government is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, to protect and promote their dignity and to uphold the rule of law.

The President said: “An independent and effective Judiciary is, therefore, a cornerstone on which this duty is carried out. The Judiciary is the guardian of our Constitution, the protector of our dignity and the guarantor of our freedoms and responsibilities.”

Mwaungulu, a well-experienced, affable and, at times, widely seen as a controversial judge, once served at tribunal tasked to try genocide cases in Rwanda.

Muhara was in March this year rejected by Public Appointments and Declaration of Assets Committee of the recently dissolved Parliament after President Banda appointed him as an ambassador to Kenya.

Muhara was removed from MRA in 2012 after the institution he was heading was embroiled in the government borrowing scandal in which MRA borrowed money from commercial banks in the country allegedly to give a false picture of the government’s zero-deficit budget under the leadership of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika.