Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed former government official hostess Cecilia Tamanda Kadzamira’s appeal against a High Court ruling that declared the family of Elias Zakeyu Kaphwiti Banda rightful owners of Tichitenji Estate in Mchinji.
A panel of seven judges which heard Kadzamira’s appeal in Lilongwe yesterday unanimously upheld the High Court judgement, bringing to an end her legal challenge to the Kaphwiti Banda family’s ownership of the 583.771-acre estate.
The court also ordered Kadzamira to pay the respondents’ costs.
In its ruling, the panel found that the High Court had properly assessed the competing claims to the property and correctly established that the lease granted to Kaphwiti Banda in 1967 had legal priority over Kadzamira’s subsequent claim.
The judges observed that the earlier registered lease in favour of the late Kaphwiti Banda had never been lawfully cancelled, surrendered or forfeited, while Kadzamira had failed to establish an enforceable right to possession of the property.
In dismissing the appeal, the court said Kadzamira had failed to demonstrate any material error in the High Court’s determination.
Ruled the judges: “Having carefully considered the record of appeal, the judgement of the court below, the submissions of learned counsel and the applicable law, we have reached the conclusion that the appeal is devoid of merit.
“The findings of the court below that the earlier registered lease in favour of the late Elias Zakeyu Kaphwiti Banda had priority and that the appellant failed to establish an enforceable right to possession are supported by the evidence.”
The judges further stated that Kadzamira had not demonstrated any error in the determination of the issues raised in the proceedings.
The ruling was met with jubilation from members of the Kaphwiti Banda family, who celebrated outside the court.
In an interview, lawyer representing the family Wapona Kita welcomed the outcome, saying the grounds Kadzamira advanced in challenging the High Court judgement were not supported by the evidence or the law.
He said the appeal raised several legal issues, including allegations that the High Court judge failed to properly consider the evidence and applicable law.
“We were able to show that all that was not true. The High Court properly considered the law and everything that the judge decided on was in evidence and was properly pleaded by the parties,” said Kita.
Kadzamira’s lawyer Khumbo Soko said he respected the court’s decision.
A representative of the Kaphwiti Banda family, Tapiwa Kaphwiti Banda, described the ruling as a dream come true and a moment of closure for a family that had endured years of litigation.
She urged Kadzamira to accept the court’s decision and move on.
Traditional Authority Kawere of Mchinji also welcomed the ruling, saying the dispute had adversely affected communities in his area, particularly their access to agricultural land.
He said the loss of access to land had worsened poverty because many residents had limited opportunities to cultivate crops.
The dispute, which has been before the courts since 2020, centres on the ownership of 583.771-acre Tichitenji Estate in Traditional Authority Kawere’s area in Mchinji.
Kadzamira, a close confidante of Malawi’s founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, maintained that the former president gave her the estate as a gift after taking it over when Kaphwiti Banda fled into exile following a fallout with the one-party regime.
On December 30 2025, High Court Judge Simeon Mdeza ruled in the family’s favour, declaring Kadzamira’s title deed defective and invalid and affirming the Kaphwiti Banda estate’s superior claim to the property.
Kadzamira subsequently appealed against the decision, resulting in yesterday’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruling.
