Breaking: Necton Mhura no more

Death has been announced of the Malawian ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency, Mr Necton Mhura.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has confirmed Mhura’s passing.

However, there is no mention on the statement about what could have been cause of death.

Mhura presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon  as the Permanent Representative of Malawi to the United Nations on the 9th September in 2016.

Prior to his appointment, he had served from 2015 as the country’s Ambassador to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Bahamas and Puerto Rico.

Mhura had a background in law and had a Master of Laws  degree from the University of London (UK) and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Malawi.

He was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Chancellor College School of Law at the University of Malawi between 2004 and 2007. He also worked as Acting Dean from 1997 to 2000 and Head of the Law Department of Chancellor College from 1996 to 2002.

He also worked as a Lecturer in Law at the Malawi Polytechnic from 1995 to 1998, and at Chancellor College from 1994 to 2009.

He also served as Commissioner of Lands for the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2010.

He also served as Deputy Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet from 2010 to 2012. Following President Bingu wa Mutharika’s untimely death, Mhura was arrested along with 11 others who were suspected of plotting to stage a coup in April 2012. His charges were however dropped.

Between 2012 and 2015, he worked as a legal practitioner and has took on the defense of Treza Namathanga Senzani and Victor Sithole who were among those implicated in the infamous cashgate scandal in which officials in the Joyce Banda’s administration looted public funds. The two were eventually convicted.