Malawi has demanded an apology from Times newspaper of UK which claimed that President Lazarus Chakwera has travelled to the United Kingdom to attend a virtual meeting because of poor internet connection in Malawi.
Times published its story on 26 July under the headline “Leader flies family to online summit”.
In a statement today, Minister of Information Gospel Kazako said the president is attending the Global Education Summit upon the invitation of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He added that the summit will benefit Malawi in leveraging international education grants and Chakwera’s physical presence as Malawi will be among distinguished player in the global education sector which offers education financing.
On the newspaper’s report that Chakwera has travelled with the First Lady, son in-law Sean Kampondeni and daughter Violet Chakwera, Kazako said the three have important roles to play at the summit.
“For instance, Mr Kampondeni is the President’s Executive Assistant and Director of Communications, Ms Violet Chakwera is the Personal Assistant to the First Lady while it is traditional worldwide that the First Lady accompanies the President on his travels,” said Kazako.
The minister then demanded Times to apologize and retract the story from all its platforms.
“We have dispatched correspondence relaying the same to the Times,” said Kazako.
