Chakwera masks his daughter to Brussels

President Lazarus Chakwera has been described as a hypocrite after appointing his daughter Violet Chakwera Mwasinga to Brussels on a diplomatic role.

Mwasinga has been sent to Brussels where she will serve as a third secretary.

She is among a group of 40 people who have been participating in an orientation in Lilongwe ahead of deployment to their respective duty stations.

Chakwera also appointed his son-inlaw Sean Kampondeni as Executive Assistant while Vice President Saulos Chilima’s mother-inlaw was also sent to foreign mission.

Ironically, Chakwera when he was in opposition used to condemn the then Peter Mutharika for giving relatives diplomatic jobs.

“If there is a foreign trip for the President, the DPP will flood his entourage with dozens of cash-hungry handclappers, because it is a chance for someone to steal from Malawians. If there is a vacancy at a foreign embassy that requires a professional and career diplomat, the DPP will send someone unqualified whose only credential is being related to someone at State House by tribe or blood, because it is a chance for someone to steal from Malawians,” Chakwera said on 9 May in 2018.

Malawians have since described Chakwera as a hypocrite, saying he is doing the same things e was against.

“This is what this bitter, desperate, envious and power-hungry man heavily criticized the previous government against wen e was in opposition. It means he wasn’t against anything is predecessor was doing. He was just jealous. He was noted to be the one doing these things,” said one person on social media.

Social Commentator Onjezani Kenani said Chakwera has demonstrated that he only condemned nepotism when in opposition because his own relatives were not being appointed.

Said Kenani: “Once they were voted into power, we are now told that it’s not nepotism because the relatives they are appointing have qualifications. Did those people Peter Mutharika appoint not have the so-called qualifications? Besides, the last time I checked, Peter Mutharika never appointed any son or daughter of his to any taxpayer-funded position. His daughters, by the way, are lawyers, with their own legal firms. He also never appointed any in-law to any taxpayer-funded position. But hearing them say it, one would have thought he was the worst nepotist that ever walked the earth. Tell me: why should your nepotism be considered better than Mutharika’s nepotism?”