Law society elects new leadership

The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has elected two women lawyers to top leadership following elections held during an extraordinary annual general meeting (AGM) held in Blantyre on Thursday.

They are seasoned practitioners Tadala Peggy Chinkwezule who was elected vice president (unopposed) and Martha Etta Kaukonde who floored Mada Kausi by 53 votes to 21 to grab the position of honorary secretary.

The society conducted the extraordinary AGM to fill the vacancies of president and honorary secretary following resignations three weeks ago of Mwiza Nkhata and Michael Chipeta who held the positions respectively. They resigned barely four months after being voted to lead the society.

Both Chinkwezule and Kaukonde served as committee members after they were elected in February this year during the society’s two-day annual conference held in Mangochi.

The two women lawyers had to resign from their previous positions to contest for their current positions. They were replaced by Kausi and Robert Nthewa who joined Chipiliro Chitsonga to complete the committee members’ set while Burton Mhango maintained his position of treasurer.

The lawyers also entrusted former vice president Alfred Majamanda to head the society after he too went unopposed.

In an interview after his election, Majamanda pledged to instil public trust in the legal profession by ensuring that lawyers conduct themselves in a professional manner.

He said: “I would like to make sure that we carry out ourselves as professional people so that the public learns to trust us a little more than they do now in terms of how we are going to handle disciplinary matters.