Liquor, Israel sparked diplomatic storms
In a year when President Lazarus Chakwera was waiting to take over the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) chairmanship, picking up a diplomatic row, even one with less magnitude, was the last incident the nation would have longed for.
After all, the thoughts that the very last moments of 2020 arrived with weird suspicions that government aided founder of Enlightened Christian Gathering Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s escape from South Africa, were still fresh.
In all truth, South Africa is not a friend Lilongwe can afford to lose. According to the most recent data, there are around 87 000 Malawians in the Rainbow Nation, with most working in shops, factories and as domestic workers and gardeners.
Added to that, Malawi’s key trade partner is South Africa where 40 percent of its imports come from, World Trade Organisation data shows.
But the unexpected, which set the two nations on the rails of diplomatic collision, happened in 2021. On June 11, the South African government expelled five diplomats at the Malawi High Commission in Pretoria, including then acting High Commissioner Gloria Bamusi.
Their expulsions were in connection with a syndicate in which some diplomats were involved in smuggling of duty-free alcohol, bought under diplomatic privilege, thereby cheating the South African Revenue Services (Sars) an estimated R100 million (about K6.5 billion) a month, according to South African online news publication, News24.
Ghana, Rwanda and Burundi were also previously named in the Sars-led investigation which exposed their abuse of diplomat privilege to buy duty free alcohol for consumption and not for business.
It did not take long for Chakwera to apologise to his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, calling the conduct of the diplomats as despicable behaviour.
“I assured him [Ramaphosa] that the conduct of these individuals does not represent the values of my administration and Malawian people nor does it reflect the cordial and warm bilateral relations between our two countries,” he said in a televised address.
In an interview recently, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Rejoice Shumba said the expelled diplomats have not been punished yet as the “ministry has been investigating to establish what really happen and also give them a chance to defend themselves.”
Jerusalem embassy plans in limbo
The Tonse Alliance administration in 2020 unveiled plans to establish an embassy in Israel to be located in Jerusalem, a city that has been a centre of a long-standing dispute between Israel and Palestine.
Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal capital, but Palestinians want the East part of the city which was seized during the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a future State.
Despite growing opposition, including from Palestine itself, and ahead of Malawi taking over the chairmanship of Sadc, a bloc that opposes setting up embassies in Jerusalem, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eisenhower Mkaka insisted the plans were still on.
Sadc opposition to countries moving embassies to Jerusalem was clearly spelt out in a statement issued on May 16 2018 when United States announced it was moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
The year, however, closed its curtains on midnight Friday with Malawi yet to fulfil its plans to launch its embassy in Jerusalem where only United States, of all countries, has its diplomatic mission.
