Muhara to deputise Mkondiwa, Malata Must VC
President Peter Mutharika has appointed High Court of Malawi Judge Lloyd Muhara as Deputy Chief Secretary to the Government barely two years after he was appointed to the bench.
The President has also appointed Professor Address Malata, a long time principal of Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN)—a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima)—as vice-chancellor (VC) of the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must).
Both appointments are with immediate effect, according to a statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).
Muhara fills the vacancy at OPC created by the death of former holder Willie Samute mid-last year.
Chief Secretary to the Government George Mkondiwa said in a statement the President made the appointment in exercise of his powers as conferred to him by the Constitution and the Public Service Act.
Before his appointment to the Judiciary in May 2014 by former president Joyce Banda, Muhara was commissioner-general of Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA).
He was removed from MRA in 2012 after the institution he headed was embroiled in a revenue embezzlement scandal in which government borrowed money from commercial banks to give a false picture of the tax collection performance as a sign that the zero-deficit budget was working during former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika administration.
As a judge, Muhara has presided over several crucial cases, including the vote recount case involving Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates in Lilongwe City South East Constituency in the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections.
He also recused himself from a Cashgate case involving former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo.
On the other hand, Malata, a holder of a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing who first became principal of KCN in 2008, becomes the first ever female VC of a public university in the country.
Prior to her appointment, she was Must acting vice-chancellor.
Malawi has four public universities: Unima founded in 1965, Mzuzu University (Mzuni) established in 1998, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) formed in 2012 and Must which opened in 2014.
