Inter-University Network for Peace, Unity and Development (INPUD) chairperson Master Dicks Mfune has faulted government for dissolving the Malawi Peace and Unity Commission (Mpuc) alongside statutory boards describing the move as a breach of the Act that established the body. But Principal Secretary for Local Government, Unity and Culture Dr Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu dismissed Mfune’s views, saying as a statutory institution, the directive to dissolve boards applies to Mpuc as well. Mfune stressed that what government did was an error.
“The commission is not a board. The Act is clear on its establishment, tenure of office and removal from office,” he said in an interview this week. “Unlike other boards of statutory corporations, commissions, like the Malawi Human Rights Commission and Malawi Electoral Commission, created through an Act of Parliament, have fixed terms that cannot be terminated arbitrarily.” Mfune said the commission’s dissolution is a grave mistake, arguing that the body cannot legally be dissolved like an ordinary statutory board because its constitutional role is categorically different from parastatals, and further warned that dismantling the commission’s governance could fracture the very architecture tasked with mediating national disputes.
Under the Peace and Unity Act, the President appoints members on recommendation from the minister, and, except for ex-officio members, each commissioner serves a four-year term, renewable once. While both the policy and the Act do not explicitly touch on dissolution of the commission, in terms of removal of the commissioners, Section 7 (4) of the Act states that a commissioner may be removed from office by the President on the recommendation of PAC on grounds of incapacity or incompetence in the performance of the duties of the office of member. Further, Section 7(5) stipulates that “a member shall not be removed from office in accordance with subsection (4) except after due inquiry”.
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According to Mfune, these legal safeguards mean that the commission could not have been dissolved and urged the responsible offices to correct the error. Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) governance and development scholar Andrew Kaponya also joined those raising concern over the commission’s dissolution, and said the problem reflected deeper structural weaknesses in the country’s governance framework. Kaponya said the challenge was that the country often responds to issues in bits and pieces instead of addressing the broader systemic challenges which include extensive powers granted to the President in appointing commissioners. He said while the law states that Mpuc commissioners should serve a four-year tenure, the current cohort has not reached that period, yet the commission has been dissolved, a development that highlights how presidential powers can override established terms of office.
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