Veteran politician Augustine Mnthambala dies
Veteran politician and former diplomat Augustine Mnthambala has died.
Mnthambala, who at one point was Alliance for Democracy (Aford) vice-president, died in the wee hours of Tuesday.
According to a family member Richard Dilawo, the former diplomat succumbed to a heart problem at Lilongwe Private Clinic.
“We have lost a pillar, a role model. We were going to him to seek advice. We have lost a great man,” Dilawo said.
Dur ing the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) regime, Mnthambala was under house arrest from 1969 to 1974, before joining the American Embassy as an economist.
He later left the embassy and joined frontline politics with Alliance for Democracy (Aford) which was being led by multiparty icon Chakufwa Chihana.
He became the party’s vice-president and was the party’s acting president when Chihana was in prison in 1993 Mnthambala was born on 21 December 1929. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree fromuniversity of Delhi in 1957. He later obtained a Masters of Arts (Economics) in 1962 from Colorado University.
Apart from working for the American Embassy for 18 years, Mnthambala was the first black person to teach at HHI Secondary School. He later headed Robert Blake and Blantyre Secondary Schools.
From 1996 to 1998 he worked as Malawi’s Ambassador to France before he was deployed as the country’s High Commissioner to Namibia. He retired in 2000.
Burial is expected to take place on Saturday at Mtileni Village in the area of Traditional Authority Kalumbu in Lilongwe.
He is survived by four children and eight grandchildren
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