Malawi President Peter Mutharika has appointed former Solicitor General Antony Kamanga as a Supreme Court Judge. The appointment is to fill the vacant post which existed in the court.
Kamanga, a lawyer by professional has held various top position in the country making some controversial decisions as well.
Kamanga earned an LLB (Bachelor of Laws) in Malawi in 1978, an LLM (Master of Laws) in Toronto, Canada in 1982 and a Diploma in Legal Drafting in Ottawa, Canada in 1993.
He was appointed Senior Counsel by the State President Bingu WA Mutharika in 2004. Kamanga was legal counsel to the Malawi Government for over twenty years. He was responsible for international financial transactions with the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank and other multilateral financial institutions.
Kamanga was appointed Chief Parliamentary Draftsman in the Ministry of Justice, and was appointed a Commissioner when the Privatization Commission was established. He was a member of the Constitutional Review Commission from August 2006 until July 2007, when he was appointed Solicitor General and Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
In December 2010, Kamanga yielded to pressure from George Chaponda, Malawi’s Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, to enable Chaponda to use just over MK2 million ($13,000) of government money to travel to Geneva, Switzerland to attend a personal function.
In January 2011, a bill was passed giving the government the power to close print media outlets that published material it deems “contrary to the public interest”.
Kamanga defended the law, saying the Minister of Information must have “reasonable grounds” for such a closure, and that decisions could be challenged in court. He said the amendment was based on the recommendation of the Malawi Law Commission, and “takes into consideration fundamental freedoms as enshrined in the constitution”.
Anthony D. Kamanga was as of 6 December 2012 the Attorney General, Appointed by former President Joyce Banda.