During the Bingu WA Mutharika reign Britain was involved in a furious diplomatic row with Malawi after Malawi’s foreign minister ordered the British High Commissioner to leave the country.
Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was given just 72 hours to leave Malawi after he labelled its president Bingu wa Mutharika ‘autocratic’, ‘combative’ and ‘intolerant of criticism’.
Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was summoned to a meeting and given just 72 hours to leave the African country after he criticised its president Bingu wa Mutharika.
As a diplomat Cochrane-Dyet was right to have briefed his country the way he did. No Malawian can disagree with his observations. Our President Bingu was all the things that were said about him. The problem was the British leaking this memo to the public.
After the memo was leaked Bingu had every right to expell Fergus Cochrane-Dyet and the brits in a tit-for-tat expelled Malawi’s acting High Commissioner Flossie Gomile-Chidyaonga and her dependants at “the earliest opportunity”.
Apparently the Brits never forgave neither did they forget and are apparently taking on it on DR. Hetherwick Ntaba who was merely an assistant to President Bingu WA Mutharika and had nothing to do with the expulsion of Cochran-Dyet.
After the UK and Malawi tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions you would think everything was well and good. Two Presidents later the Brits are apparently smarting from their exprience. Like a spoiled brat they still want to punish a Mutharika does not matter that his name is now Peter and not Bingu.
Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba is a Malawian medical doctor and politician, currently the Publicity Secretary of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ntaba was Minister of Foreign Affair from 1993 to 1994. Later, he was Secretary-General of the DPP. Obviously the man was qualified and would have represented our country well.
Our hope is that Malawi government in a diplomatic way has expressed its displeasure with the Brits.
Public Appointment Committee (PAC) of Parliament led by Chairperson Lingston Belekanyama leaked to the public that Hetherwick Ntaba did excellent during the interview process. In that case he needs to be rewarded with with a better posting or cabinet position as he had nothing to do with the expulsion of Cochran.
