Justin Malewezi

Justin Malewezi (born 1944) is a Malawian politician. Formerly the First Vice President of his country, Malewezi quit the United Democratic Front and eventually represented the People's Progressive Movement in the 2004 general election where he garnered 2.5% of the total national vote.

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* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,,897329,00.html Justin Malewezi, politician] The Guardian, 18 February 2003
* [http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200405/19/eng20040519_143795.html Born Justin Chimera Malewezi some 64 years ago, his lifelong career as a public servant was cut out for him. His father was a schoolteacher and young Malewezi was determined to get a good education. He got his Cambridge School Certificate at Robert Blake Secondary School, popularly known as Kongwe in the Central region district of Dowa, before graduating with his first degree at Columbia University in the United States in 1967. He started his public service life as a science teacher, a profession that saw him rise to become headmaster and chief education officer in 1976. From then the sky was the limit for the boy from Visanza as Ntchisi is sometimes known (a derogatory name meaning rugs). He rose to become permanent secretary in various ministries, including education and health, before holding the sensitive post of secretary to the treasury, the chief government technical advisor on money matters. In 1989 he was appointed secretary to the president and cabinet (SPC), virtually becoming former "Life President" Ackim Kankhwala Hastings Kamuzu Banda's eyes and ears. Justin Chimera Malewezi,Currently Member of Parlianent for Ntchisi North in the Central Region of Malawi.Was one of the United Democratic Front (UDF) high profile figures to renounce their resignation and openly criticise the party's Chairman for hand picking Muthalika as 2004 presidential candidate.Among the five candidates who contested for the presidential election, Malawi's first vice-president Justin Chimera Malewezi is an ambitious man .Having been sidelined by the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) as the party's presidential candidate, Malewezi decided to quit the party on Jan. 1 2004. He later joined forces with the opposition People's Progressive Movement where he was elected vice president. There he hoped to be elected the front runner for the Mgwirizano (Unity) Coalition of seven opposition parties fighting to oust the Muluzi administration during the forthcoming general elections. Things here did not work according to plan either because the coalition chose veteran politician Gwanda Chakuamba to lead the Mgwirizano Coalition in the presidential race. With a never-say-die spirit, Malewezi decided to go it alone and run as an independent presidential candidate, saying he is thesmartest of all candidates without a dented background unlike his competitors, and promising to put the runaway economy back on track. He also volunteered to be working as a parliamentarian whilst geting his retirement package only a development his former boss Muluzi would not agree.He also spends much of his time as an activist on HIV and AIDS issues.Married to Felista ChizalemaA renowned social worker, who refused to quit her job with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) until way into Malewezi's second year as vice president. Malewezi is a father has four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters, and three grandchildren. One of his sons is a London-based DeeJay and rapper (Qabanisso) who is the Managing director of abstrakbeatz a magazine that promotes hip hop music and other important ethics to the youths Malawi's independent presidential candidate] People's Daily, 19 May 2004In his leisure time he can competently challenge Andre Agassi or Boris Baker to a tennis game or Madonna in children's book fiction. In fact, he has just finished writing a children's book "Grasshoppers on the Moon" which may be rolling off the presses anytime soon. He also has compiled a collection of essays under the working title "Confessions of a Principal Secretary" where he chronicles his life as a civil servant under the Banda regime. Malewezi had a near brush with death a couple of years into his vice presidency. He had to have an expensive kidney transplant in Germany. President Muluzi, ever the ruthless joker, had a go at his estranged deputy's health woes calling him a "weakling who takes 32 tablets a day to stay alive." The president was soundly rebuked for his callous joke but Malewezi took this cruel jibe in his stride. Most observers do not give him a chance in hell that as an independent he will be able to prevail over economist Mutharika, who has President Bakili Muluzi, the self-styled "political engineer" as his chief campaigner. Or Gwanda Chakuamba, the veteran politician who is marshaling the ticket for the MgwirizanoCoalition of seven opposition parties. Or, indeed Brown Mpinganjira, the former senior minister and Muluzi's right-hand man. The other hurdle was indeed John Tembo, the veteran who had his political teeth cut by no other a force than the father and founder of Malawi Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Out of government he committed his time to private consultancy advising governments of Tanzania, Ghana and Lesotho on education and public sector development. That kept him going until the wind of change started sweeping across central and southern Africa from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Malewezi around 1992 joined a clandestine underground group of mainly former Banda protestors including Elson Bakili Muluzi, Aleke Kadonapachi Banda and Edward Bwanali, Finly Dumbo Lemani and journalist Brown J Mpinganjira. The underground pressure group later became the United Democratic Front (UDF) under the tutelage of Bakili Muluzi, and dislodged Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) from its 30-year stranglehold on power in Malawi's first multiparty elections in 1994. And the technocrat-turned-politician Malewezi has been President Muluzi's deputy from 1994 to 2004. Malewezi, who still remained the state vice-president despite the government's efforts to force him to resign, said he had no regrets of being part of the revolution that toppled one of Africa's most cruel tin pot dictators.