Thoko Banda hits at Mugabe again: Tells BBC can’t be Malawi diplomat to ‘dictatorship’ Zimbabwe

A Malawian diplomat who once reportedly described Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as an “idiot” told BBC’s Focus on Africa programme Monday that he has turned down the job of ambassador to Harare because he was opposed to dictatorship.

Thoko Banda says he will not sell out his human right responsibilities for a job
Thoko Banda says he will not sell out his human right responsibilities for a job

President Peter Mutharika named  Banda as ambassador last month as he was initially earmarked to be Malawi’s envoy to Belgium and the European Union, but said he was not consulted before being switched to Harare.

“Someone like me is not somebody to send to a place like Zimbabwe, where they have a leader who wants you to endorse whatever he does with impunity,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

“People of conscience need to stand with the Zimbabwean population, especially those living in poverty and suffering human rights violations,” said Thoko Banda.

Banda has turned down the posting after Nyasa Times  exposed  his past interview where  he made scathing insult to Zimbabwe’s long-serving head of state .

In 2006,  he told  Germany’s The Foreigner magazine Mugabe is  an idiot.”

Banda was explaining his sour relations with Malawi’s former Presidents Bakili Muluzi and Bingu wa Mutharika when he launched into a scathing attack against Zimbabwe’s president in 2006.

“This guy  Robert Mugabe. I hope that he lives a very long time, so that one day he can go before an international tribunal. He is a horrible man,” Germany’s The Foreigner magazine quoted him saying.

Malawi and Zimbabwe, both members of the Southern African Development Community, have enjoyed cordial diplomatic relations in the past.

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Melatonin
Melatonin
9 years ago

I’m very disappointed Thoko that you are lying to the whole world at high noon alleging the Western reporter is framing you. You have fallen at the very first hurdle & strongly doubt you have any enduring positive qualities to offer apart; only your late father’s legacy makes sense.

Pulumodzi
Pulumodzi
9 years ago

Its clear APM just wants to get him out of his hair and i don’t blame him, i would too, firstly becuz this dear boy is immature and crazy! Conscious he says? Then why didn’t he think abut what this would luk lyk for Malawi? His just a man who wants to appease the western world lyk a visually agresssive woman! *sigh* they shuld just take him, we need nation builders not opportunistic freedom fighters.

FOCUS on Africa
FOCUS on Africa
9 years ago

Now Thoko Banda is contacting his long lost friends and family in the USA for financial help. He is soooo embarrassed, He wants to get out of the country ASAP. His super-ego has been deflated!

Shame
Shame
9 years ago

“Charlatan ” is the best description of Thoko Banda, that describes him to the T.

womenslib
womenslib
9 years ago

He obviously is trying to make an insane bid for asylum as usual.

Concerned citizen
9 years ago

This man is not diplomatic material.

He appears to be a freedom fighter which is misplaced in our country as of now. We need nation builders. Where was he when cashgate was happening.

He is definitely dancing to another nation’s tune. How seriously should he be taken?

Khonjex.
Khonjex.
9 years ago

Okaya oyaye!

Boss
Boss
9 years ago

Why do we worried about Zimbabwe yet they vote Mugabe?It seams its people outside Zimbabwe who do not like Mugabe and they paint him with lots of black paint pamene ku Zimbabwe anthu they like him.

Arthur G.M. Mtambo
9 years ago

THANK GOD YOU COULD HAVE COME IN A COFFIN OR KUSOWA.

Yazombe
Yazombe
9 years ago

I heard his father didn’t include him in his will. There should be something wrong about this boy.

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