Malawi govt halts issuance of diplomatic passports to religious leaders

Government says it has stopped issuing the after sought diplomatic passports to religious leaders.

Ministry of  Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Rejoice Chaponda Shumba said the change of policy in stopping the issuance of the diplomatic passports to religious leaders was effected after the change of government.

She said this has nothing to do with the issues of prophet Shepherd Bushiri who has a diplomatic passport but is answering some cases in South Africa.

“Prophet Bushiri was issued with the diplomatic passport as a prominent religious leader, that was the policy then.

“Since Tonse Alliance came into power, the government stopped issued the passports to the prominent leaders. The policy has changed,” said Shumba.

She said the diplomatic passports allowed the religious leaders to travel without problems whenever they wanted to go outside the country to preach the word of God.