New Malawi Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa, acting: Updated
Malawi Supreme Court judge and former chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Justice Anastazia Msosa is the acting Chief Justice.
The appointment follows the early retirement of Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo who quit the bench last week to compete for the presidency of opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
Munlo once served as Justice Minister under President Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Registrar of the High Court of Malawi and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Mike Tembo has since confirmed the appointment.
Tembo said Msosa’s appointment was in line with Section 113 of the Constitution.
Section 113 (1) reads: “If the office of Chief Justice is vacant, or if the Chief Justice is for any reason unable to perform the functions of his or her office, then, until a person has been appointed to and has assumed the functions of that office, or until the person holding that office has resumed those functions as the case may be, those functions shall be performed by the most senior judge sitting on the Supreme Court of Appeal or High Court.”
Msosa was the first woman to be appointed judge of the High Court of Malawi and to be a member of the Supreme Court.
She was the first chairperson of the Electoral Commission after Malawi became a multiparty democracy and she is accredited for overseeing the successful 1994 election and performed with distinction when she ably led the team that handled the 2009 elections – the best organised elections since 1994.
Her name appears again in the list of 20 pioneer achievers at the end of History of Malawi Volume 2.
