State House disowns Chakwera Twitter handle: Malawi clears with Zimbabwe on fake post
State House has warned that some people have created a fake Twitter handle for Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera.
In a statement, State House director of communication and executive assistant to the president Sean Kampondeni warns people not to be misled by the fake twitter account impersonating the Head of State.
Kampondeni says State House has already reported the fake account to relevant authorities, saying this was in breach of the electronics transactions Act of 2016.
“This is a violation because impersonation a person, a President for that matter is a crime so the message to Malawians is that we have rights, we are a free country but we have to live by the dictates of the law,” Kampondeni said.
The Twitter handle has for the past week been disseminating messages purportedly from the President but some people questioned its authenticity because of the nature of the messages and language used.
The fake account could have sparked c a diplomatic row with the government of Zimbabwe when it joined the trend of accusing the Zimbabwe government of Human Rights abuses and arbitrary arrests to silence dissent.
Professor Shinga Feresu told off the ‘fake’ President: “Please focus on your problems with appointments, we are fine in Zimbabwe.”
Designated as Lazarus Chakwara the account has subtle differences to President Chakwera’s original account imitating his main profile picture and taglines.
Meanwhile, Chakwera has cleared the mist with his Zimbabwean counterpart Emerson Mnangagwa as Minister of Foreign Affairs Eisenhower Mkaka assured his Zimbabwean leader the tweet was fake.
Kampondeni said the Zimbabwean foreign office had taken note of the fake tweet.
Chakwera’s official account also Twitted a clarification.
University of Malawi lecturer Jimmy Kainja responding to the statement applauded the government for their rebuttal but said in an age of fake news dominating the only way to deal with the situation is to make sure Chakwera’s account is verified.
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I don’t see any good reason for Chakwera to be communicating through the Twitter when he has radios and TVs at his disposal. He should this..
Now, imagine a Malawian creating a fake account so that we create diplomatic incidents and quarrels with other countries. All because your looting DPP government of murderers was booted out of office? Where is your patriotism?
That was not impersonating ChakwEra twitter handle. It clearly said ChakwAra. If Chakwera wasn’t a president, I doubt if Twitter would have given a damn about this type of impersonation.
ndipo musachedwe amangeni amenewa….iwo a DPP tikupita ku zisankho anamanga mtsikana wina atalemba zosakhala bwino za FDH Bank zimene sizinali zabwino