Facebook application developer

Former President Joyce Banda says unless the international community and national governments provide the necessary mechanisms and environment to create employment for people with disabilities, all efforts to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities will be futile.

She was speaking at the inaugural Harkin International Disability Employment Summit held on December 8 and 9, 2016 in Washington DC, United States.

The main objective of the summit was to “begin a tradition of bringing together change agents to develop strategies for increasing disability employment around the world”.

Banda said in ‘advancing disability employment’, it was imperative for stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the global scope of the challenges that people with disabilities face, particularly in the developing world, in order for them to come up with effective and relevant interventions.

In most countries, she said, disability rights are non-existent and that discrimination continues to deny persons with disabilities, as well as workers who become disabled, access to work.

“Households that have family members with disabilities have a lower living standard than the average. People with disabilities suffer various stereotypes, myths and stigma. In many developing countries, particularly in Africa, people with disabilities are regarded as outcasts,” noted Banda.

“Indeed, people with disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence or rape, and less likely to obtain police intervention, legal protection or preventive care. Women and girls with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse,” said Banda.

She said “genuine political” could remove “the intrinsic barriers that deny people with disabilities their basic rights”, including to fully and actively participate in economic activity and access to employment.


Banda said when she was Malawi’s President between 2012 and 2914, she endeavored to improve the plight of people with disabilities, including providing them with employment opportunities by strengthening the Ministry of People with Disabilities andappointing a disability rights activist to head that ministry, signing into lawthe National Disability Bill, introducing sign language on public television and ensuring that all public and private places, infrastructure and facilities were disability-friendly; and increased the capacity to train special needs educators at all levels in order to enhance access of learners with disabilities.

“I also directed the Ministry of Finance to allocate 30% of my salary to Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA), a government agency that works to help men and women with disabilities to become more independent and self-sufficient by providing vocational training centres,” she recalled.

Banda said these efforts were not only geared towards promoting the rights of people with disabilities but also creating an enabling and economically empowering environment that will enable people with disabilities to realize their full potential and ensure their full integration into the country’s socio-economic development processes.

She called upon the private sector to design and adopt affirmative policies, as a corporate responsibility drive, to ensure that people with disabilities have access to education, training and employment.

“I call upon governments, disability organizations, global development organizations, businesses and civil society to ensure programs, policies and funding fully include people with disabilities, with a specific objective to create employment for them to be self-reliant,” she said.

Other high-profile people who spoke at the two-day summit included Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano, the 11th president of Gallaudet University in Washington (she is the first deaf woman to hold this position), Andrew Imparato, Executive Director, Association of University Centers On Disabilities, Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware and Tom Harkin, US Senator.

Banda was introduced by Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics. In her remarks, Banda hailed Tim Shriver for being “hugely instrumental in promoting the rights of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the world.

Banda said she first met Shriver in January, 2013 at Global Development Summit at the Special Olympics in South Korea where she requested Special Olympics to assist Malawi develop the necessary programs and activities to become a model country in empowering children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

“In February 2014, my government, in partnership with the Special Olympics, hosted the first ever ‘African Leaders Forum on Disability’ in the capital, Lilongwe, to explore effective interventions in support of people with disabilities, with particular emphasis on people with intellectual disabilities,” said Banda.

Malawi’s latest salacious scandal involves the highest office in the country. The manner in which President Peter Mutharika kissed his wife, Gertrude Mutharika during a much publicized Democratic Progressive Party Valentine’s day fundraising dinner has caused quite a stir in Malawi and on social media.

The event took place on Saturday, February 14th, 2015 in Lilongwe. Dawned in a black Chinese collar suit with a red bow tie, Mutharika presented a bouquet of flowers to his wife in celebration of Valentines Day. Then after being coaxed by the event’s host, he kissed the First Lady who was clad in a red dress in front of attendees and television cameras who were broadcasting the event to the entire nation.

Since this controversial public display of affection, Malawi has been abuzz with regards to the nature and length of the kiss in a controversy I dub ‘kissgate’.

Some of Malawi’s social media communities have been particularly harsh on Mutharika. Critics have argued that the President should not have kissed in wife in public because it was contrary to Malawian culture. They called the act of public kissing a “taboo” and have made references to it as evidence of moral corruption and cultural erosion in Malawi. They argued that kissing in public was something that was ‘unMalawian” and stemmed from Western values. Adding to the accusations that it was not Malawian, his decision to wear a Chinese suit was also came under attack.

As others scrutinized photos or replayed the video of the kiss, they argued that the kiss itself was alright but that the use of the presidential tongue in kissing for television was the real issue at hand. They argued that using ones tongue to kiss ones wife was not befitting for the highest office in the land and called it “disgusting”. They would have preferred that the President gave his wife a peck on the lips at such a function rather than what they perceived was a French kiss, which indicates an overt sexual act. Detractors alluded that his kiss that was too long, too fervent and hence, sloppy. One such commentator on the Nyasatimes was so disturbed and agitated by the presidential couple’s kiss that he opined, “Get a room you slobbering, couthless (sic) nincompoops!”


Many others were further irked by the accompanying comments that President Mutharika made to his wife during the presentation of the flower: “on this special day, I want to say thank you! Thank you for always being there for me through the frights and the cold nights….” The references to ‘cold nights’ were highly problematic for the country’s conservative citizens who would have rather have had that conversation relegated to the bedroom and not a public event.

Others on social media took it as an opportunity to use it as a platform to comment on his overall performance as a president. Chakwanuleka notes that “This fellow is a non performer (sic) and this is what he can do best”. More serious economic connections were also made in relation to who paid for the flowers and the party event. A few commented that regardless of who paid for it, holding such a lavish event in the middle of an on-going national flood disaster was insensitive.

Not everyone of course was against the president’s actions. Some Malawians were  content that on this Greco-Roman Holiday, Malawian President Peter Mutharika kissed his wife French style in a Chinese suit. After all, are we not living in a globalized era where cultures cross? His supporters state that kissing in public was  no more “unMalawian” than “wearing clothes” or doing anything we want to wrongly label “Western”. Others argued that it gave the President more of a human face and applauded him for being down to earth. They called it a “romantic” gesture on his part. Many suggested that it was a good move on his part to be able to show respect for his wife in this way. They argued that it would encourage other Malawian men to show affection and commitment to their wives in public as well.