Nancy Tembo

rdf:langString Nancy Tembo

rdf:langString Nancy Tembo is a Malawian politician and serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Malawi Government since 2022. She is also a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Lilongwe City South West constituency in the National Assembly of the Republic of Malawi. She ran as an independent candidate after a bungled 2018 Malawi Congress Party (MCP) primary election and went on to secure a landslide victory in the 2019 Malawian general election. She was the voice of the MCP (then the main opposition party) during the Bingu wa Mutharika Presidency (2009-2012). She was detained and badly beaten along with protest leaders such as Billy Mayaya and Undule Mwakasungula during the infamous Protests on July 20, 2011 where 22 people were killed by security forces. During her first term as Member of Parliament (2004-2009), Tembo was the shadow Minister of Education, chair of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC)-Malawi, and served on the Public Accounts Committee and Parliamentary Committee on Health (where she chaired the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Reproduction). During her second term as MP, she served on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Legal Affairs Committee. In 2019 whilst in parliament, Tembo exposed a dubious and unprocedural 'sale' of a public school land (Livimbo Primary School) in her constituency to private commercial interests. By then, the new owners had already constructed industrial warehouses on the school grounds. She took the Ministry of Lands officials to task seeking an explanation of this sad state of affairs. Eventually the warehouses were demolished by the state and the local constituency development committee built a brick wall to secure the school lands from further invasion. Had the school been demolished, hundreds of vulnerable children would have been left stranded.