Friday, March 29, 2024

Apology key to Zambia, Malawi relations – Veep

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VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott
VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott

VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott says the Malawian Government should not overlook the issue of giving a satisfactory apology to President Sata over the 2007 deportation despite him having sent a high level delegation to attend the 30th Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) Heads of State and Government summit in Lilongwe.

The theme for the summit is Harnessing science and technology for development.

Addressing local and foreign media during a press briefing at Golden Peacock Hotel on October 13, Dr Scott said there is urgent need to address the matter as it is negatively affecting diplomatic relations between Zambia and Malawi.

“While Zambia is attending the COMESA conference in Lilongwe at high level, it should not be overlooked that there is one major issue negatively affecting the relationship between Zambia and Malawi.

“This is the issue of His Excellency President Michael Sata’s deportation from Malawi when he was in Zambia’s opposition,” he said.

Dr Scott said President Sata has made it very clear that he requires a satisfactory apology, explanation or whatever it may be before relations between the two countries can be normalised.

The vice-president, who arrived in Lilongwe on October 13 at 12:30 hours, said he is personally grateful for the rousing welcome he received at Kamuzu International Airport.

The vice-president said Zambia needs good relations with neighbouring countries but that even if President Sata was deported when he was an opposition political party leader, it is important that the Malawian Government apologises to Mr Sata.

Dr Scott said such an apology should not be given to the delegation he is leading in Lilongwe but go to State House in Lusaka.

He said the failure by the Malawian Government to apologise or give a satisfactory explanation to President Sata is souring diplomatic relations between Zambia and Malawi.

On March 15, 2007, President Sata was deported from Malawi upon his arrival at Chileka International Airport in Blantyre and was driven back to Zambia through Mwami Border in Chipata.

On Saturday, President Sata turned down an invitation by Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika to travel to that country to attend the COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit on grounds that the latter has neither apologised nor furnished him with reasons for having deported him in 2007.

But Malawian Government spokesperson, Patricia Kaliati was quoted by the Nation on Sunday of Malawi as having said “as Government, we have heard”.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

62 COMMENTS

  1. Tell them. We should also apologize to the Prime Minister of zimbabwe Moegan Tsivangirai for deporting him from vic falls by MMD.

  2. This is a very unfortunate position taken by this govt. There is no reason to strain diplomatic relations due to personal reasons by one politician. This man was not representing Zambia nor was he using any official channels. If you turn things around, would the Zambian govt do nothing if they learnt that an opposition member of another country was conducting unknown activities on their soil? I certainly think some sort of action is appropriate. He should have been put to task for abusing his visa, but the govt of that country just deported him back. Please do not put international relations in jeopardy for no good reason. I have noticed also that many people are picking on Malawi because they are a poor nation. In international relations, this is no factor at all. Put your act together!

    • Serves the arrogant Malawi President right.  The fact that he abuses his own people does not give him a blank licence to abuse everyone- if his nation is poor, how come he is so arrogant? Let the Malawian Dictator learn to deal with people

    • I need a clarification from 2 what is wrong about a private individual visiting? The truth is whether you like it or not MCS was mistreated by that govt and needs an apology from that country.

  3. what will Zambia benefit by apology from Malawian government over the deportation of our president , will that bring the food on our table, create jobs or its part of the 90 days theory, may its just the pride of our president to show his counterpart that now is the president i don’t know the motive, i rest my case

    • Ba Kamunga, thank you for your concern, what you should know is that,this is an international issue which if not sorted or handled properly can lead you and me not sleeping,of course it wont bring food or jobs,the essence is to maintain bilateral relationship with our sister nation which in this case is Malawi.Look at in this way..If your son insulted who would be the future-in -law without knowingly but fails to apologize upon being falling in love to their daughter,Do you really believe that,that marriage will materialize??.My appeal to the Malawian president is for him to swallow his pride and apologize to Mr. M. Chilufya . Sata who is a Zambian president,it has nothing to do with Mr.Sata’s pride,but that of Mr Bingu Wa mutharika.and i am certain that,Wa mutharika hears my prayers.

  4. Guy, bauze uko ku Lilongwe, antso uba dabwitse, ati “Muzungu waku zambia”, abwela ku bauza!!! Banenekela ku mpempera chifundo ku dziko la Zambia!!!

  5. bwana sata, you were deported as an individual and not as a country! the relationship between countries is not personal and guy scot cant advise you on this coz he does not understand diplomatic politics. there alot zambians doing bussiness with malawi who you might affect with your pride or ego to be apologised to, look at it at the bigger picture and infact not all malawians supported your deportation……..

  6. Mr Sata and Guy Scott, we love you now because you are our chosen leaders though most of us never voted for you.Stop looking for faults and move on. What about ZIm Pm Morgan who was deported at Vic falls. These things happen.

    I will be surprised should Malawi give you an apology. An apology as Mr Sata or as the president of Zambia. What about the USD40,000 you lost in RSA, are you going to claim it now that you are the most powerful man in Zambia.
    You are our leaders move on. Zambians forget easily you will soon be forgotten. I wonder what your advisers are doing

  7. Judas are you from Malawi? He is the head of state now and he was pronounced as an illegal immigrant way back which was so embarrassing. Malawi has now to explain.

  8. N0. 6 You are Judas yourself because you just want to shower him with praises yet you are the same people to desert him once he is out of power.

    Give him good advise not this crap

  9. @ # 2 Judas,
    your grammer sounds of that of George Kunda.I think you are the one.Be objective dont just critize because your bonkus elite Rotten Bin (RB) is out.These are serious issues which can even affect all Zambians and your health further negatively.

  10. some people have poor reasoning if any countries abuse any citizens of a country they relationships of those two countires is affected. Try to abuse an USA citizens you will see relationship will become so Malawi has to learn to respect others you cant differetiate diplomacy to citizens diplomacy is there for people to benefit if not serving that then diplomacy remains a dream

  11. This man claims that he will use the Ten Commandments to rule. How does this behaviour support Gods laws? People on this blog are puzzling me with their thought processes to support such a weird position by the govt? Another thing that I would like to know is if this was a collective cabinet decision or another solo decision to pick on our Malawian brothers. In life do we pick friends based on their pockets or our values? This sort of behaviour is sending a bad signal to the rest of the world about what sort of people are ruling this country now. If you do a bit of research on diplomatic conduct you will find out that this govt is breaching the rules of how nations relate to one another. Zambian citizens should distant themselves from this provocation of our eastern brothers by this govt.

  12. If they don`t want to apologise, they shouldn`t bother. No class! They can go to hell we don`t need them.

    Typical Africans kwati fyaiche. Nakupata (says RB), Mike (Mbingu) naiwe mupate.

  13. Judas we don`t need them-simple! Why do zambians think we should be the soft ones all the time? Yes H.E MCS may be president but he is a person who has feelings.

  14. @ JAJA, ulibe nzelu chi MMD iwe. The only dull zambian on lusaka times. Don’t argue Like a grade seven. Sata was deported not on personal issues but on national and political matters. It’s not just the question of moving on. If you think It’s easy for our president to move on, it’s also easy for Malawi to explain the “why” question and if there is need to apologize, let them do so. Let’s not reduce this problem to personalities.
    In a political sphere, u don’t just wake up wadya chimbala ati I will contribute. Some of us who are political philosophers, this issue is of national interest and has to be dealt with extra care so that the malice does not repeat itself. Mbingu Thot RB will be our president for eternity. He is now ashamed. 

  15. Was Morgan declared an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT or just told to go back to Zimbabwe? I am failing to connect the two issues. President SATA (then just SATA in opposition) was declared an Illegal Immigrant. What happens now that he is President? Is there need to apologize for declaring him as an illegal immigrant at the time? If Malawi reverses the Illegal tug on President Sata, what has changed? My answer would be its because he has become a President. Then, Malawi has to apologize for wrongly declaring him as an illegal immigrant just because he was in opposition. I hope this makes sense.

  16. I don’t care about about your cadre mentality. Hyenas and Kalulus all think they can run the country. I wonder how you can run your home with this kind pathetic attitude. Even MMDs are people. I will give you 6 months you will be wallowing in poverty. SInce you are suggesting I am MMD then you are PF (it speaks volumes of where we are headed). Your books of philosophy won’t put food on the table for odrinary zambains. There are certain things you can not learn from class, wisdom is one of them. RB, Kaunda, Late Chiluba were all foreigners but who cares, life has to continue. WE WANT A BETTER ZAMBIA not one based of revenge and name calling

  17. Got Man United AON nike 2011 tops for £35, “give away price”. get an early chrismas present for a friend or family. give away price. free P&P possible within 30 miles( manchester). outside UK will be an extra 5iver. 07771151391 shout me!!! have a nice day ;)

  18. @ Jaja, sorry, am already a successful man. I don’t rely on PF philosophy of ” more money in my pockets”. For me this simply means working hard and earning what is due. Of successful and stable 100 zambians betweeen the age of 30 and 35, am one of them. U don’t claim wisdom when u av a baseless argument. Look at how many people disliked yo analysis. Tamwakwata Mano tata. Politic and catering r two different things. Go back and study Mulenga and jelita. May b you skipped this foundation lol

  19. The British Government should also apologise for allowing a Chinese cleaner to steal HisExcellency’s passport in a London Hotel. King Cobra should refuse any invitations from the Queen to attend Commonwealth summits.

  20. If you do an analysis of all our neighbours, from my experience I think Malawians are the most friendly people. I have actually lived with Malawian people, drank beer with them, gone to their homes. Those people are your brothers. We even share the same language for all it matters! It bothers me why this govt wants to stoke diplomatic tension for no good reason.
    Let us assume that the govt of Malawi was wrong to deport Mr Sata. Is it right to use the media and other non-diplomatic channels to settle the injustice? If you get sick, do you go to the barbershop or the hospital? I think you go and see the doctor. Therefore I think Mr Sata should have used diplomatic channels to settle this issue instead of the media or the emotional frenzy that came with his victory. Populism has its limits.

  21. Judas # 10 I wonder what International Relations you’ve studied. if it comes to the International Relations of the 21st Century, a realist would urgue that PF government’s urguement is legetimate. i don’t think H.E Sata’s motive to go to Malawi was to balance against current president, therefore i don’t see any legimacy in depoting him on ground that he was the opposition leader. Malawian President should have not taken matters for his personal gain. We are not a weak country but an emerging liberal democracy. Judas you need to upgrade your IR knowledge. USA Herman Cain Republican candidates visited Australia to streighthening his IR. was he deported NO. SOME AFRICAN LEADERS ARE FOND OF BACK YARD POLITICS

  22. Malawi must just explain why they export SATA. What intelligency did they have at hand. Was Sata a danger to their country at that moment. you kight hear what you were not supposed to.

  23. Ha,i guess the relationship status of zambia and malawi on that useless site called facebook now reads-its complicated.

  24. Some people here post paragraphs with no substance. Sata is so selfish he is putting persoanl beefs ahead of the national interest. For him trade with Malawi and the entire Comesa is trivial merely because he wants to settle personal scores.

  25. Judas i dont agree with your far left arguement. the problem is not Our president. Malawian President could have first revocked the deportation and apologise but he has the illiberal pride. who cares!!. if Malawian President knew we are brothers and sisters he should have not treated Sata like a criminal. its a shame, i think Malawian president and his regime are in a tricky situation. its them to clean up the mess not the PF government

  26. No 18 You must be reading from a PF bible because majority seem to disagree with your analysis. What are you doing in belgium or whaterver country anyway, go back home and compete. Don’t lure yourself that you are successfully. Arm chair critic without brains.

    We will give Mr Sata enough chance so that when he fails he will have no one to blame

  27. Sata thinks he can bully anyone. Mbingu Wa Mutharika refused to apologise to the UK govt who used to give Malawi $56m annually. So who does Sata think he is? Learn to pick your fights ba Kabova. Mutharika cannot apologise to you. You are nothing to Malawi and Malawians!

  28. This is an incompetent vice-president! How does he drag Zambia into an issue between Sata (a private citizen then) and Malawian authorities? How can diplomatic relations be affected over an issue that was not against the Zambian government? Did this old man Guy Scott think through what he was saying? Sata`s differences with Mbingu should not affect the relationships of the 2 countries.

    • This kind of reasoning is dangerous. In your view, why do you think the Chinese embassy (representing the chinese government) gets involved each time a chinese national gets on the wrong side of the law in Zambia? The Zambian government is for all Zambians. It is the duty of the Zambian government to “protect” all nationals, irrespective of status, within and outside Zambia. A Zambian national was unfairly treated in Malawi. This is the “offence” against the Zambian government.

  29. I am slowly being sold to Sata’s way of ruling I appreciate the things he has done so far but the president should remember even in his quest for an apology (which he solely deserves), that he was just an individual at the time and now his position is different coz he is representing millions of Zambians diplomacy regardless of any personal grudges should always come first.

  30. 28 Sata does not bully anyone.He just speaks his mind.In a way he is brutally frank which in some way may be construed as arrogance.You seem to have a very big personality problem such that you can’t even see any good that Sata has already done.Get a life.

  31. Malawians need to be cvilised and not treat foreigners as they wish.How many Malawians have settled in Zambia and refuse to go back?People supporting that Mbingu do not know the human rights violations he is commiting even with his own people.

  32. I believe Foreign Policy is shaped by domestic influence and the media. Malawan president’s decision to deport sata is precedent enough to determin the type of a Leader he is. its evident that the Vice president understands International Politics. there is a Bilateral issue at stake and i don’t think its in the countries best interest for the Vice president to ignore the attention sorrounding the issue. its was Mutarika and Sata’s issue before Sata was president but now unfortunatly it is a national issue.

  33. This issue is personal i can see, but has the potency to ignite tensions between the two countries. Supposing there is a pandora’s box on what led to the Malawian govt doing that, does this do good if the linen is washed in public? That’s why objective people are saying this issue should be handled diplomatically behind the scenes and not this media frenzy going on on who did what to whom. If Malawi have a strong case, I doubt if they will apologize, but they can lift the PI status. There must be valid reasons why someone can be declared PI.

  34. Ba LT, this subject has been well flogged by now and is getting monotonous. It making Zambia look like its bullying small Malawi in the eyes of the international community. So instead of repeating what Daily Mail says word for word, would it not be more productive and good journalism if you concentrated more on the merits and challenges of the theme of the summit, i.e. ‘Harnessing science and technology for development’? Lets move on…

  35. I appreciate having Sata as our new president. That being said, I believe he should let go of some things once in power. One of the attributes of a leader is to forgive and do so easily. Sata should let this apology thing go and concentrate on other important issues.

  36. I like the approach taken by the President here. Country must be run on principal not on the whims of those in power. The Malawian government was playing the gallery and wanted to prove to MMD how they deal with the opposition and those that support them. wamutharika is nothing but Kamuzu Banda reincarnate and he dictatorial standards have been nothing but shocking. The Malawi government needs to know that it must treat opposition parties with respect and what wrong was there in Sata visiting and opposition colleague in Malawi. Did he need t be deported for this,  now Wa Mutharika and his cornies have major egg on their face and I say to President Sata milk it for all it’s worth, after all we do not need anything from Malawi do we.

  37. #32, You say who cares, Bingu does not care, its true but the Malawians are suffering becaues of his sturbon and rude action, you could be one in a million if you are not but I doubt that.? do not fool yourself. You seem to be a frustrated and psychopath felow who need mental examination together with J#34 whoever he is. whom you share the same idiopath.

  38. The Problem with Sata is that He is a Bully like Mutharika. Many Malawians do not know
    what happened, please use diplomatic channels not newspapers, Sata cannot behave like this to the South Africans and other countries and plse dont use you Zambian styles of Politics to the
    Malawians, they may not accept to be embarrassed, more over there is completely nothing that Malawi can benefit from Zambia, the only common thing is that we are blood cousins.

  39. “No nation has the right to make decisions for another nation; no people for another people.”
    Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his A Peaceful New Year speech given in Tanzania on 1 January 1968.
    I rest my case on this time-wasting issue. We should be spending more time working together than fighting amongst ourselves if we need progress. If you look at the progress the EU has made in integrating itself, do you think they would have made progress if politicians harboured grudges?
    The ANC did not go after those people that had wronged them in SA. The victimisation there was incomparable to the Malawian incident. This PF govt needs to stop behaving as though they are still in the opposition (hangover). Those people in Lilongwe are now your colleagues. Wake up!

  40. malawians should wake up, did you see what happened when an American was jailed in Iran and North Korea, it took the president (Obama) to act, moreover, those were not politicians, what about the, by then, the head of a main political party. people please try to thinik twice baba before you contribute your sh********t

  41. malawi is a small country,a few  bombs will teach them lesson, ive always thought zambia should create  a nice resort around lake malawi…after anexing them

  42. I have just given kamunga to look at it in this way:If you insulted who would be the in-law for various reason unknowingly, and then you fall in love with their daughter,doesn’t it make sense to go and try to apologize before asking for an hand for marriage. I see it coming, that’s why it is good for God just for someone to swallow the pride to apologize for the sake of bilateral peace.

  43. The problem with you Zambians is that you think you are rich and so untouchable……….. what riches do you have that can shaken malawi? STUPID!!!!!!! We take you as brothers, and if you say you dont need us, fine, we will not complain, we can do without you perfectly. Just get reminded that Zambia is built by Malawian intellects. History will prove that right to you. We are sharp than you……….

  44. Please, keep this story burning the airwaves. I’m bringing out my Lay-Z Boy recliner for a front row-seating spot. That’s my kinda president I haven’t had forever. Oh yeah, and pass the pop corn, please!

  45. Sata is not willing to go to Malawi as an individual who once suffered humiliation at the hands of Malawians. But because he is aware that his personal situation does not affect the relations that exist between the two countries, he sent the Veep to represent the state. So where is the confusion?

  46. @53 Atea bag so why not take all your so called sharp brothers out of Zambia if you think we are dull?By the way how come you guys have never had any real democracy in Malawi?

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