Commissioners

Chairperson

Dr Chifundo Kachale

Date of appointment: 7^th June 2020

Justice Dr. Kachale holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) obtained in 2013 focusing on Constitutionalism and Judicial Methodology-exploring the impact of judicial activism (or lack of it) on entrenching a culture of constitutionalism in emerging democracies. He obtained his LLB (Hons) from Chancellor College University of Malawi in 2000 and his LLM (Law and Development) in 2005 from Queen Mary (University of London).

Justice Dr. Kachale is a member of the Global Judicial Institute for the Environment; he was also the Chairperson of the Malawi Judiciary Training Committee for seven years. Until March 2020 he was sitting in the Judicial Service Commission-which is the constitutional body responsible for all judicial appointments and recommendations in Malawi.

Between December 2019 and February 2020 Justice Kachale worked on an assignment with the National Elections Commission of Sierra Leone in a Governance Support Program of the EU. His work involved the creation of a Road Map for Electoral Legal Reforms emerging from Observation Reports of the 2018 General Elections in that country.

Justice Dr. Kachale is part of the visiting Faculty at the Judicial Institute for Africa (JIFA) based at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He has facilitated in personal development initiatives in various jurisdictions, including the UK, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and even locally, working with judges, lawyers, accountants, auditors, social scientists, medical doctors, engineers, politicians, public servants, musicians, students and other professionals.

Commissioner

Olivia Mchaju Liwewe

Date of appointment: 7^th June 2020

Commissioner Olivia Mchaju Liwewe holds a Masters in Women’s Law and Bachelors Degree of Education. She is a gender and social inclusion expert by profession with 30 years of experience working for both bilateral and multilateral institutions. She has worked for GTZ(now GIZ), Canadian CIDA, Norwegian Embassy, USAID, UNICEF and UNDP as Senior Gender Advisor to UNDP-Sierra Leonne a position that gave her experience of working in post-conflict country which was strengthened by her training in conflict negotiation and mediation by AU and SADC. She currently serves as Vice Chairperson of the SADC Mediation Reference Group and is a member of FEMWISE-Africa which is a group of African women in Peace negotiation and Mediation and in 2016 accompanied the Former President of Mozambique Joachim Chissanu in Peace and conflict resolution in Madagascar. 

She has nine publications on various topics on gender and social inclusion and ten commissioned consultancy papers and has conducted various gender trainings and has also attended a number of international workshops and seminars on various angles of the subject spanning from poverty reduction, HIV and AIDS and Peace, negotiation and mediation.

In 2020 she was awarded the African Achievers Award for Excellence in Public Office.  

Commissioner

Dr Anthony Mukumbwa

Date of appointment: 7^th June 2020

Dr. Anthony John Mukumbwa is a Doctor of Excellence (Fraud Examination and Internal Audit and Corporate Governance), Certified Management Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Financial Services Auditor having obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College.

Dr Mukumbwa has worked for a number of local and International organisations where he held very senior executive positions among which were Chief Internal Auditor (Blantyre Print Group & Illovo Sugar Company), Company Secretary (Illovo Sugar Company), Chief Executive Officer (Corporate Governance Centre Limited & ECO Products Limited), before establishing in consultancy business in 2000. Since then Dr Mukumbwa has consulted for various organisations including private and public companies listed on the Malawi, Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges. In addition, he has consulted for several development partners such as Short-term Financial Management Specialist for the World Bank (Sierra Leone and Malawi); Corporate Governance Specialist for Millennium Challenge Account (Sierra Leon); Technical Advisor for Press Agricultural Limited (PAL); Lead Consultant for Accounting and Financial Management systems development for projects funded by USAID, Danida, DFID, GIZ. Recently Dr Mukumbwa has been engaged as the Forensic Auditor for a number of donor funded projects and programmes in additional to providing fraud investigation services to the largest insurance companies in Malawi.

Over the years Dr Mukumbwa has received professional awards of Honorary member for Institute of Internal Auditors for substantial contribution to the growth of internal audit Profession in Malawi; Award of Freedom of Movement on all AXA Coaches for lifetime for unparalleled contributions to the board of AXA Group of Companies as its founding and former board Chair.  Dr Mukumbwa was also founding president for Institute of Internal Auditors (Malawi Chapter).

Commissioner

MR RICHARD CHAPWETEKA

Date of appointment: 9^th June 2021

Mr. Richard Chapweteka is a Strategic Manager and Development Economist holding a Master of Science in Strategic Management and a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Economics) with over 20 years of experience of projects management including advising private sector companies, NGOs and African governments on rural development, managing credit, agricultural input supplies and markets. He served as a member of the Steering Committee of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Multi-country Agricultural Productivity Program (2007-2011) that established the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA). Mr Chapweteka is also the Executive Secretary of the Fertilizer Association of Malawi (2006-present) and the founder of Rural Market Development Trust (RUMARK). He has extensive experience in the Market for the Poor (M4P) approach, negotiating business contracts and credit for enterprises.  He has considerable policy advocacy experience, completing a study entitled “Developing Sustainable Input Supply Systems in Malawi,” which led to the development of the Malawi Input and Output Market Development Programme (IOMDP) under Ministry of Agriculture. Furthermore, Mr Chapweteka’s knowledge and understanding of the Africa’s economic land-scape is demonstrated in having assisted in the establishment and registration of the Fertilizer Association in Malawi and of the National Agrodealers Associations in Tanzania and Malawi. In Southern and East Africa, Mr Chapweteka has in depth knowledge and experience in the economic market, political economy, gender, social, poverty and environmental analyses.  During his career, he has worked and engaged the Parliamentary Committees and Ministers in order to get them understand why it is imperative to work together for the good of the rural poor as well as gender integration.

Mr. Chapweteka has significant management experience, having served as Country Director for Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia; Senior Policy Advisor for Africa Region; Team Leader of a technical secretariat that presented to the UN Millennium Commission on Promoting a Green Revolution in Malawi; and Team Leader of a 15-member consortium (made of fertilizer, seed and crop protection chemicals companies) advocating to the Government of Malawi for a market-based inputs subsidy program. He can incorporate best practices from other countries, having advised the Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania Government on implementation of market-based subsidy programs. Mr. Chapweteka understands stakeholder engagement and consensus-building, for example in the conceptualization and establishment of the Fertilizer Association of Malawi and the Agricultural Inputs Traders Association (AITA) of Malawi. He was responsible for the successful outcome of initiating and bringing together all private sector players, donors and government in Malawi to start a dialogue on implementation of subsidy programs in 2006.

Mr. Chapweteka has also assisted in writing reports and opinion papers contributed to AGRA, USAID, DFID, AfDB, NORAD, World Bank and other donor policy discussions.

Commissioner

DR EMMANUEL FABIANO

Date of appointment: 9^th June 2021

Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (1983-1986); MSc from University of Warwick (1978-1980) and Bachelor of Education Degree from the University of Malawi (1972-1977). He is a recipient of the Education Leadership Award from Global Awards for Excellence in Education, Leadership and Teaching and the K.N. Welch Prize for the best PhD thesis in Organic Chemistry in 1986 at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Dr. Fabiano has held various leadership and management positions in Government and in the University of Malawi. He served as a Member of Parliament for Chiradzulu West from 2014 to 2019. It is during this time that he was appointed Minister of Education, Science and Technology (2014-2017); and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2017-2019). He also worked with the University of Malawi for 26 years where he served in various positions including that of Vice-Chancellor, Principal and Head of Chemistry Department. From 1997 to 2011, he served as Honorary Deputy Director of the African Forum for Children’s Literacy in Science and Technology (AFCLIST).

He has also served as a Board Chairperson, Member and Trustee of various Boards since 1998.

Dr. Fabiano has conducted numerous chemistry research studies and developed several science publications. He has presented several papers at conferences and authored a number of books. He has also organized and participated in numerous conferences, seminars and workshops in different disciplines across the globe.

Commissioner

MR FRANCIS LAZALO KASAILA

Date of appointment: 9^th June 2021

Mr. Francis Lazalo Kasaila is a registered engineer with the Malawi Board of Engineers. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic.

He served as a water Engineer for Save the Children Fund (UK) between 1993 and 1998; Public Works Officer for Malawi Social Action Fund (1998-1999) Regional Projects Officer for European Union (Micro Projects Programme) between 2000 and 2006; and Water and Infrastructure Manager for world Vision International (2006 -2009).

Mr. Kasaila also served as Member of Parliament for Nsanje Central Constituency from 2009 to 2020. It is during this time that he served as a Deputy Minister of Transport and Public Works, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Chairperson of Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament, Leader of the house for National Assembly, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development, Minister of Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism as well as Minister of Agriculture and Food Security.

Commissioner

MS CAROLINE MFUNE

Date of appointment: 9th June 2021

Commissioner Caroline Mfune is an inter-disciplinary professional, with an inclination towards operational efficiency of organizations in diverse sectors.
With over twenty five years of practical experience in the operations, advocacy for the girl child and women, and entrepreneurship. She has an established reputation of providing management leadership solutions to a wide array of corporate governance and enterprise development.

An International Relations and Diplomacy scholar, she served as Board Member for Airport Development Limited chairing Finance and Audit Committee and a member of the Operations and Human Resources Committee.

She also served as chairperson of Ethel Mutharika Foundation and chairperson of Beautify Malawi Trust among many other national engagements.