Veteran Malawian politician, John Tembo has died in a hospital in the capital, Lilongwe, at the age of 91, his family has confirmed. Tembo became an MP aged 27 in 1960 in the run-up to the country’s independence from the UK.
He then came to be seen as the right-hand man of former President Hastings Banda, as Cecelia Kadzamira, Mr Tembo’s niece, was hired to serve as the government’s official hostess in place of a first lady. After Malawi gained independence in 1964, John Zenus Ungapake Tembo served as the country’s first finance minister.
He later held a number of other cabinet positions throughout his career. During Dr. Banda’s 30-year tenure, he served as head of the central bank and was regarded as the most important official.
Popularly known by his initials JZU, his most notable position was as a member of the three-person presidential council that oversaw Malawi from 15 October to 8 December 1993, during which time the ailing Dr. Banda was declared incapacitated following brain surgery.
Following a referendum in June 1993, Malawi ended the single-party government, and Dr Banda and his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) lost power in historic multiparty elections the following year.
John Tembo was a Malawian politician who served for years as President of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Tembo comes from the Dedza District in central Malawi, and he was a teacher by profession.
On September 14, 1932, Tembo was born in the Central Region’s Dedza District. Zenus Ungapake Tembo, his father, served as a preacher for the Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP). Before enrolling in Blantyre Secondary School, he attended a number of primary schools. Later, he moved to Lesotho to attend the University of Roma (also known as Pius XII College), where he eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts in political philosophy in 1958. In 1958, he taught for two years at Robert Blake Secondary School in the central region area of Dowa after a brief stint at Dedza Secondary School.
Tembo was invited to run for a parliamentary seat in the Dedza South constituency in 1960, two years after Dr Banda arrived in the nation from Ghana to lead the independence movement against British colonial rule. Three years before Nyasaland became independent and the Republic of Malawi, Tembo was elected to the country’s legislative assembly in 1961. He succeeded Henry Phillips (later Sir Henry Phillips) as Malawi’s second finance minister after the country gained independence. Dunduzu Chisiza had been the preferred choice for the position, but he was killed in a car accident in 1962.
Tembo was invited to run for a parliamentary seat in the Dedza South constituency in 1960, two years after Dr. Banda arrived in the nation from Ghana to lead the independence movement against British colonial rule. Three years before Nyasaland became independent and the Republic of Malawi, Tembo was elected to the country’s legislative assembly in 1961. He succeeded Henry Phillips (later Sir Henry Phillips) as Malawi’s second finance minister after the country gained independence. Dunduzu Chisiza had been the preferred choice for the position, but he was killed in a car accident in 1962.
