03/03/2024
When Joyce Banda became Prèsident of Malawi, she sold off the country’s only Presidential Jet and a fleet of 60 Mercedes Limousines and invested the money in some projects. 🇲🇼
She preferred, instead, to use private airlines for official engagements. Banda also cut her annual salary from £37,000 to £26,000.
Joyce Banda served as vice president (2009–2012) and president (2012–2014) of Malawi. She was the first woman to serve as head of state anywhere in Southern Africa.
Banda’s official government profile states that she obtained a bachelor’s degree from Atlantic International University, an online university based in the United States. During her first marriage to Roy Kachale, she lived in Nairobi, where she became active in the women’s movement.
Her personal experience in an abusive marriage shaped her evolving career in grassroots activism and politics, as did her subsequent marriage to Richard Banda, a barrister would who would later serve as chief justice of Malawi (1992–2002) and whom she credited as being supportive of her efforts. Before focusing on politics, Joyce Banda founded and directed various businesses and organizations, including a garment-manufacturing business, a bakery, the National Association of Business Women of Malawi, and the Joyce Banda Foundation, an organization dedicated to rural development and improving the lives of women and children.