Joyce Banda failed in her attempt to win a second term in office after losing out in Malawi’s May presidential elections to Peter Mutharika, a brother to the country’s former president, Bingu wa Mutharika. It’s been a humiliating end to what could have easily been a glorious political career for Malawi’s first female president. Banda became Malawi’s ruler in 2012 after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika. She started off relatively well – selling off the presidential jet, announcing a cut to her salary, loosening foreign exchange controls and even devaluing the Kwacha at the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund. But she lost all goodwill in the wake of the infamous ‘Cashgate scandal’, in which millions of dollars were embezzled by top civil servants in one of the most brazen cases of corruption the country has witnessed in its recent history. Banda is the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation International which supports projects aimed at empowering market women and providing orphans with access to education.
