Joyce Banda – Biography, Husband, Children, Family, Brief Facts

Joyce Banda declined to agree to the presidential plan and for her efforts, she was kicked out of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Her name would thereafter be taunted at public rallies and on Malawi’s state airwaves.

At one point, First Lady Callista Mutharika called her a market woman who sells donuts, saying she was mistaken, she was a serious politician.

However, Joyce Banda never agreed to the demands for her to step down as the country’s vice president, since she was elected and not appointed, she could not be fired by President Mutharika. She instead formed her own People’s Party and when 78-year-old President Bingu wa Mutharika died in office, she took over from him.

For Joyce Banda, politics wasn’t everything. In 1997, she shared with former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano the Africa Leadership Award for a Sustainable End to Hunger by the US Hunger Project.

With a story like this, expectations were high for Joyce Banda, but then Cashgate happened. At the heart of the scandal was a computerized system for storing financial information.

Government officials are said to have exploited a loophole in the system to divert millions from government coffers. When it was discovered, it was estimated that approximately $250 million was lost in allegedly fraudulent payments to businessmen for services that were not rendered.

The whole scandal erupted after the Treasury Department’s Budget Director, Paul Mphwiyo, was shot in September 2013. Before his death, a young official was reportedly found in the trunk of his car with a total of more than $300,000 in cash.

With donors providing up to 40% of Malawi’s annual budget, the country was nearly devastated when angry donors withheld $150 million pending further investigations into the scandal.

Malawians were also shocked by the allegations and although Joyce Banda argued that she took appropriate steps including identifying, arresting and prosecuting suspects as soon as she became aware of them, some people linked the scandal to the President. President Joyce Banda tried to collect funds for the May election campaign.

Joyce Banda Husband, Children, Family

In 1981, Joyce Banda left her first husband, taking their three children with him because he was abusive. Eight years later, she founded the National Association of Business Women, a group that lends start-up cash to small businesses. She also founded the Joyce Banda Foundation, a charity that supports Malawian children and orphans through education.

She later married retired judge Richard Banda, with whom she has two children. At one point she said of him;