Despite the dark side of former Minister of Agriculture George Chaponda which everybody has found it easy to see through maize -gate, the minister biography  can explain how he earned some of his wealth.

In the streets, people are having ill-talk about Chaponda, thinking he is uneducated citizen who has no good means of earning wealth, the k166 million the Anti-Corruption Bureau found in his house was all embezzled from government.

But if you take another look at him, through the lens of his background you will understand that some of this money he can earn by himself.

He wos born in Chonde Village, Mulanje District, Chaponda studied at the University of Delhi from 1963 to 1968 where he received degrees in history and political science.

He studied law at the University of Zambia from 1976 to 1979 and at Yale University from 1980 to 1984. He was admitted to the Bar in 1980.He held a number of senior positions in Zambia including Chief Executive of a parastal organisation.

From 1984 to 2002, he worked mostly as a senior lawyer for the Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Somalia, Kenya, Thailand, Bangladesh, Switzerland, Austria, Poland and Ethiopia.

From 2003-2004 he was Chairman of the University Council of the University of Malawi. In 2004 Chaponda entered Malawian politics and was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Mulanje South West.

In June 2004, he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of the newly elected President Bingu wa Mutharika. He served in that position until 2005, when he was appointed Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.

After the elections in May 2009, he was appointed Minister of Education. In 2010 George Chaponda was appointed Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

In September 2011, President Bingu wa Mutharika re-appointed him to cabinet as Minister of Education, Science and Technology. He served in that post until April 2012, when the president died suddenly of a heart attack. Mutharika’s successor, Joyce Banda, appointed Chaponda Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on 22 June 2014. On 7 April 2016, President Peter Mutharika moved Chaponda to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development.

Mutharika then appointed him Leader of the House of Assembly in May 2016. After a brief suspension in early 2017, Chaponda was re-instated in February but only held the post for a week before he was succeeded by his deputy Kondwani Nankhumwa in an interim capacity, pending the results of Chaponda’s ongoing corruption investigation.