Politics
George Thapatula Chaponda
Minister of Foreign Affairs; MP for Mulanje South West
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- Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Member of Parliament for Mulanje South West
- Constituency
- Mulanje South West
- District
- Mulanje
- Region
- Southern Region
- Party
- DPP Democratic Progressive Party
- In Parliament
- Elected 16 September 2025
- In office since
- 5 October 2025
Contact
Contacts as published by the Parliament of Malawi.
2025 election result: Mulanje South West
- George Chaponda DPP9,887 45.6%
- Davie Mpaso Independent3,884 17.9%
- Alindine Neshal Chimbalanga UTM3,047 14.1%
- Mayeso Edson Chipyoza PDP1,997 9.2%
- Edgar Thodi Munseka Independent1,987 9.2%
Top 5 of 7 candidates.
Source: Malawi Electoral Commission
George Thapatula Chaponda is Malawi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, appointed on 5 October 2025. Before that he was Leader of the Opposition in Parliament from May 2024 until the 2025 election.
He was born on 1 November 1942 in Chonde village, Mulanje district. He studied history and political science at the University of Delhi in India, then law at the University of Zambia and at Yale University in the United States. From 1984 to 2002 he worked mostly as a senior lawyer for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in countries including Somalia, Kenya, Thailand, Switzerland and Ethiopia, and he chaired the University of Malawi Council from 2003 to 2004.
He is a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and first won Mulanje South West in 2004. Under Bingu wa Mutharika he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Local Government, Education and Justice. Under Peter Mutharika he returned to Foreign Affairs in 2014, moved to Agriculture in 2016 and was Leader of the House. He was removed from the Cabinet in 2017 over Maizegate, a scandal about government maize purchases.
His son is the comedian Daliso Chaponda, who came third on Britain’s Got Talent in 2017.
George Thapatula Chaponda is the Member of Parliament for Mulanje South West constituency in Mulanje district, in Malawi’s Southern Region. He sits as a member of the DPP. In the 16 September 2025 general election Chaponda won the seat with 9,887 votes (45.6% of valid votes), ahead of Davie Mpaso (Independent) with 3,884. 7 candidates stood.
