“I invited Mr Joaquim Chissano and Mr Thabo Mbeki over the lake issue” – Her Excellency Dr Joyce Banda

Her Excellency Dr Joyce Banda
My fellow Malawians
I can confirm that our government invited former presidents of Mozambique and South Africa, His Excellences Mr Joaquim Chissano and Mr Thabo Mbeki over the issue of Lake Malawi border dispute with Tanzania.
The reasons for this meeting was to express our gravest concerns that Tanzania is now making unsubstantiatedstatements shifting the border line to be in the middle of the lake and reports that Tanzania is considering to deploy boats in Lake Malawi while the outcome of the mediation process that both countries are taking part has not been determined.
We consider such position by our Tanzanian brothersand sisters as lack of sincerity on their part hence we found it necessary as a matter of urgency to brief and update Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Joaquim Chissano who are part of the mediation team.
I also invited leaders of opposition parties to be partof this process as Malawi belongs to us all and I am very thankful for their valuable contributions especially Mr Joseph Kubwalo who was our Malawi’s High Commissioner to the Republic of Tanzania in 1995 as he provided very important information regarding our lake during this meeting.
We understand that former president of Malawi Mr Bakili Muluzi and former President of Tanzania Mr Nkapa made an agreement in 1995 for the construction of a railway line between Mbamba Bay and Ntwala for Malawi to be able to transport its good directly from the sea.
Since then, it has been a procedure and protocol forTanzania asking for permission through our Malawi High Commission’s office in Tanzania to access our waters and such permission was usually granted. Now, we are wondering when was this protocol changed for Tanzania to consider deploying boats in our waters without our permission and to start making unsubstantiatedborder claims on our lake.
It is this provocative behaviour that necessitated myoffice to call for Mr Mbeki and Mr Chissano to hear our profound concerns.