Donton Samuel Mkandawire was a Malawian politician, educator, diplomat, and former Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for the Mzimba Central seat in the Mzimba District.[1][2]
He studied for a Bachelor of Education degree at Kingswood Methodist College at the University of Western Australia under a Nyasaland State Scholarship.[3] As an educator, he served as a professor at the University of Namibia.[1] Mkandawire served as head of Malawi Examinations Board (Maneb) and Malawi Institute of Education.[4] In 1988, there was a scandal at Maneb where 10 northerners were removed for allegedly conspiring to influence the Malawi Certificate of Education school exams with Mkandawire who was the head of the board and also from the northern region.[5] There was no evidence of this allegation, but northerners were not on the Maneb board for several years after.[6] He was assigned a diplomatic post to Kenya at the same time but due to these allegations, he did not take this post but instead fled the country.[7]
Mkandawire was a member of the UDF under the Bakili Muluzi administration.[4] He was also the Minister of education.[1] In 2009, he switched parties to DPP and served as Chief Executive Officer of Lilongwe City Assembly. He later ran and won the seat of MP for Mzimba. He died on December 24, 2011 at Mwaiwathu Hospital in Blantyre from Cancer.[4][8]