By: Grace Kapatuka
President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday took time off his busy schedules and inspected a paratrooper training at Mpatsanjoka Airfield in Salima where he also presented certificates to 53 graduates who have completed a paratrooper basic course.
The President who is also the Commander –in- Chief of the Malawi Defense Forces (MDF) witnessed the administrative and combat jumps as well as sky masters from the paratroopers who have completed a six week long paratrooper training.
During the inspection ceremony, the President also presented a certificate to Shupie Zamadenga, for being the best female student and to Noel Kabambe for being an overall best student during the paratrooper training which is the fourth cohort to be trained this year alone.
Speaking in an interview with Malawi News Agency (MANA), MDF Commander Major General Vincent Nundwe said, MDF has trained over 200 paratroopers alone, a development he said means that the force is well equipped with soldiers specialized in the field.
“This is a special unit of the military which goes to war by using aircrafts and they land in the enemy’s territory using parachutes. This means that Malawi as a country we are well equipped when it comes to that service because we have over 200 trained this year alone and we hope to continue training more,” he said.
He said Malawi being one of the member states of the Southern Africa Development Committee (SADC) will also continue offering training to other member states citing an example of the last cohort of paratroopers which incorporated soldiers from Zambia.
General Nundwe reminded the soldiers of the need to display high levels of discipline and professionalism every time they are sent on a mission.
“Let me remind them that they need to exercise high levels of discipline and professionalism in making sure that lives of civilians is not in danger.
We are there as soldiers to protect and not threaten them,” said Nundwe.
Before inspecting the paratrooper training, President Chakwera opened the annual conference of engineers at Sunbird Livingstonia Hotel where he called upon the engineers to come up with structure designs that are in line with the Malawi 2063 Agenda.
The engineers’ conference was held under the theme “Accelerating the Roadmap to Malawi 2063 Through Engineering.”