{"id":78871,"date":"2019-06-07T03:03:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T01:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=78871"},"modified":"2019-06-07T03:03:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T01:03:32","slug":"tributes-pour-in-for-thomson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/07\/tributes-pour-in-for-thomson\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in for Thomson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Jameson Chauluka:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ken-ndanga.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-74526 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ken-ndanga-300x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ken-ndanga-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ken-ndanga.jpg 661w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Tributes continue pouring in for former Cabinet minister, Harry Thomson, who died Thursday morning in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Thomson, 85, was among the first Cabinet ministers in United Democratic Front (UDF)\u2019s administration in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>UDF spokesperson, Ken Ndanga, said the party had, after the death of Thomson, lost a pillar and source of wisdom.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIf it was not for people like the late honourable Thomson, I would not have been here talking to you. The late Thomson was one of the bravest sons the country has ever had.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He wanted the best for his country,\u201d<\/em> he said. Ndanga said Thomson was among the first people to challenge the one-party regime in the early 1990s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thomson served as minister of Trade, Health and Energy and as UDF secretary general. Thomson, who also served as member of Parliament (MP) for Chikwawa North, was at some point the government\u2019s Chief Whip in Parliament during the UDF reign.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe late Thomson was there when UDF was born. He was part of the press conference which announced the birth of UDF and his name appeared in the papers the following day when a lot of people were afraid of associating with the party,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thomson was an independent MP for Chikwawa North in the past five years. Thomson is survived by a wife of 62 years, three children and several grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>His remains are expected to jet in the country today through Kamuzu International Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jameson Chauluka: Tributes continue pouring in for former Cabinet minister, Harry Thomson, who died Thursday morning in South Africa. Thomson, 85, was among the first Cabinet ministers in United Democratic Front (UDF)\u2019s administration in 1994. UDF spokesperson, Ken Ndanga, said the party had, after the death of Thomson, lost a pillar and source of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78875,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78871\/revisions\/78875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}