Tribute to MBC DG Brian Banda

Today, we lay aside our laurels, mourning deeply the passing of not just a director general (DG), but a voice that shaped — if not questioned — our national conversation. I first met Brian Banda in the early days of my tenure as Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) DG in 2007. He was young, eager and already fearless with a microphone.

I came across a lunch hour bulletin he had filed — clean, direct, and full of promise. I called him to my office and asked him a simple question: That “yes” birthed a career under The Gurus, one of the four programmes I had introduced on Radio 1. He was being produced by Vincent Khonyongwa, whilst topics for discussion were handled by Kondwani Nankhumwa, now a legislator.

That was our biggest mistake because we lost him to competition after three runs. But as Brian himself would later prove: “Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.” His maiden show is still etched in my memory.

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The topic was ‘The state of security’. His guests were heavyweights: the late honourable Sam Mpasu representing UDF, honourable Kamlepo Kalua, honourable Kamuzu Chibambo and Dr. Heatherwick Ntaba.

Ntaba came on the offensive, arguing that “security was better under the DPP government compared to the UDF days of young democrat violence”. Then the late Sam Mpasu flipped the room. He turned to Dr.

Ntaba and asked: “Dr. Ntaba, let me ask you. You were attacked recently and lost your computer.

You are chief political adviser to the President. If a chief adviser to the President can be attacked, who is safe? Are you sure security is better now than during UDF times?” The optics changed instantly.

The studio went silent. And Brian… Brian panicked. This was MBC, where self-censorship was an occupational hazard.

It was his first major live debate, and “the heat was real”. After the show, I called him to my office. He walked in “sweating profusely”, convinced his career was over.

I didn’t reprimand him. I saw a local Tim Sebastian with a Nguni flavour. I handed him a bottle of Cherry Plum and said: “Brian, that’s what journalism looks like.

Hold the line.” I reacted that way because I believe what Edward R. Murrow said: “The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.” Brian was destined to be seen.

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