When we were young, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda was an enigma. I have said it before and I will say it again: I genuinely believed the man was omnipresent and omniscient. That illusion shattered the day we saw photographs of him stumbling and falling.
Only then did we appreciate a simple truth: life catches up with everyone, whether they live behind the gates of State House or within the four walls of my little shack in Mbayani. Because activist Silvester Namiwa is answering treason charges for claiming Vice-President Jane Ansah could be at the helm within two months. I have never known Namiwa to be a prophet, nor am I obliged to believe a word he says.
His repeated private visits to South Africa have reignited debate about transparency, accountability and the health of leadership in Africa’s fragile democracies. What should have been a routine disclosure has instead become a political storm, fuelled by contradictory statements from government spokespeople about the President’s location and condition. If there is one lesson from this week’s confusion, it is that Malawians deserve access to information.
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The President has declared that he intends to unite the nation and serve until the end of his mandate in 2030. Fair enough. But why should repeated private visits to South Africa remain wrapped in secrecy?
The real issue is not where a president chooses to spend his private time, even in a country battling periodic xenophobic tensions. The issue is whether citizens can trust the information coming from their own government. They only deepen public mistrust, especially against the backdrop of widely reported power struggles within the DPP—the very party President Mutharika says he intends to hand power to in 2030.
Nigeria learnt that during Umaru Yar’Adua’s prolonged illness. Zambia experienced the same uncertainty during Levy Mwanawasa’s final months in office.
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