Kasakula Era Ends at MBC as Board Fires Him Over Partisanship Claims

The long and controversial reign of George Kasakula at the helm of Malawi’s public broadcaster has come to a sudden and dramatic end, marking the collapse of one of the most politically charged chapters in the history of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Kasakula himself confirmed the decision on Tuesday, saying he received the dismissal letter earlier in the day and was informed that the board had summarily terminated his contract. “It is true, the board has dismissed me.

They are saying I was partisan,” Kasakula said, in a brief but revealing admission that captures the central accusation that has followed him throughout his tenure. Appointed in 2021, Kasakula was expected to professionalise the country’s oldest media house and restore public confidence in a broadcaster meant to serve all Malawians regardless of political affiliation. Instead, his term became increasingly associated with allegations of bias, political favouritism and the превращение of MBC into a megaphone for those in power.

Ironically, just months ago in June 2024, Kasakula had signed a fresh contract extending his stay until June 2027, a deal that suggested institutional stability and board confidence. That promise has now collapsed in less than a year. His fall, however, did not begin today.

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In October last year, Kasakula was suspended from duty pending investigations, a move that signalled that the board had already lost trust in his leadership. For many journalists and media analysts, his dismissal is less a surprise and more an overdue correction. Under his watch, MBC was repeatedly accused of sidelining opposition voices, giving disproportionate coverage to government officials and abandoning its constitutional mandate as a public, not political, broadcaster.

The board’s decision effectively closes what many have dubbed “the Kasakula era”, a period remembered not for editorial independence, but for institutional capture. Beyond the personal loss of a powerful job, the dismissal represents something bigger: a public admission that MBC had drifted away from its core mission and that partisanship at the top is no longer sustainable in a media environment increasingly under public scrutiny. Kasakula leaves office not as a reformer, but as a cautionary tale of how quickly public institutions can lose credibility when leadership serves politics before the public. His exit now places MBC at a crossroads, either to rebuild itself as a genuinely national broadcaster or to remain trapped in the cycle of political control that has haunted it for decades.

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