LILONGWE (MaraviPost)—Chief Presidential Advisor on Strategy and Communication Bright Malopa alongside Z Allan Ntata are reported to have teamed up in their bid to bring down Special Assistant to the President Ben Phiri, who announced his resignation after being severely assaulted by Ntata in the media.
Those who are in team Ben Phiri have consistently accused Bright Malopa of fighting Phiri directly by reporting negative things about Phiri to the President and using pseudo names such as Patseni Mauka and Chiipira Wachaje, who have been fiercely attacking Phiri on the social media.
But in a twist of events, team Ben Phiri seems to have started gathering steam following an expose they are alleged to have released today on the social media regarding Bright Malopa’s maneuverings for influence in the Peter Mutharika administration.
According to the expose which has gone viral on the social media, Malopa is said to have approached President Arthur Peter Mutharika in June, 2014 soon after the presidential swearing-in ceremony that he wanted nothing short of the post of the Malawi Government’s Chief Secretary.
The Chief Secretary is Malawi’s top most civil servant and often times, Presidents have chosen their Chief Secretaries from the crop of highly educated and experienced Principal Secretaries within the civil service.
However, Bright Malopa does not have any of the above attributes.
According to impeccable Office of President and Cabinet sources, Malopa’s wishes to the then newly elected Malawi leader were first disclosed at a meeting President Mutharika had with the self -acclaimed strategist at the President’s private residence in Nyambadwe, Blantyre.
The meeting was held on Saturday 31st May, 2014 at the President’s private residence in Nyambadwe, Blantyre at around 18.45 pm after Mutharika was sworn-in at the Malawi High Court hours earlier.
In his submission to the Malawi leader, Malopa said as a ‘marketer’, he was going to help in reforming the Malawi civil service into one of Africa’s best civil service entities.
Three-days later, Malopa, well known for his cunning behavior, allegedly followed up his request for the top government job with a Memo to President Mutharika.
“Several text messages were also sent from Malopa’s mobile phone to that of the Malawi leader,” says the source.
Following this interest by Malopa, the President decided to give the former MBC boss a benefit of doubt and requested for his qualifications. Allegedly, Malopa failed to submit them until almost a month elapsed.
On 25th June 2014, President Mutharika made it known to Malopa that he was not going to hand him the top job because he lacked not only experience but academic qualifications as well.
The President therefore opted to give it to Deputy Chief Secretary, Willie Samute in acting capacity. This happened after the removal of the then Chief Secretary, Hawa Ndilowe that happened on the same day, June 25th, 2014.
Soon after being turned down on this job, Malopa moved on to suggest to the President that he be considered for the job of Chief Executive Officer at ADMARC or Director General at the communications regulator, MACRA. He also campaigned for the position of Executive Director for the National Aids Commission (NAC). The President rebuffed him on all.
However, further persistence by Malopa resulted in the President opting to deploy him at Kang’ombe House in Lilongwe where he works as the President’s Chief Strategist on Communication.
Although he was given what he, (Malopa) has often described as ‘half a loaf’ in the Office of President and Cabinet, he has continuously undermined the authority of the incumbent Chief Secretary, George Mkondiwa on the premise that he took ‘his job’.
According to our source, Malopa has on several occasion, threated the then NAC boss – Bisika – in an attempt to take over from the NAC’s top most job but that also failed.
Bright Malopa has for a long time also, allegedly, embarked on a systematic campaign to replace State Residences Director, the former Inspector General of Police, Peter Mukhitho.
As part of his strategy, Malopa has been leaking to the media some information from the State Residences so that later, this is blamed on Mukhitho as the controlling officer.
About two months ago, Malopa was behind the story that spread like wildfire in the media that President Mutharika had sacked Peter Mukhitho as Director of State Residences and Paulos Chisale as Special Assistant on Security. It later transpired that the story was a cooked propaganda piece by Malopa.
Before that, Malopa also prepared propaganda material which he allerged that he was fired for his post as the advisor on communication and stratergist to the president, a development which was not true and Malopa still has that job to date.
Born, Obrian Malopa and son of an adventist pastor, Malopa went to Malamulo Secondary School of the Seventh Day Adventist.
It is suspected that he changed his name from Obrian to Bright to allow him use a forged MSCE certificate after failing to get a legitimate one at Makwasa.
