The Hard Truth is that the Malawi Congress Party has finally confirmed what many Malawians have long suspected – that our opposition does not know its role in a democracy.
The press conference addressed by Moses Kunkuyu and Jessie Kabwila on Thursday was not accountability, it was childish drama, it was shameful to the democratic world, and it was an insult to Malawians’ intelligence.
Let us start with facts. The government, through the Secretary to the Office of President and Cabinet, Dr Justin Saidi, had already informed the nation that His Excellency President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika had travelled to South Africa on a private visit. This was not a secret abduction. Malawians saw it.
Hundreds of Malawians lining the road from Kamuzu Palace saw their President walking majestically, waving, in sound health and high spirits as he left for South Africa on October 6. There was no vacuum then, there is no vacuum now.
The Hard Truth is that governing a country in the 21st century does not require a President to be chained to a chair at State House.
What President Mutharika can do at Kamuzu Palace, he can do in Pretoria, in London or in Lilongwe. Government is an institution, not a building. All government affairs are intact.
Ministers are working, Principal Secretaries are working, development projects are running. The country has not stopped because the President boarded a plane.
In fact, while in South Africa, President Mutharika has done more for Malawi than MCP has done in two years of shouting.
It is while in South Africa that the President has been engaging fuel suppliers to stabilize the supply chain that MCP destroyed, it is while there that he has held strategic meetings on foreign exchange recovery, and it is while there that he demonstrated statesmanship by delegating Second Vice President Honourable Enoch Chihana to represent him at the historic 150th anniversary celebrations of the Blantyre Synod of the CCAP.
If a President can delegate, can negotiate fuel, can direct government from South Africa, what is this noise about vacuum? That is leadership, not absence.
This is why The Hard Truth commends renowned private practice lawyer and Chairperson of National Advocacy Platform, Benedicto Kondowe, for pumping sense into the empty heads of MCP.
Kondowe has correctly schooled them that there is no power vacuum, no leadership vacuum, nope. Section 79 and Section 92(3) of our Constitution do not say that when the President travels privately, the Vice President must rush to a podium to address the nation. MCP’s demand is legally baseless, constitutionally illiterate and politically mischievous.
MCP has run out of ideas. The Hard Truth has established that this press conference was a tactical diversion. The party is burning inside.
There is a serious leadership crisis rocking MCP where Lazarus Chakwera and his sympathizers want to disrespect the party constitution by amending it to pave way for a third term attempt for Chakwera, a man who was shamelessly defeated in the 2025 elections and rejected by Malawians.
Instead of answering their own members who are demanding new blood because Chakwera was tested and found wanting, Kunkuyu and Kabwila thought they could divert attention by attacking Mutharika’s private trip.
That tactic will not work. Malawians know MCP supporters themselves want Chakwera to go.
The Hard Truth is that a President’s privacy must be respected. Privacy is privacy.
Kunkuyu said he did not know whether the President was unwell, yet his whole presser was built on speculation about illness. This is evil and primitive.
It is over ten years now that some Malawians have been wishing APM dead. Every year they say he is sick, he will die. But God is protecting him.
Malawians will remember that even the late Nigerian evangelist TB Joshua once prophesied that Mutharika would die soon, but today it is the so-called prophet who died and APM is still alive, walking majestically, ruling and serving. Let APM enjoy his privacy in sound health. Stop equating privacy with illness.
Does MCP not know that Presidents rule from abroad? Joe Biden ruled America while on holiday in Delaware, Cyril Ramaphosa has ruled South Africa while in New York and London, Paul Kagame has ruled Rwanda while in Davos.
Even during MCP’s own time, Chakwera was ruling Malawi while spending weeks outside. Why should Mutharika be different? Kunkuyu and Kabwila were once in government, they should know better.
Therefore, The Hard Truth calls for a refresher course for the opposition. MCP needs to be taught the dos and don’ts of democracy.
The role of opposition is not to manufacture crises, not to speculate about a President’s health, not to demand addresses without constitutional basis.
The role is to provide evidence-based alternatives, to propose solutions on forex, on fuel, on electricity, with facts and figures. Until then, they remain a childish opposition that is a shame to democracy.
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