Politics

A prominent political commentator has accused President Peter Mutharika's government of recycling the excuses of its predecessor, as motorists face long queues and patchy supplies of petrol and diesel. Idriss Ali Nassah challenged the administration's explanation that international supply chain shocks are behind Malawi's worsening fuel shortages. In a post, he said the line resembled [...]

President Peter Mutharika has marked one year back in office with a wide-ranging reflection on his return to power, telling Malawi Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday evening that his time out of government had sharpened his determination to rebuild the country. "It was very exciting time, I can tell you that, after five years in the [...]

A year after his return to State House on a promise of "proven leadership", President Arthur Peter Mutharika has been given a mark that is neither failure nor triumph: 62.2%, or "Satisfactory". The score comes from an independent audit by Nation Publications Limited, published to mark the first anniversary of his 4 October 2025 inauguration. [...]

A public row has erupted between a self-described concerned citizen and Malawi's Leader of Opposition, after a leaked letter accused Simplex Chithyola Banda of failing to speak up for ordinary Malawians. In the letter, Joshua Mbewe challenges Chithyola to take a more active role on the issues hitting citizens, and insists he is not trying [...]

A scathing Malawi News editorial has laid out a brutal checklist of unmet promises facing the Democratic Progressive Party one year into power, arguing that the trust Malawians placed in the party at the ballot box was effectively secured long before a single vote was cast — and now must be repaid in full. The [...]

A furious row over whether Malawi's Leader of Opposition Simplex Chithyola Banda has gone mysteriously silent on the issues gripping the nation has exposed deep public confusion over exactly what his job actually involves, according to political analysts. Critics have accused Chithyola Banda of failing to speak out on trending national controversies — but insiders [...]

Mourners gathered in Bolero on Thursday to pay their final respects to former acting Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe, Mtima Walter Gondwe, in an emotional ceremony attended by senior government figures — just years after his extraordinary fall from grace saw him stripped of his chieftaincy by court order. Leading the tributes was Minister of Local Government [...]

Senior Malawian police officers have delivered starkly conflicting accounts over the condition and handling of former vice-president Saulos Chilima's mobile phones following the devastating June 10, 2024 military plane crash in Nthungwa Forest, Viphya Plantation. Former Northern Region Deputy Commissioner of Police Glinton Mitayi told the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the crash that he personally [...]

A baffling one-hour discrepancy has emerged over the moment the wreckage of the aircraft carrying former Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others was discovered — raising fresh questions over the desperate search operation and the preservation of vital evidence. Parliament’s Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa plane crash has expressed concern after being presented with two [...]

Proceedings in an election petition challenging Sports Minister Alfred Gangata’s victory in the Lilongwe City Mtandire-Mtsiriza Constituency have been suspended pending a ruling by the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal. The High Court’s decision means the case brought by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate George Zulu will not proceed until the appeal court determines an [...]

There is a particular kind of political attack that requires no evidence, no policy critique, and no real engagement with an opponent's record, merely the passage of time itself. Atupele Muluzi has now deployed it twice against Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika, and it is worth asking whether it amounts to much of an argument at [...]

Malawi’s ambassador to Kuwait has launched a dramatic legal fight after being ordered to pack his bags and leave in just 16 days—despite regulations that allegedly require three months’ notice. Younos Abdul Karim, who has served as Malawi’s ambassador to Kuwait since 2022, is challenging the Government’s dramatic decision to end his posting, accusing authorities [...]

There is a particular genre of diplomatic non-story that has become familiar in the age of the Facebook communiqué: two politicians meet, one of them posts a photograph, and the rest of us are left to work out what, if anything, actually happened. Malawi's Second Vice President, Enoch Kamzingeni Chihana, has just supplied a textbook [...]

When opposition politicians seek inspiration for domestic policy, war zones are rarely the first destination on the itinerary. Yet United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Atupele Muluzi has returned from Kyiv offering precisely that: drawing an explicit parallel between Ukraine’s wartime endurance and the economic challenges facing Malawi. ​Writing on social media following his attendance at [...]

A fiery parliamentary inquiry into the tragic plane crash that killed Malawi’s Vice-President Saulos Chilima descended into chaos on Monday after an explosive row erupted between furious politicians. ​The Ad-Hoc Parliamentary Committee hearing turned into a dramatic showdown when Lilongwe Mude MP Mphatso Boti Phiri blasted suggestions that phones were the only items damaged when [...]

A fierce leadership battle has erupted at the heart of Malawi's opposition MCP, after party heavyweight Alex Major launched a blistering broadside against former president Lazarus Chakwera's closest allies — branding Simplex Chithyola Banda and other confidants "opportunists" more interested in clinging to power than genuinely serving the party. Major wasted no time declaring his [...]

A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Member of Parliament has delivered a blistering public attack on President Lazarus Chakwera, declaring the party can "never reform or rebrand" while he remains in charge — as internal tensions over the party's future explode into open warfare. Ayuba James, Independent MP for Nkhota Kota Central and MCP member, launched [...]

Here's the thing about the row unfolding inside Malawi's Congress Party. On the surface, it looks like fairly standard post-defeat squabbling, the sort every party goes through after a bruising election loss. Dig a little deeper, though, and there's a more interesting question at stake, one that goes beyond who leads the MCP and gets [...]

Malawi's main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is entering a period of internal reckoning that looks set to shape its fortunes well beyond the immediate horizon of the 2030 General Election. At issue is a question that many parties eventually confront but few resolve gracefully: what happens to a defeated leader who does not wish [...]

UTM Party president Dalitso Kabambe has launched a scathing broadside against the ruling government, branding corrupt officials "parasites" feeding off state resources, as he delivered a blistering assessment of the DPP's first year back in power. Kabambe, who himself contested the September 16, 2025 elections, didn't hold back as he questioned whether government's much-publicised anti-corruption [...]