25/12/2025
After denying media reports published yesterday that the Vice President of Malawi, Dr Jane Ansah was going on a private visit with a delegation of Malawian officials, and after dismissing those reports as fake news, the Malawian government has now acknowledged that they are true.
It has now confirmed that the Vice President is travelling to Britain, that she departs on the 26th and returns on the 10th, and that the trip will be funded by the Malawian taxpayer just as reported yesterday.
The statement issued by the government is deliberately silent on the nature of the visit for obvious reasons. It is a private visit.
The obvious question therefore arises, why is the Malawian taxpayer funding a private trip. Why are five government officials travelling on a private visit with the Vice President and funded by the state? Why is the taxpayer paying for allowances, air travel, and accommodation for a private birthday trip.
Whether it is MK168,028,400 (US$97,000) or MK294,719,200 (US$170,000), this is still public money being spent on a private birthday visit at a time when Malawians are being told to tighten their belts, hospitals have no drugs, and the government is begging for food aid. The insult to public intelligence is more offensive than the figures themselves.
Better late than never. At least the Malawian government has now done the right thing by retracting its initial statement that dismissed what the media reported as fake, and by acknowledging that the reports were in fact true.
Next time, it would help if the sycophants and the politicians they defend exercised a little shame. Instead of insulting journalists for doing their work, they should understand why journalists do this work in the first place. People in Malawi are living in abject poverty. They are suffering. They lack basic needs and the most elementary necessities of life. That is precisely why journalists ask questions, investigate, and publish uncomfortable truths.
So yes, better late than never, but honesty at the first instance would have spared the country this embarrassment.
