Ansah opens up

Estranged First Vice-President Jane Ansah last evening opened up on her relationship with President Peter Mutharika, saying it remains cordial but some officials in the governing elite sidelin her.

The Second Citizen expressed her sentiments in an exclusive interview with Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) Radio.

During the interview, Ansah delved into her life since assuming the Office of the First Vice-President last year and how she has executed her duties to date.

She said that from the start, several governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials have never been happy with her and that the situation has now continued to the point that she is not even invited to Cabinet meetings.

Ansah: There are two people who said I shouldn’t go.

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Said Ansah: “The day that the President announced that I am his running mate [in the September 16 2025 General Election], how many people greeted me when I entered the hall? How many spoke to me? But the President was happy and gave reasons why he chose me.

“From the word go, I have seen that people have come to do things or say things they shouldn’t. When the President made the first address after winning [the election], I was not there because someone told me not to go, but everybody else was there.”

The retired Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal judge said that when Mutharika made his first private trip to South Africa some officials told her not to go to the airport.

Said Ansah: “There are two people who said I shouldn’t go. So I just sat in the lounge. Even today, I am here [at home] instead of attending Cabinet meetings. No Cabinet bag was sent to me. I called the Chief Secretary, he hasn’t picked my phone.

“I wanted to tell him that I didn’t get the cabinet bag, so he needed to offer my apology to the President because I can’t go without the bag. Obviously you get bothered, but what can you do?”

She said she has written Saidi three letters to explain some happenings, but received no response.

Ansah said she cannot go engage the President directly now before Chief Secretary to the Government Justin Saidi explains himself.

“He [Saidi] should explain why he is doing what he is doing. I am not a cry baby, I like to deal with things as they come, so I haven’t gone to the President yet,” she said.

Saidi last night gave a “no comment” response to The Nation.

Mutharika on July 25 2025 picked Ansah, a former Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson who presided over his court-annulled 2019 re-election, as his running mate on the then opposition DPP ticket for the September 16 2025 General Election. Ansah was seen as a surprise choice as she does not hold a position in the DPP national executive committee.

However, Mutharika is no stranger to picking perceived party outsiders for his running mates as he did the same in 2014 when he picked the then Airtel Malawi managing director Saulos Chilima despite having no party position.

Commenting on the development last evening, National Advocacy Platform chairperson Benedicto Kondowe said Ansah’s remarks point to mistrust, communication breakdown or unresolved differences at the highest level of government.

However, he said the public does not presently know the underlying circumstances, and it would therefore be unfair to assign responsibility to either the President or the Vice-President.

Said Kondowe: “Either side could have contributed to the situation, or there may be factors that are not yet in the public domain. What matters now is how the two leaders respond.

“This is resolvable through honest dialogue, mutual respect and clarity of roles and expectations. Malawi cannot afford a prolonged leadership rift that distracts government from addressing pressing national challenges.”

Governance pundit George Chaima asked Ansah to name all those involved in ‘sidelining’ her.

“She is supposed to be part of Cabinet because it’s a constitutional requirement. So, Ansah has to prove that the relationship is good by attending those meeting. If someone is sidelining her, she has to come up in the open, mention names and shame them,” he said.

In an earlier interview, Public Affairs Committee spokesperson Bishop Gilford Matonga called for dialogue to resolve the rift.

He said Ansah needs to meet Mutharika “and explain her position, clearing up any misunderstandings”.

“The President chose his running mate at a time when many senior DPP members did not agree with his decision. So the FVP should address whatever has caused the rift between the two, particularly regarding the UK trip,” Matonga said, adding that PAC was willing to mediate.

University of Malawi expert in party politics, elections and governance Gift Sambo said Ansah, viewed within the DPP as an outsider, has the “right to manoeuvre, to make strategies, to create room for herself” and to communicate to the public about her interest in leadership.

In August this year, our sister newspaper Weekend Nation reported that DPP officials, senior Cabinet ministers and aides for both the President and the Vice-President link the breakdown between the two not with policy differences, but a collapse of trust triggered by Ansah’s trip to the United Kingdom (UK) last December.

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