‘I’m not a cry baby’: VP Ansah says cold reception began on day of nomination

Malawi’s First Vice-President, Dr Jane Mayemu Ansah, has broken her silence to reveal the extraordinary extent to which she claims to have been sidelined, marginalised and ostracised within government — but insisted she has no plans to run crying to the President who handpicked her for the role.

Speaking in an interview at her office on Monday, the country’s second-in-command made clear she was determined to handle the crisis her own way — by first demanding answers from Chief Secretary to Government Dr Justin Saidi, whom she has separately accused of blocking her from Cabinet meetings and withholding vital papers.

“I am not a cry baby. I like to deal with issues,” she declared defiantly.

 Ansah — a former Attorney-General who went on to become a Supreme Court judge and chair of the Malawi Electoral Commission — had accused Dr Saidi of freezing her out of Cabinet business, allegedly withholding the customary “Cabinet bag” of papers and ignoring her calls and texts.

She has so far refused to escalate the matter to President Peter Mutharika, insisting she must “follow procedure” and give the Chief Secretary a chance to explain himself first.

Remarkably, despite the turmoil swirling around her, Ansah insisted her relationship with the President himself remains “fine” — even as she made the striking claim that the trouble began the very moment Mutharika chose her as his running mate ahead of the 2025 elections.

She revealed she was given anything but a warm welcome by the rank and file of the governing Democratic Progressive Party when her nomination was announced — with not a single senior figure, including the First Lady, stepping forward to greet her.

“First and foremost I was invited and I prayed for it and I believe God wanted me to come,” she said, reflecting on the moment she accepted the role.

Despite the apparent hostility from within her own party, Ansah insisted she still sees the vice-presidency as a vital cog in the machinery of government — using a colourful car analogy to describe her plight.

“You look at the vehicle, it has got four wheels. One wheel cannot run and achieve on its own,” she said. “Now if one wheel is not working properly, it affects the movement of the whole vehicle.”

Background: a fractured deputy role with a troubled history

Ansah’s claims are the latest chapter in what has become a deeply uneasy chapter for Malawi’s vice-presidency. She has already been stripped of key responsibilities, including disaster management and public service reform, with President Mutharika increasingly choosing to delegate authority directly to Cabinet ministers rather than through his deputies.

It is also understood that, months before her public remarks, Dr Saidi led a delegation to Ansah in which she was reportedly asked to resign — a request with no stated constitutional or legal basis. Ansah is said to have demanded the request be put in writing so she could respond formally. No such letter has, to date, ever arrived.

Malawi’s vice-presidency has a long and troubled history of friction with the presidency. Previous holders of the office — including Cassim Chilumpha, Khumbo Kachali and Saulos Chilima — have all spoken publicly of being reduced to bystanders in their own government, with real power concentrated firmly in the hands of the president alone.