Chihana to represent Malawi at SADC summit as delegation pattern raises questions

Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika will not attend the 46th SADC Summit of Heads of State in Durban, with Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana instead representing the country at the key regional gathering, the Foreign Affairs Minister has confirmed.

George Chaponda confirmed the arrangement when asked who would be attending the summit on the President’s behalf. “Yes, it’s Right Honourable Chihana,” he said.

The trip marks the third occasion since June on which Chihana has represented Malawi at a major regional engagement in place of the President. It follows a separate development last week in which Chihana chaired a Cabinet meeting in Lilongwe while Mutharika attended to other business in Blantyre — an arrangement that has itself become the subject of a constitutional dispute, after a leading constitutional lawyer argued the delegation to the Second Vice-President, in preference to First Vice-President Jane Ansah, may have breached Section 92(3) of the Constitution.

Ansah was reported not to have been invited to that Cabinet meeting despite being in the country at the time, prompting the Human Rights Defenders Coalition and other civil society figures to demand a fuller explanation from government over her role within the administration.

Government has previously defended its delegation arrangements as falling within the President’s constitutional prerogative under Section 89(6), which permits him to assign certain executive functions and duties. Officials have not, however, addressed in detail why Chihana rather than Ansah has been the more frequent choice for high-profile representational duties in recent months.

The pattern has prompted renewed debate among opposition figures and political commentators over the working relationship between the President and his two deputies, and over how executive responsibilities are being distributed within government. Neither State House nor the Office of the President and Cabinet has issued a detailed public statement addressing the basis on which these delegation decisions are being made.

The Durban summit is expected to bring together SADC heads of state to discuss regional political and economic priorities. Malawi’s delegation, led by Chihana, is expected to depart in the coming days.