Chimwendo says he won’t resign from MCP top post — “Olo kamba atadukula”

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Secretary General Richard Chimwendo Banda has hit back at a bogus resignation letter circulating on social media, branding it a forgery and insisting he has absolutely no intention of walking away from his role.

The senior party official took to Facebook on 6 September to shut down the swirling rumours, firing off a fiery post in both Chichewa and English that has since gone viral among Malawians.

“This is fake” — Chimwendo’s blunt takedown

“Mukuzungulira kalata ya resignation. This is fake,” he wrote bluntly. “I have never thought of resigning and I will never resign olo kamba atadukula” — a Chichewa idiom meaning “even if a tortoise crawls,” used to emphasise the sheer impossibility of the scenario.

The colourful denial was clearly designed to put the rumours to bed once and for all — and it worked, at least in terms of getting people talking.

Social media erupts

The post sent Facebook into overdrive, with MCP supporters and critics alike piling into the comments.

Reactions ranged from amusement and scepticism to declarations of party loyalty and pointed jabs at the state of internal MCP politics.

Chimwendo’s now-famous turtle line quickly took on a life of its own, with users repeating the idiom back at him in droves — turning what began as a simple denial into the latest talking point dominating Malawian political chatter online.

Not the first fake letter to do the rounds

This is far from an isolated incident. The bogus resignation letter fits a troubling pattern that has plagued Malawian politics in recent months, with fabricated documents purporting to show senior figures quitting their posts repeatedly surfacing online.

In every previous case, the named officials have swiftly and publicly rejected the letters as fake, while fact-checkers have exposed the forgeries — pointing to telltale inconsistencies in formatting, addressees and official titles as proof the documents were never genuine.

The bottom line

Chimwendo’s fiery denial leaves no room for doubt: no resignation letter has been submitted, and as far as the Secretary General is concerned, he isn’t going anywhere — turtle or no turtle.