Court blocks Chakwera-linked group from ousting SG Chimwendo Banda

• Explosive High Court injunction bars self-styled “Veterans” group, sponsored by former President himself, from suspending secretary general or locking party HQ

Malawi’s High Court has dramatically intervened in an escalating internal war engulfing the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), granting an injunction that stops a rogue faction — allegedly organised and sponsored by party leader Lazarus Chakwera himself — from suspending the party’s own Secretary General and locking him out of his office.

Justice William Yakuwawa Msiska handed down the explosive order on Wednesday, following an urgent application filed by MCP through legal director George Kadzipatike, who argued the self-styled “MCP Veteran Management Committee” had no constitutional authority whatsoever to move against duly elected Secretary General Richard Chimwendo Banda.

The dramatic court battle follows chaotic scenes last Tuesday, when the group allegedly stormed and attempted to seal Chimwendo Banda’s office — squarely blaming him for the party’s crushing defeat in the 2025 general election, which saw Chakwera concede power to Democratic Progressive Party leader Peter Mutharika.

In his sweeping ruling, Justice Msiska ordered all ten defendants named in the case, along with their agents or anyone acting on their instructions, to immediately cease disrupting operations at MCP headquarters, and barred them from exercising any disciplinary powers to remove, suspend or dismiss members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

The judge went further still, explicitly prohibiting the group from interfering with the constitutional duties of NEC members, including the Secretary General, and banning them outright from closing, locking or barricading party premises, or attempting to seize powers reserved solely for the NEC or the party’s national Convention.

Named in the case as defendants are William Phakamisa, Frank Chatanga, Dyson Simsamala, Jaji Banda, Mizeck Masula, Eliya Kadula, Ernest Soko, Chaponda Chizwa, Mai Kanyemba and Dzeke Dzeke.

The explosive court showdown lays bare the depth of the crisis now gripping MCP, with the party’s own former President accused of backing a breakaway group attempting to seize control from within — a dramatic twist that threatens to plunge the party into further turmoil as it continues to reel from last year’s election defeat.