Integrity on display: Kadzipatike avoids questioning Zamba, wins commendation from Nyamilandu

Malawi’s Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee examining the events of 10 June 2024 took an unusual turn on Wednesday when its chair, Walter Nyamilandu Manda, publicly commended Malawi Congress Party MP George Kadzipatike for what he described as a rare display of integrity during the inquiry.

Kadzipatike, who is also a practising lawyer, disclosed to the committee that former secretary to the president and cabinet Colleen Zamba was his client.

Rather than recuse himself or participate selectively, he chose not to question her at all — a decision Nyamilandu said prevented any perception of conflict of interest.

Nyamilandu told the committee that Kadzipatike’s restraint ensured the credibility of the proceedings.

Had he interrogated Zamba, he said, observers could have mistakenly taken him as compromised.

Instead, Kadzipatike limited himself to commending Zamba for respecting the parliamentary subpoena and testifying despite being unwell.

The moment stood out in a hearing marked by conflicting accounts and contested timelines — and it set the tone for Zamba’s own testimony, which again exposed gaps in official communication on the day of the fatal military aircraft crash that killed vice‑president Saulos Chilima and eight others.

Testifying virtually, Zamba told MPs she had no knowledge of any plan for then‑president Lazarus Chakwera to depart earlier than the scheduled 5pm flight on 10 June.

Her response to Mwanza Central MP Felix Njawala was narrowly framed: “I am not aware that the President was scheduled to leave earlier. I can only confirm what I know.”

She then addressed the confusion over who had been delegated to represent Chakwera at the funeral of former attorney general Ralph Kasambara, a matter that has produced contradictory testimony.

Zamba said the misunderstanding may have originated in her memo to the president, in which she wrote that “the VP” might attend the funeral.

In formal government correspondence, she explained, Chilima was referred to as the “Right Honourable Vice‑President”, not simply “VP”.

“I think bwana [former president Lazarus Chakwera] took it to mean that the party vice‑president for the North, Harry Mkandawire, would attend,” she said.

A second layer of confusion emerged after government decided Kasambara would be accorded military honours.

Zamba said she received a call from the then Malawi Defence Force commander indicating that the Minister of Defence should attend.

She later received another call from Mkandawire, who said he had been verbally directed by Chakwera to represent him.

“I told the commander that it was against protocol,” she said. “I also told the minister that if Chilima was attending, then he would be the most senior cabinet member at the funeral and, as such, the best person to represent the president.”

Her account diverges sharply from earlier testimony. Mkandawire told MPs he had been delegated by the president, while former clerk to the cabinet Samson Ngutwa said the Office of the President and Cabinet had designated then minister of local government Richard Chimwendo Banda.

Against this backdrop of conflicting narratives, Kadzipatike’s decision to step back — and Nyamilandu’s public praise — offered a rare moment of procedural clarity in an inquiry increasingly defined by contested recollections and fragmented communication.

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