Newspaper column mocks Mutharika’s South Africa trips: ‘It’s become his unofficial State House annexe’
A blistering newspaper column has torn into President Peter Mutharika over his repeated “private visits” to South Africa, joking that the country has practically become an “unofficial State House annexe” and suggesting immigration officials must greet his delegation “like old friends” by now.
The scathing piece, published in The Weekend Nation’s “Off The Shelf” opinion column, comes as Mutharika departed for South Africa yet again this week – his fourth such “private visit” since taking office, according to the paper.
Poking fun at the frequency of the trips, the columnist imagined immigration staff at OR Tambo International Airport rolling out the red carpet on arrival: “Welcome back, Your Excellency. The usual lounge? The usual motorcade? Shall we keep your favourite parking bay ready?”
The writer was careful to stress there was nothing inherently wrong with a president travelling abroad, acknowledging that world leaders are expected to attend summits, strike trade deals and “occasionally smile for photographs while signing documents nobody reads.”
The real target of the column’s ire, instead, was a single word: private.
“Private is becoming one of the hardest-working words in government vocabulary,” the piece declared. “It answers every question without actually answering any.”
In a stinging passage, the columnist ran through the litany of questions typically met with the same unhelpful response from State House – where the President is going, why South Africa yet again, what the purpose of the trip is, and who is travelling with him – joking that even the most basic follow-up question about who foots the bill “suddenly becomes even more private.”
“It is almost magical,” the writer quipped. “One word, and every uncomfortable question disappears into thin air.”
But the column was quick to puncture that magic trick, arguing forcefully that Mutharika stopped being a private citizen the very moment he took the oath of office – a status that comes bundled with security details, intelligence personnel, protocol officials, aircraft, fuel and logistics on a scale the writer compared to “organising a small military exercise.”
“None of those things are private,” the column insisted. “More importantly, none of them are free.”
The piece landed its final blow squarely on Malawian taxpayers, warning that even if elements of the trip were genuinely personal, someone still had to cover the costs of the aircraft, security team and advance party accompanying the President.
“Those somebodies are called taxpayers,” the writer concluded. “And taxpayers have this irritating habit of asking questions before reaching for their wallets.”
The biting commentary adds fresh fuel to mounting public pressure over Mutharika’s foreign travel, following a formal demand from the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) for government to disclose whether taxpayer money is being used to fund the trips, as well as separate criticism from journalist Idriss Ali Nasser, who accused Malawian broadcasters of failing to properly scrutinise the President’s movements rather than simply parroting State House press releases.
State House has yet to respond to the specific questions raised over the funding, purpose or duration of the President’s latest visit.
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