Ntaba back as presidential aide: Malopa moved to Macra

Bright Malopa who since 2014 has been Presidential aide on Communication Strategy has finally been removed from State House and relocated to Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) as Technical Advisor on Broadcasting.

Information from State House shows that Malopa has been “irrelevant” to the President’s office as he has been absent from duties will- nilly for many months now and authorities deemed “constructive resignation.”

The former Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Director General has been spending more time on his under-construction of a hotel project in Cape Maclear, Mangochi.

In addition, Malopa has also been making foreign trips without informing the President, Chief Secretary and Chief of Staff, Nyasa Times understands.

Under normal employment etiquette these three offices are supposed to know what State House officers are doing.

In another development President Mutharika has hired Dr Hetherwick Ntaba as presidential advisor on domestic policy with immediate effect.

‘Talking computer’ in ipad era

Ntaba between 1992 and 1994 earned the accolade of “Talking Computer” when he, comical Ali-like, and despite the obvious, defended the falling one party regime with such eloquence that he could have fooled “strangers in Jerusalem.”

With the one party system destroyed and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in opposition, he continued practicing the art of oratory as a member of the opposition until his duplicity was exposed.

Then, he made his first move, and came up with a bargaining chip: the New Congress for Democracy (NCD).

Returning to his other creation, the NCD, he tried unsuccessfully to join the 2004 Mgwirizano Coalition bandwagon. Suspicious of him and his party, the coalition stayed away from him. Never one at a loss for what to do next, he sold his party, skills and talents to a very willing buyer: Bakili Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF).

And with this move, he was back on the ruling side, where the gravy train flows. Needless to say that having languished in opposition for a while, when the late President Bingu wa Mutharika ditched the UDF, he quickly made himself available and useful, assuring himself a continued ride on the gravy-train.

He joined or co-founded the DPP, and was in the forefront demonising Muluzi and the UDF – where he had sought refuge briefly – as the Section 65 vs. Budget and Impeachment madness raged in Malawi. Along the line, he served as DPP Secretary General, fell out of grace, and resurfaced as Presidential Advisor and Spokesperson – until his client bit the dust.

One thing that needs to be said to Ntaba’s credit is that through-out his dynamic career, especially in his chosen speciality and niche of defending unpopular policies, laws and governments; he serves whoever is willing to pay his body and soul with unflinching loyalty.

He speaks the Queen’s language like his mother tongue and the same applies when he switches to his mother tongue, Chichewa. Not all people speak their own language that well!

And check this out: Not too long ago, in the aftermath of British diplomat Fergus Cochrane Dyet’s expulsion, Ntaba, tongue-in-cheek, took on the British Foreign Affairs Department, saying contrary to what everybody was saying, the Malawi Government had not expelled the British envoy. It had merely “lost confidence in him”.

Who does that? It’s like a spin doctor from the UK telling you that he or she has a better understanding of your vernacular language with its expressions. But that’s Ntaba for you.

While such ingenuity would be praiseworthy – if invested in a good cause and used for the general good – in a prostitute, political or otherwise, it just shows how low he or she will sink to satisfy their clientele.

For one, Dr. Ntaba’s political career, for all his close association with powers that be, isn’t endorsed by folks in his backyard. To prove this, he lost the parliamentary elections in a by-election to a then upstart – Willard Gwengwe and then lost again when DPP won re-election in 2009 even candidates who had no business of winning made to parliament and lost again in 2014.

This speaks volumes. Putting it mildly, while in indulging in politics is always a gamble, being an unelected politician is even worse. It renders one prone to abuse by any client pulling the strings. And, as a result one’s political future winds up being subject to the fortunes of another – as has happened now to Ntaba.

His fortunes at the polls underline one thing: political prostitution, though attractive in the short run from the perspective of personal survival, is generally frowned upon by voters, which is a good thing.

Malawi has other people who can do what he does but for a good cause. He is old school. And like Mark Antony, he has to first bury Caesar before making his next move – which would in theory leave him at the end of the line. But like a true prostitute, he had, it appears, prepared for such an eventuality and made some initial moves.

It may have gone unnoticed, but in fact Ntaba was the first to invest and gamble in the possibility of tables turning before anyone did. And he did this, very overtly on two or three occasions.

It all remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, Malawians haven‘t seen or heard the last of the ‘Talking Computer’.  Whatever software is loaded into it, when rebooted, the Talking Computer r will make some sound bites which should only serve as entertainment.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!