Vitumbiko Mumba: The Convenient Scapegoat Nobody Needs
In a political culture addicted to blame, Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba has become the latest sacrifice on the altar of denial. But scapegoating, however cathartic, is not strategy. Malawi Congress Party’s collapse was not the making of one man—it was the slow-motion implosion of arrogance, economic mismanagement and structural decay. This essay dismantles the lazy narrative that pins a national loss on a convenient face—and challenges MCP to choose between vengeance and vision.
Blame is cheap. Analysis is expensive.
And after the Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP) humiliating defeat, too many have opted for the cheaper route—blame. In the emotional aftermath, the party’s collective frustration found an easy target: Engineer Vitumbiko A. Z. Mumba, the youthful running mate turned lightning rod. It feels satisfying, in that raw, tribal way, to heap responsibility on one visible figure. But what feels satisfying isn’t necessarily true—and truth is precisely what the MCP needs if it intends to learn, rebuild, and return to power.
The logic of scapegoating Mumba collapses under scrutiny. The 2025 election outcome was not the consequence of one man’s missteps but the culmination of years of structural neglect, economic strain, and political hubris. These were slow-building crises that no deputy could have patched over in a campaign season. To reduce a national repudiation to the performance of one man is to confuse therapy with truth and catharsis with accountability.
A Nation Already Decided
Long before campaign songs filled the air, Malawians had already delivered their verdict. The signs were everywhere—rising discontent, deflated optimism, and economic fatigue. A December 2024 Afrobarometer survey was blunt: a clear majority believed the country was heading in the wrong direction. Inflation, unemployment, and the ever-widening gap between promise and delivery topped their frustrations.
International observers had read the tea leaves early. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2023 forecast was almost prophetic, warning that President Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance faced a “bumpy ride” to 2025 due to corruption, economic mismanagement, and alliance fractures. These were not whispers; they were alarms. The electorate’s judgment was years in the making, rooted in everyday hunger, fuel queues, and a collapsing cost of living.
Would a running mate—however dynamic or articulate—have reversed inflation, solved forex shortages, or ended corruption scandals? The suggestion is not only naïve but politically dishonest.
The Real Story: Policy Failure, Not Personality
The MCP went into this election carrying a broken economy and a fatigued narrative. Ordinary Malawians were living through fuel shortages, price hikes, and empty supermarket shelves. These weren’t talking points—they were lived realities. The failure was systemic, the result of poor planning, bad communication, and the complacency of incumbency.
In this context, turning Mumba into the fall guy is like blaming a co-pilot for turbulence caused by a storm the airline refused to avoid. The storm was the economy, and the airline was the MCP.
Mumba’s Record—Inconvenient Facts
If judgment is to be fair, it must be factual. Mumba’s brief tenure as Minister of Trade and Industry offered glimpses of what leadership could look like if power met energy. He took on sugar hoarders, challenged labour abuses on estates, and publicly confronted corporate complacency.
These were not the actions of a coward or a lightweight. They were acts of political courage—rare in a system where silence often masquerades as loyalty. He earned applause not from party cronies but from ordinary Malawians who saw in him something the system had long lost: a will to act.
Yet this same visibility made him a target. The resentment was instant, fed by two toxic forces that continue to poison MCP’s bloodstream: regional insecurity and internal jealousy. Mumba’s northern roots became a political liability in a party that still whispers about “zones of entitlement.” His assertiveness offended those comfortable with inertia. Intra-party bitterness replaced introspection.
Scapegoating as Political Suicide
By turning on Mumba, the MCP demonstrates precisely why it lost: it mistakes loyalty for silence, critique for disloyalty, and accountability for mutiny. The impulse to hunt for villains instead of causes is the surest sign of a party unwilling to learn.
Each time the MCP blames the wrong person, it forfeits the moral authority to govern again. Every social media tirade by its senior figures erodes public respect and reinforces the image of a party driven by pettiness, not principle.
History warns us: MCP has a pattern of consuming its brightest recruits when threatened. It courts outsiders when desperate and discards them once they start to shine. If this cycle continues, defeat will not be an accident—it will be a tradition.
The Way Forward
If the MCP genuinely seeks resurrection, it must abandon vengeance and embrace vision. That means three urgent steps:
- Conduct a forensic, public post-mortem that examines not personalities but failures in policy, strategy, and communication. Let data, not gossip, guide the reckoning.
- Own the economic pain. Admit mismanagement, acknowledge mistakes, and rebuild credibility with tangible, practical reforms.
- Bury the politics of region and revenge. Make room for dissent, nurture merit, and stop treating ambition as treason.
The Final Word
Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba is neither saint nor saboteur. He is a symbol—of what happens when youthful promise collides with old-party paranoia.
The MCP does not need another scapegoat; it needs a strategy. It does not need a purge; it needs a plan. Until it learns that difference, opposition will be its permanent address.
Scapegoats soothe the wounded. Strategy rebuilds the future.
The choice is clear: revenge or repair.
Which one will the MCP choose?
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :