Esteemed statesmen, sometimes I suspect that governing this country is rather like inheriting one of those battered passenger taxis plying the Limbe-Manje route in Blantyre.
Those machines can still move on four wheels, but every rattle, cough and suspicious groan from beneath the bonnet leaves passengers wondering whether they will reach their destination or end up stranded by the roadside, if not thrown into one of those unforgiving potholes that now characterise most roads in the country. And the passengers are always impatient.
President Peter Mutharika (APM) knew this too well when Malawians returned him to power on September 16 2025, handing his DPP a convincing victory over MCP. APM and his party were not unfamiliar drivers. They knew these potholes, the civil service and Parliament. They knew the donors, the opposition and, most importantly, they knew the passengers, having governed Malawi in two earlier spells (2009-2012 and 2014-2020).
But while in the opposition wilderness (2020-2025), the blue camp told us they knew exactly what had gone wrong under MCP’s Lazarus Chakwera. They claimed to know where the engine (our economy) coughed, where the suspension creaked and the potholes. They promised solutions.
Then Malawians handed them the keys, again.
Today, the question is no longer whether these folks know the road. They do. It is whether, this time around, they know how to fix the vehicle, repair the damage accumulated over the years and govern better than they did before.
To be fair, many things have changed since we voted. Fuel is generally available and the queues have largely disappeared, ‘free’ public primary and secondary education is arguably the administration’s biggest social-policy achievement, food availability has improved and maize prices have fallen from the dizzying levels that had become painfully familiar. There has also been a visible attempt at fiscal discipline, including curbing government travel. These are modest measures in themselves, but they send a useful signal in a country where the government has too often behaved as though the Treasury were an inexhaustible family purse.
But the vehicle is still rattling. Power blackouts remain a stubborn nuisance to households and businesses. The cost of living remains high, unemployment is stubborn and economic growth has yet to reach the level needed to change the fortunes of ordinary Malawians.
And nowhere is the test of the current administration more uncomfortable than corruption.
APM and his Cabinet ministers have talked about fighting graft, but the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) remains without a substantive director-general, while the bureau has complained of inadequate funding for investigations. The controversial K128 billion Amaryllis Hotel transaction has also become a major test of transparency and accountability, with the ACB pursuing investigations and Parliament conducting its own inquiry.
Then there is Parliament. Speaker Sameer Suleman recently opened a can of worms after announcing 12 investigations into matters ranging from fuel and electricity to pensions, mining, passports, prisons and fertiliser distribution. In all this, some statesmen see parliamentary oversight, while critics led by some DPP hardliners suspect political motives and personal interests. Of course, this matter is now in court, and we can only stop here for today.
Otherwise, I would tell you, if you asked me, that Parliament has every right to ask awkward questions. That is why the National Assembly exists. Suffice it to emphasise that that oversight must not become political theatre.
From where I am, I see some people in the Executive fearing parliamentary scrutiny because they view it as sabotage simply because they know the questions might be uncomfortable for some people in the future. But, then, good governance requires both sides to remember that they are passengers in a democratic vehicle entrusted to them by the public, not owners of it.
So, has Mutharika’s government met its first test since returning to power last year? Perhaps.
But one thing is clear. The road ahead remains bumpy and badly damaged, Malawi’s engine still coughs, and too many passengers are still asking when they will finally feel the journey improving.
All I can say, therefore, is that APM and the DPP deserve neither a gold star nor a red card for now. They deserve a warning.
