December 4 2025
Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm, where we relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Here, peace reigns supreme unlike your concrete jungle.
At the farm our curiosity has been pricked by the Cabinet retreat that lasted three days. Our memory is fickle and we don’t recall the last time ministers gathered lakeside. While preaching austerity, Cabinet members, senior officials and development partners met at Sunbird Nkopola in Mangochi to discuss matters of State.
Had the United Nations Development Programme not been involved, villagers here would have spoken of wasted taxes. But since UNDP guided deliberations that went late into the night, helping ministers turn obstacles into opportunities, we give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this government will stick to a time‑bound Cabinet leadership response plan aligned with MW2063.
Yet the mid‑term budget review revealed the DPP’s own agenda. VAT rose from 16.5 to 17.5 percent, meaning all goods increased by six percent. For the working class in the concrete jungle, higher Pay As You Earn tax reduces take‑home pay. And villagers who hoped to wrestle allowances from MPs lost the battle. Where money is concerned, the government and the opposition agree. Of the 199 MPs who voted, none said no. To add salt to injury, MPs sang that obscene song popularized by Wanderers fan Bwede: Ng’ona Ilibe Mabere. Insolence of the highest order!
We will not discuss the retreat’s importance. We were more concerned about the fashion statement ministers made. On one day, several donned exotic shirts. We saw George Chaponda, Ben Phiri, Bright Msaka and Chimwemwe Chipungu wearing shirts resembling those President Lazarus Chakwera wore when he toured the short Bangula railway line. Some ministers, like Richard Chimwendo Banda, emulated him. Were they agreeing with Chakwera’s fashion sense or declaring loyalty?
Meanwhile, President Peter Mutharika flew privately to South Africa, making no fashion statement as he departed in a chartered plane. His ministers remained, sending a powerful message by wearing shirts similar to Chakwera’s.
Such shirts recall Nelson Mandela, who wore the Madiba shirt to show that formal suits were not the only sign of leadership. Africans could define decency in their own way. African leaders have long used fashion as power. Kamuzu Banda favored three‑piece suits. Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda wore safari suits. Samora Machel often appeared in military fatigues. Robert Mugabe sometimes donned safari suits, which Kamuzu dismissed as bush attire. Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire wore the abacost, short for A Bas la Coutume—down with the suit.
The philosopher president Leopold Senghor expressed his politics in flowing boubous. As a champion of la negritude, he showed that dress and power intertwine.
So by adopting Madiba shirts, are ministers simply copying Mandela’s fashion sense, or declaring they will lead with dignity?
We checked the President’s Shirt website and found Chakwera’s dotted red Paisley Jacquard Woven Men’s Shirt priced at $137 (about K240 000). Whether exorbitant or not, we cannot say, since we do not know Chakwera’s net worth. Nor do we know ministers’ wealth before and after entering government. Perhaps they bought from the President’s Shirt, or simply purchased fabric from Bakali and hired a khonde tailor in Blantyre CBD.
At least they avoided the Madiba original leopard‑face silk shirt with Swarovski buttons, priced at $562 (K965 000).
While breaking bread, one villager produced George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Asked why, he said the ministers’ dressing reminded him of Napoleon the leader of the pigs. At Manor Farm, pigs forbade alcohol, clothing and trade. But once in power, Napoleon and his cronies drank whisky, traded with humans, and wore Mr Jones’s wardrobe. Eventually pigs walked on two legs. “Dress code of the oppressor,” the villager said, “is what revolutionaries emulate to stamp authority once the battle is won.”
Dear Diary, we were all confused. Just like you.
