Mark Twain once said that “history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme”.
Malawians are watching with a sense of déjà vu as, barely four months after taking office, President Peter Mutharika has stripped First Vice-President Jane Ansah of delegated functions.
Mutharika’s sudden moves are filling the nation with echoes of history as discordant notes on vice presidential treatments from the past grip the nation’s top echelons in the governance architecture, political arena and the most recent subject: Ansah.
Within January, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) announced two administrative decisions that removed the responsibilities from Ansah.
First on January 10 2026, the OPC announced that Ansah was no longer responsible for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) before another communication dated January 23 2026 stated that the Department of Public Sector Reforms Management had also been relocated from the Office of the First VP to the OPC.
No official explanation has been given for the decisions. However, they have coincided with controversy that surrounded Ansah’s private visit to the United Kingdom in December, which saw Minister of Information and Communications Technology Shadric Namalomba earlier indicating that the President had approved her trip with a reduced delegation. However, on New Year’s Eve, a State House social media post quoted Mutharika as having stated that the VP had assured him that she would use personal resources.
Breaking her silence on the issue on Saturday during the installation of a new chief for her Nyaka Jobe Village in Traditional Authority Kalumbu in Lilongwe, Ansah, a retired Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal judge, said her functions are delegated, as such; she could not question the President.
“I cannot question why the President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika has removed two departments from my office to the Office of the President and Cabinet because I enjoy delegated powers,” she said.
Section 79 of the Constitution provides that “there shall be a First Vice-President and, subject to Section 80(5), a Second Vice-President both of whom shall assist the President and who shall exercise the powers and perform the functions conferred on the First Vice-president or the Second Vice-President, as the case may be, by this Constitution or by any Act of Parliament and by the President”.
In an interview yesterday, Office of the First VP spokesperson Richard Mveriwa said Ansah was still reporting for duties and attending to other engagements despite the withdrawal of her responsibilities.
“We expect that there will be new delegated roles,” he said.
OPC director of communications Focus Maganga, in a written response yesterday, said Ansah’s primary role is to serve as Vice-President to Mutharika alongside Second VP Enoch Kamzingeni Chihana.
He said the President will continue to exercise his constitutional discretion in delegating responsibilities as he deems fit and that this should not be misconstrued as an indication of “tension” or a bad working relationship with Ansah.
Said Maganga: “The Vice-Presidency is, by its nature, a delegated office. From time to time, the President may, at his discretion, reassign or adjust responsibilities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
“Such administrative adjustments should not be misconstrued as signs of discord. They are a normal part of governance aimed at ensuring tangible and measurable progress during their five-year mandate.”
But reacting to the developments in an interview on Monday, University of Malawi associate professor of political science Boniface Dulani said the recent events could be a reflection of tensions, not necessarily between the President and Ansah, but as a result of the political strain within the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
“Before being picked [by Mutharika] as running mate in the September 16 2025 General Election, Ansah never held any open position in the DPP rank and file. In this regard, there might be people within the DPP that feel the party belongs to them and not the Vice-President,” he said.
Dulani also said the changes may have been triggered by the President’s frustrations over perceived misinformation on the financing of Ansah’s private trip to the UK between December 2025 and early January 2026.
“It is worrying that the Vice-President is without any specific duties. Presumably, the President has other roles he wants to assign to his deputy, but we would have expected those new roles assigned immediately after the old duties were taken away. This is a sign that things are not as rosy between the President and his number two,” he said.
In a separate interview yesterday, political analyst Ernest Thindwa said any explanation without State House shedding light on what influenced the withdrawal of delegated responsibilities from the VP would be speculative.
Since the introduction of the Office of the VP in the 1994 Constitution, successive presidents have failed to click with their respective vice-presidents.
The country’s first multi-party president Bakili Muluzi fell out with his vice-president Justin Malewezi towards the end of their second term in 2003 when the latter expressed ambitions to take over as presidential candidate.
In 2005, Bingu wa Mutharika fell out with his vice-president Cassim Chilumpha after he remained in the United Democratic Front, the party that sponsored the pair’s presidential ticket, after Mutharika ditched it to form DPP. Some observers attributed the tension between Bingu and Chilumpha to the fact that the pairing was forced by the party and not left to the presidential candidate, Bingu, to pick his running mate.
Chilumpha was even charged with treason, which was later dropped for lack of evidence.
But even when Bingu picked his own running mate in Joyce Banda in 2009, who eventually became Vice-President, the duo still fell out, as succession battles ensued, with an influential faction canvassing for Peter Mutharika to take over from his brother.
Peter Mutharika also had a poor relationship with his chosen running mate Saulos Chilima as did Joyce Banda with Khumbo Kachali.
In June 2022, former president Lazarus Chakwera also suspended delegated roles for Chilima following corruption allegations.
But analysts at the time linked the stripping of the roles to disagreements over an alliance deal in 2020 that was supposed to see Chakwera serving one term and then helping Chilima to take over in 2025.
Today, the hum of the all-too-familiar tune is echoing through the corridors of power and the national psyche—with uncertain outcomes.
