Folks, today—June 14 2025—marks exactly 32 years since Malawi held a historic referendum that changed the course of our politics.
On this day in 1993, eligible Malawians—a proper mix of tired old men and women and the restless youth stood at a crossroads to either remain trapped under the suffocating grip of the One-Party regime, or to rip open the curtain of fear, heavy-handedness, silenced freedoms and systematic human rights abuses and step into the uncertain but promising light of multiparty democracy.
In fact, on October 18 1992, Malawi’s founding leader Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda, announced on MBC—the only broadcaster at the time—that a referendum would be held on June 14 1993.
Yes, the old man was at the time panting under real pressure from angry citizens who had had enough of his oppressive system. He was cornered by Catholic bishops, University of Malawi students and many pro-democracy activists who demanded change and donors who realised throwing cheque books at the dictatorship was not a good idea.
So, on June 14 1993, Malawians roared “Yes” to freedom and from that roar, a new dawn of democracy was born.
But 32 years later, Malawi has tragically fumbled the script. What was meant to be a tool for national transformation and liberation has turned into a cheap game. Instead of delivering good governance, it has served up nothing but drama, divisions and the daylight robbery of taxes, donor funds and other public resources—looted in the name of service to the masses.
While elected leaders— Presidents, MPs and Ward councillors—have basked in fortunes between 1994 and 2025, ordinary citizens at the bottom who put those people there have hardly moved an inch. Corruption runs rampant, nepotism is treated like official government policy and campaign promises have become nothing more than lies.
And while our politicians in both government and opposition deliver speeches thick with fake concern about people’s welfare, the common Malawian is still stuck in a democracy that delivers only powerful slogans and not services. Those who danced in the streets in 1993, celebrating the fall of the dictatorship and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still scramble in endless queues for basics that never show up.
We queue for water that doesn’t flow, hospitals that have no medicines, schools that have inadequate teachers, chalk and no roofs. We queue for many other basics. We queue for transparency in a democracy that hides more than it reveals. For unity in a country fractured by toxic tribal currents and political patronage, and for jobs that are handed out on merit, fairness and hard work as we once hoped democracy would deliver.
And 32 years later, we are still stuck in a leadership crisis, or a conscience crisis, where those in power are more obsessed with staying in office than changing the lives of Malawians.
The ballot may have brought freedom, yes—but it has not delivered the future that millions of ordinary citizens were promised, or the one they dared to dream of in colour.
So today, as we mark 32 years since that historic referendum, let’s not clap just because the calendar tells us it’s Democracy Day. Let’s ask the hard questions: Is this the democracy we voted for? Is this the freedom we really traded Kamuzu for? If June 14 was the day we broke the chains of dictatorship, then 32 years on, are we still moving forward, or just running in circles chasing the air while trapped by the same old greed, corruption and broken promises?
Yes, we won democracy today in 1993, but what good is freedom if it fails to bring justice, dignity and hope to the very people who fought for it?
