- Chief Secretary Justin Saidi dismisses critics as pushing ‘propaganda’, while an academic and a rights chief say the public is entitled to know more
The government will not disclose details of President Peter Mutharika’s private trips abroad, Chief Secretary Justin Saidi has said, dismissing critics’ questions as propaganda.
Saidi said: “Private is private. It is not public.” He added that some people were “bent on propaganda, but that will not help”.
The response follows the President’s fifth private trip to South Africa since taking office in October 2025, after the 16 September general election.
Records show he first travelled on 1 December 2025 for 14 days, then on 1 March 2026 for 11 days, 12 June for 17 days and 5 August for 11 days. His latest trip began on 6 October 2026.
The latest trip was announced only after he had left, a break from the usual practice of telling the public in advance.
Saidi maintained the trips remain private and that the government is under no obligation to release more details.
Boniface Dulani, an associate professor of political science at the University of Malawi, said the President is also Head of State, entrusted with public power, so Malawians need information about his private travels to avoid speculation.
He cited Article 12(1) of the Constitution, which says all legal and political authority derives from the people and must be exercised solely to serve and protect their interests.
“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Professor Dulani said. “In the absence of information, the public will fill the vacuum with speculation, innuendo and insinuations.”
Michael Kaiyatsa, executive director of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, said personal privacy cannot be a blanket excuse for secrecy.
He said that if the trips are genuinely private, the government should at least clarify whether they are privately or publicly funded, without revealing sensitive personal details.
“Where public resources are involved, accountability is not optional,” he said.
Mutharika won the 2025 election with 3,035,249 votes (56.8 percent) against Lazarus Chakwera’s 1,765,170 (33 percent). He previously served as President from 2014 to 2020.
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