Africa-Press – Malawi. There is something fundamentally broken in the way some of Malawi’s so-called social media influencers operate. It’s not just their hunger for attention or their consistent attempts to polarize public opinion—it’s their casual relationship with the truth.
The recent twisting of President Lazarus Chakwera’s remarks during the official opening of the Commercial High Court Building in Blantyre on Wednesday, 30th April 2025, is a prime example.
Figures like Idris Ali Nassah, Bright Theu, and Onjezani Kenani took one line from a deeply philosophical and national-building speech and spun it into a smear campaign against the President, accusing him of admitting that he knows a corrupt Cabinet minister who is extorting money and yet refusing to act.
That is a blatant lie.
Let’s get the facts straight. This is what the President actually said:
“You don’t have to be an evil person to compromise your integrity… a person in Cabinet [can] go around the business community offering Government contracts or issuing threats in exchange for tens of millions of kwachas in secret kickbacks they can use for conducting political rallies and paying corrupt journalists to write positive stories about them and negative stories about others.”
Now, any honest and informed reader can see what’s happening here: the President is not making a specific allegation about a particular individual. He is diagnosing a systemic moral decay—showing that corruption isn’t always driven by evil intent, but often by selfishness that slowly corrodes integrity.
In fact, the Cabinet reference is just one of many examples the President used to illustrate how even “decent,” educated, respected citizens can fall prey to self-interest and corrupt the offices they hold. He went further:
Judiciary: He warned against judges taking bribes for favorable rulings.
Roads Authority: He condemned cutting corners on infrastructure to steal public funds.
Immigration: He criticized the illegal issuance of passports to non-citizens.
MANEB: He exposed the selling of exam papers to students.
Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA): He noted the smuggling of goods across borders without tax.
State House: He addressed the abuse of position to evade duty on imported goods.
District Hospitals: He highlighted the siphoning of medicines to private pharmacies.
Citizens: He even warned of ordinary Malawians evading tax by not declaring income.
Let’s be crystal clear: President Chakwera was not confessing to harboring criminals in his Cabinet. He was not turning a blind eye. He was doing something far more meaningful—he was educating the nation on the silent drivers of corruption. He was reminding us that corruption is not always the result of outright wickedness—it’s often the outcome of selfishness and a lack of accountability, even among the seemingly upright.
And yet, these social media personalities—with thousands of followers and significant influence—took this moment of national introspection and twisted it into a cheap political attack. Why? For likes? For clout? For attention? Whatever the motive, the impact is the same: they lied to the public.
This isn’t just a misinterpretation. It is intentional misrepresentation. It is an insult to the intelligence of Malawians who deserve to engage with facts, not fiction.
President Chakwera’s speech was a challenge to the conscience of every public servant. It was a call to integrity, not an admission of guilt. If we allow influencers to distort such moments, we risk killing the very moral compass that the President was trying to recalibrate for the nation.
Let us be vigilant—not just against corruption in government—but also against misinformation in the public square. The enemy of progress is not only the corrupt official—it is also the dishonest commentator who manipulates truth for applause.
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