Mutharika leaves Malawi for South Africa on fourth private trip

Questions grow over the president’s repeated private trips as State House has not disclosed the purpose or expected duration of his latest visit, five weeks after a 17-day stay in South Africa.

President Arthur Peter Mutharika has left Malawi for South Africa on his fourth publicly announced private trip since returning to office in October 2025. State House confirmed the departure but has not said why the president is travelling or when he will return.

The departure follows confusion on Tuesday after reports indicated Mutharika was due to leave Malawi but the journey did not take place. A post by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation quoting Chief Secretary to the Government Justin Saidi about the planned departure was later removed without explanation, fuelling speculation over whether the trip had been postponed or cancelled. State House did not publicly explain why the journey failed to proceed as expected.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Saidi confirmed that the president departed Kamuzu International Airport on Wednesday afternoon for a private visit to South Africa. The statement did not disclose the purpose of the visit or indicate when he is expected to return.

The latest departure comes barely five weeks after Mutharika came back from another extended stay in the same country. He left Malawi on 12 June and returned on 29 June, spending 17 days outside Malawi.

Taken together, Mutharika has spent at least 42 days in South Africa on private visits since returning to office, excluding the current trip, whose duration remains unknown.

The repeated visits have attracted growing public attention, particularly because State House has consistently described them simply as “private” without explaining their purpose in advance.

What counts as a private visit?

The June trip illustrated the difficulty. Speaking to staff before boarding, Mutharika said he was making a short trip and would be back within a few days. He returned 17 days later.

In the statement announcing that return, State House described the visit as a two-week private trip. Several news outlets repeated the shorter figure. The December visit had in fact lasted two weeks; the June one ran three days longer.

Only on his return did it emerge that the president had met his South African counterpart while away. In remarks reported by State House on his arrival, Mutharika said he held “a series of meetings with my brother, President Ramaphosa” on the problems facing Malawians in South Africa following recent xenophobic violence against Black African immigrants. He added that the two would continue working together after the 30 June deadline to address the wave of xenophobia.

Those meetings were not announced before the president left, nor at any point during the 17 days he was away. State House has not said whether they were connected to the reason for the visit, which it continued to describe as private throughout.

The December and March trips produced no disclosure of any kind. In both cases State House confirmed only that the president had departed and, later, that he had returned.

The pattern has prompted debate over what a “private visit” means when undertaken by a sitting head of state. Although described as private, presidential travel necessarily involves state security, diplomatic coordination, official logistics and public expenditure. The repeated trips also come at a time when Malawi continues to grapple with high inflation, foreign exchange shortages and broader fiscal pressures, prompting questions from some commentators about the cost and transparency of such travel.

The issue has also drawn attention because President Mutharika has previously directed public officials to minimise foreign travel as part of broader efforts to reduce government expenditure. His relationship with First Vice-President Jane Ansah reportedly deteriorated after she undertook a private trip to the United Kingdom despite the administration’s emphasis on restricting non-essential travel. However, neither State House nor the Vice-President has publicly stated that the trip was the cause of their reported political differences, and the presidency has not formally linked the two.

Chihana steps forward

The repeated absences have also focused attention on how executive responsibilities are being exercised within government. Although Malawi has a First Vice-President, Justice Jane Ansah, it is Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana who has recently assumed an increasingly prominent public role.

Last month, Chihana chaired a Cabinet meeting under Section 92(3) of the Constitution, which permits the president to authorise either vice-president to preside over Cabinet in his absence. The meeting generated controversy after Ansah reportedly said she had been available but had not been invited, prompting questions from some legal commentators over whether the constitutional provisions had been properly applied. Government maintained that the president has the constitutional authority to delegate either vice-president to chair Cabinet.

Chihana has also represented the president at official engagements. On Tuesday, he received International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo on behalf of Mutharika, whom the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) had earlier reported was due to leave the country. It is not known whether the president’s planned trip was the reason Chihana hosted the ILO Director-General, as neither State House nor the Office of the Vice-President has commented on the arrangement.

In a Facebook post, Chihana wrote: “This morning, on behalf of His Excellency the State President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, I had the honour of receiving Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), for a courtesy call at my office in Lilongwe.”

He said the two discussed job creation, youth employment, skills development, labour migration governance and social protection, and agreed to deepen cooperation. The meeting is the latest example of Chihana carrying out duties on behalf of the president while Mutharika has been away from official engagements albeit without any explaination or travelled outside Malawi.

Does Malawi’s president have annual or sick leave?

Malawi’s Constitution sets out the powers and responsibilities of the president but does not prescribe a fixed annual leave entitlement or sick leave allowance for a sitting head of state. The Presidents (Salaries and Benefits) Act likewise does not specify how many days of annual or sick leave a serving president may take.

Instead, the Constitution provides mechanisms for executive authority to continue whenever the president is absent, including the delegation of functions to the vice-presidents. State House has not indicated how long Mutharika’s latest private trip will last or when he is expected to return to Malawi.

While Malawi’s Constitution does not limit how many private trips a President may take or prescribe annual or sick leave for a sitting Head of State, it does anticipate situations where the President may become temporarily unable to discharge the functions of office. In such circumstances, the Constitution provides mechanisms for executive authority to continue through the Vice-Presidents or, where appropriate, for Parliament to consider questions of presidential incapacity. The constitutional focus is therefore not on the number or duration of a President’s absences, but on ensuring that government continues to function and that there are legal procedures to address any inability to perform presidential duties.