By Aaron Dube
Tuesday, 12 August 2025, marked a defining moment in Malawi’s political calendar.
Jane Ansah took to the Southern Region as the Democratic Progressive Party presidential running mate.
The tour was conducted under the DPP-AFORD alliance banner ahead of the September 2025 tripartite elections. It was designed to energize the party’s base in a region known to swing national results.
The campaign was anchored by one clear message: “A Return to Proven Leadership.” That message directly linked the alliance’s previous time in government to a promise of economic recovery, job creation and rural development.
The tour did not begin in Mwanza. Two days earlier, on 10 August 2025, Jane Ansah opened the phase in Blantyre with a prayer service.
The service was intended to frame the campaign in moral and unifying terms. It preceded the high-energy push that followed across the Southern Region.
On 12 August she moved into a whistle-stop format that prioritized direct contact over large stadium rallies. Her route covered critical trading centres and administrative points including Inkosi Kanduku Headquarters, Mwanza Boma, Thambani, Chifunga and Zalewa.
At each location she addressed large gatherings of citizens who had waited for hours along roadsides. Rather than relying on broad slogans, Jane Ansah laid out specific manifesto commitments aimed at immediate household impact.
She pledged K5 billion for development projects to every constituency every year. The pledge targeted chronic frustration over stalled infrastructure.
She also committed K100 million annually for women’s businesses and another K100 million for youth businesses. Education was presented as a pillar of the plan, with promises of free primary and secondary education, and free examinations for learners and candidates.
On economic management she confronted Malawi’s most visible pain points at the time: food, fuel and foreign exchange shortages. She assured voters that those shortages would become “issues of the past” under a DPP-AFORD government led by Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika.
Earlier that morning she paid a courtesy call on Ngoni Chief Inkosi Kanduku at his headquarters in Mwanza. The engagement with traditional leadership was strategic and signaled respect for local authority.
It also grounded the campaign in community structures that influence rural voting. This approach aimed to build trust at the grassroots level.
Speaking to the crowd at the Chief’s headquarters, she described Professor Mutharika as a leader “coming again to save mother Malawi.” That language of rescue carried emotional weight in communities that had endured prolonged economic hardship.
Political observers later assessed the Mwanza and Neno swing as more than a routine campaign stop. It tested whether the alliance could convert policy detail into rural turnout.
Jane Ansah herself called the DPP manifesto “the most comprehensive plan for the country’s economic transformation.” She presented it not as a document, but as a contract between the party and the people.
Crowd reception suggested the approach worked. Supporters responded to both the tangible pledges and the appeal to the DPP’s past record.
The tour injected critical momentum into the alliance at a point when name recognition needed to translate into votes. It helped bridge the gap between party visibility and voter mobilization.
Weeks later, the 16 September polls resulted in victory for Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and for Jane Ansah. She was sworn in as Vice President of Malawi.
The 12 August whistle-stop therefore functioned as a strategic inflection point. It demonstrated how targeted messaging, engagement with traditional leaders and concrete economic promises could shift voter sentiment in a decisive region.
For international analysts, the event reinforced a central truth about Malawian elections. Outcomes are often determined not by media campaigns alone, but by face-to-face encounters in markets and trading centres where trust is built in person.
Jane Ansah’s Southern Region tour was therefore both a campaign tactic and a political turning point. It helped carry the DPP-AFORD alliance to power.
