By Apengie Apengire
President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika was voted into State House by Malawians from Nsanje to Chitipa, from Nkhotakota to Mchinji. He is not President of the Lhomwe, he is not President of the Yao, he is President of all Malawians.
That mandate carries one non-negotiable duty: to serve every citizen with honesty and to demand the same from every minister he appoints. When Mutharika assembled his Cabinet, he looked each of them in the eye and said they are servants of the people, not bosses. They were hired to liberate Malawi, not to lecture it.
They were told to deliver, and above all, to tell Malawians the truth. That is the standard. That is the contract. And that is why President Mutharika must now take a bold, unavoidable move and fire Minister of Energy and Mining, Hon. Dr. Jean Mathanga.
The fuel crisis has exposed a gap between what government says and what Malawians live, and in that gap trust is bleeding. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mathanga stood before the cameras, flanked by microphones, and gave the country a date and a number.
She said Malawi would be “flooded with fuel by Monday, 27 April.” She was specific. She said 143 fuel tankers were already in transit and another 110 were ready for dispatch. That is 243 tankers. She did not say “maybe.” She did not say “we hope.” She gave a deadline. Malawians marked it. Minibus operators parked their vehicles to wait. Hospitals recalculated ambulance runs. Farmers delayed moving produce.
The whole country held its breath for Monday. Monday came and went. Tuesday followed. Then Wednesday. Today is May 4, and the pumps are dry. The serpentine queues have disappeared not because tankers arrived, but because filling stations gave up. “No Fuel” signs are now the national flag at the forecourt. The crisis has not eased.
It has calcified. So the question every Malawian is asking is simple and brutal: who is cheating Malawians? Is it Jean Mathanga or is it President Mutharika himself? If the President did not send his minister to mislead the nation, then the minister misled the nation on her own.
If she did, she must go. If the President keeps her, then the lie becomes his. There is no third option. Leadership is not poetry. It is consequences. Mutharika cannot preach servant leadership and practice protection of non-performance.
A country without fuel cannot progress. A child cannot get to school. A nurse cannot get to work. A shop cannot open. The economy does not run on excuses. It runs on diesel and petrol. When a Minister of Energy cannot get either into the country after promising 243 tankers, that is not a policy challenge.
That is a failure of competence and credibility. Dr. Mathanga has had a week since 27 April to explain where the tankers are. Which border did they cross? Which depot signed for them? Which transporter is holding them? Instead of answers, Malawians have received silence, and silence in a crisis is arrogance. The minister told the nation to expect fuel. The nation received emptiness.
That is not a miscommunication. That is a breach of trust. And breaches of trust at Cabinet level cannot be patched with another press briefing. They must be punished with dismissal. President Mutharika’s legacy will not be written by the speeches he gives, but by the ministers he keeps.
If he retains a minister who assured the nation of fuel by a specific date and failed to deliver, he tells every Malawian that dates do not matter, that promises are theatre, and that Cabinet is a place where words have no weight. That is how governments lose the people. The President campaigned on liberating Malawi from mediocrity, from blackouts, from endless queues.
Liberation does not happen when the Minister of Energy turns the ministry into a factory of missed deadlines. Liberation happens when a President fires non-performers and hires problem-solvers.
Mutharika needs only performing ministers and nothing less. The ministry has recycled explanations about global supply chains, about aging infrastructure, about Open Tender Systems. Malawians have heard it all before.
What they have not seen is fuel. What they have not seen is accountability. Dr. Shadric Namalomba can urge calm. Calm does not fill a tank. Dr. Mathanga can promise long-term rehabilitation.
Long-term does not start a generator today. The short-term test was 27 April. She set it. She failed it. Keeping her in office after that failure insults every Malawian who believed her and planned their week around her word.
Some will say firing a minister will not bring fuel overnight. Correct. But keeping a minister who lied will guarantee that no Malawian believes the next promise. Once a government loses credibility, it governs by force, not by consent.
Mutharika was not voted to rule by force. He was voted to serve by results. The result here is zero. The fuel did not come. The blackouts did not stop. The minister did not resign. Therefore the President must act.
If he does not, then 247 Malawinews and every other voice that loves this country will be forced to conclude that the President is the one cheating Malawians, and we will advocate for his resignation for failing the nation. That is not malice. That is accountability. The President asked to be judged by his team. The team has failed. The minister at the centre of the failure must be the first to go.
Malawi is bigger than any minister. It is bigger than any party. It is certainly bigger than any lie. President Mutharika must fire Jean Mathanga now. He must show that in his government, when you promise 243 tankers and deliver zero, you pack your office. He must show that servant leadership means you serve or you leave.
He must show that the votes from Nsanje to Chitipa were not votes for excuses. They were votes for fuel, for light, for dignity. The tankers did not arrive. The minister must. At the door, with a resignation letter. If she will not write it, the President must hand it to her. Anything less is a betrayal of the people who put him in State House. The country is watching. The pumps are dry. The decision is due.
