While Malawi’s students sit in silent classrooms writing the most important exam of their lives—the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE)—one man is preparing chaos just outside the school gates.
Alfred Gangata, Vice President for the Central Region in the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has stubbornly insisted on staging mass demonstrations this Friday, smack in the middle of the national exams. To many Malawians, this is like setting fire to the granary during harvest—it benefits no one and harms the future.
Gangata, whose name is already dragging in scandal for hiring someone to sit the MSCE on his behalf, and who also faces accusations of forging tax documents to dodge the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), has refused to heed calls from civil society leaders like Benedicto Kondowe to postpone the protest. This has raised questions not just about Gangata’s character, but about the leadership and direction of the DPP itself.
“If you can’t even respect students, how can you respect a nation?” one education activist asked. Many say Gangata’s actions show not just political immaturity, but gross insensitivity. The man is still waiting to hear whether the courts will jail or acquit him for his MSCE fraud, and yet he is parading himself as a defender of constitutional rights.
Observers say this reckless behaviour is a reflection of a party that’s lost its moral compass. During their last rule, the DPP abolished the Junior Certificate of Education (JCE), and many suspect that if voted back into power, they will scrap the MSCE too—just to free up money for corrupt luxuries and questionable private pleasures. “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,” and today, it is Malawi’s children who are that grass.
Political analysts argue that former President Peter Mutharika’s silence is deafening. “A wise chief calms his village before a storm,” yet Mutharika appears unable—or unwilling—to rein in his emotionally erratic lieutenants. To many Malawians, the DPP’s latest antics prove that the party is not ready to govern again.
As one teacher put it, “Gangata and the DPP want to march on Friday, but they’ll be marching over the dreams of children.”
