The ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says President Lazarus Chakwera is free to meet anybody without any restrictions.

The party’s chairperson Maurice Munthali said this to clarify MCP secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka’s communication which directed all national executive committee (NEC) and non-executive committee members to go through his office if interested to meet the President.

He said: “However that should not be interested to mean the President is restricting anybody from meeting him. In actual fact, as the people’s leader, he has always emphatically assured Malawians that the doors to State House are open for anyone.”

In an internal memo dated 10 March 2022 bearing Mkaka’s signature, he issued a directive to all the party members that no one should meet President Lazarus Chakwera without his approval.

The directive appears to lend credence to allegations that there is a gang of embattled senior members in MCP that has been remotely controlling an indecisive Chakwera.

However, some MCP members condemned Mkaka over the new policy saying the Secretary-General wants to frustrate party members.