Vice-President Jane Ansah says she travelled from Blantyre to Lilongwe and waited at Capital Hill to attend a Cabinet meeting on Monday, but could not participate because she had not received the Cabinet papers.
Ansah said she heard that the meeting would take place while she was in Blantyre and travelled to Lilongwe to attend.
“But when I came, the Cabinet bag was not there,” she said in an interview at her office on Monday.
Ansah said she waited at Capital Hill until the afternoon because she understood that the meeting would start at about 2pm or 2.30pm.
She said she called Chief Secretary to the Government Justin Saidi, but he did not answer.
“I sent a message that I understand there is a Cabinet meeting. I do not have the Cabinet bag,” Ansah said.
She said she asked that her absence be recorded as an apology because she had not received the Cabinet papers.
Ansah said her relationship with President Peter Mutharika remained cordial but accused some officials in Government and the Democratic Progressive Party of sidelining her in the discharge of her duties.
She said she knew the individuals behind what she described as attempts to undermine her work but was not discouraged.
The latest remarks come against the background of a similar controversy in July, when Ansah was absent from a Cabinet meeting chaired by Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
At the time, Ansah’s office said it had not received notification of the meeting. The Office of the President and Cabinet defended the President’s authority to assign either vice-president to chair Cabinet.
The Office of the President and Cabinet was yet to respond to Ansah’s remarks.
