The Headline Admission
The defining line of the apology is this one:
"Every single allegation I made against Ms. Lusumpa was a complete and utter lie. There was not a shred of truth in anything I wrote about her."
That is not a soft retraction. That is not a managed PR statement. That is a full admission that every one of the claims that formed the basis of the criminal case and which had been alleged in court filings reported by outlets including the National Prosecution Authority and Mwebantu were, in Mutale Mwanza's own words, fabricated.
The statement is signed "MUTALE MWANZA" and dated "20-04-26." It is published on the official M-Nation Facebook page, where the original posts had appeared on November 7, 2024.
What the Apology Actually Says
The statement is unusually explicit, even by Zambian public-apology standards. It names by category the exact allegations being retracted:
That Chichi Daisy had been accused of being "sexually promiscuous" - described as "falsely and maliciously" made
That "deeply offensive and dehumanising words" - had been used to describe her
That "disgusting and completely fabricated allegations" - had been made about her intimate life
That the end of Chichi Daisy's marriage had been - "cruelly mocked"
That she had been - "called degrading names that no human being deserves to be called"
Mutale Mwanza then lists four formal concessions:
That every allegation was - "a complete and utter lie"
That the language used was - "despicable and beneath the dignity expected of any decent member of society"
That the attack was - "unprovoked, unjustified, and driven purely by malice"
That she had - "used my platform and my large following as a weapon to inflict maximum damage on an innocent person"
She goes on to describe Chichi Daisy as "an honorable woman who has done nothing to warrant the abuse I subjected her to" and directly asks her Facebook audience over one million people to "disregard every word" of the original posts.
The apology closes with what the statement calls a "solemn undertaking" that Mutale Mwanza will "never again publish any statement, whether on social media or elsewhere, that is harmful to Ms. Lusumpa's reputation."
Why This Is Bigger Than It Looks
The standard celebrity apology in Zambia and elsewhere tends to follow a familiar pattern. An acknowledgement of "hurt feelings." A vague "if anyone was offended." A line about "learning and growing." And very rarely, if ever, an admission that the underlying allegations themselves were false.
This apology does not follow that pattern. It does the opposite. It names Chichi Daisy by her full legal name. It names the allegations. It retracts each one explicitly. It identifies the original posts as lies not misunderstandings, not emotional outbursts, but lies, twice, in two different sentences.
From a legal standpoint, that distinction matters enormously.
Chichi Daisy's original civil demand, issued through the law firm Muleza Mwiimbu and Company in November 2024 and first reported by News Diggers, had asked for three things: damages of K2 million, a public retraction, and an apology. Yesterday's statement delivers two of those three. Publicly. On the same platform where the original harm was done. Under Mutale Mwanza's own name.
The Timing Is Not an Accident
The apology went up on April 20, 2026 the same day the Director of Public Prosecutions Gilbert Phiri formally discontinued the cyber-harassment case. That is not a coincidence, and VersaEdits is not the first outlet to note it. Same-day retractions of this nature particularly ones drafted in clearly legalistic language typically form part of the conditions under which a DPP agrees to a withdrawal. When the matter was adjourned on April 14 and held in chambers before Magistrate Mbuywana Sinvula, it is likely that the structure of what was agreed yesterday was already being negotiated between the two legal teams.
That context helps explain a few things. It explains why Chichi Daisy refused apologies privately for a year, per reporting by the Zambian Observer, but then moved to withdraw in March 2026. It explains why the apology reads more like a legal document than a personal statement. And it explains the very specific, formal structure of the statement full legal name, numbered concessions, the phrase "solemn undertaking" - language that is almost always lawyer-drafted.
None of that diminishes the apology. It contextualises it.
What the Apology Does Not Address
The apology is directed at one person. By name. Repeatedly.
It does not mention Diamond TV. It does not mention the Personality of the Year Awards. It does not retract the allegations that the POTYAS were "fraudulent" or "a scam." It does not address any of the other Diamond TV staff who were named in the original November 2024 posts.
That is a choice. And it has legal weight.
As of March 2025, Diamond TV had asked the Lusaka High Court to enter default judgement against Mutale Mwanza in a completely separate civil defamation suit, citing her failure to enter an appearance or file a defence. That case which is institutional, not personal remains open at the High Court level. The apology published yesterday does not affect it.
So while the criminal charge from one complainant is closed, and while Chichi Daisy has now received the written retraction she was entitled to, Mutale Mwanza's legal exposure from the November 2024 posts is not fully resolved. One chapter closes. Another remains open.
The Line That Deserves to Be Read Twice
Near the end of the apology, past the legal formality, is a sentence that reads differently from the rest of the document:
"I have learnt, at great cost to an innocent person, that words have consequences and that public platforms must not be used to destroy the lives of others."
That sentence is not strictly a legal concession. It is a statement about a lesson learned. And for every Zambian content creator watching the M-Nation saga play out in public over the last seventeen months the students, the influencers, the radio hosts, the social media personalities that is the single most important line in the entire document.
Because that is the one line that no lawyer can draft for anybody else.
What Chichi Daisy Gets From All of This
Yesterday's hug at the Lusaka Magistrate's Court, widely reported by ZNBC, Kalemba, and Zambia Monitor, showed the human conclusion to a seventeen-month ordeal. Yesterday's apology, published hours later, showed the paperwork.
Between the two, Chichi Daisy has received something that complainants in cyber-harassment cases very rarely receive in this part of the world: a named perpetrator, a public written retraction of every underlying allegation, an explicit statement that she is "an honorable woman" who did nothing wrong, and a formal undertaking never to be defamed by the same source again. Not a settlement in secret. Not a private message. A public apology, on the same platform where the harm was done, read by the same audience that had read the original posts.
When people asked Chichi Daisy earlier this year through headlines, through social media comments, through intermediaries whether she would forgive Mutale Mwanza, most of them were asking the wrong question. The real question was always what she would accept. Yesterday, we found out.
Sources
Mutale Mwanza's public apology — M-Nation Facebook page, April 20, 2026: https://web.facebook.com/share/p/1LSSZeAo4b/
National Prosecution Authority — Cyber-Harassment Trial Underway As Mutale Mwanza Faces Charges in Lusaka Magistrate's Court, February 9, 2026: https://www.npa.gov.zm/index.php/2026/02/09/cyber-harassment-trial-underway-as-mutale-mwanza-faces-charges-in-lusaka-magistrates-court/
News Diggers — Police arrest Mutale Mwanza for harassing Chichi Daisy, November 21, 2024: https://diggers.news/local/2024/11/21/police-arrest-mutale-mwanza-for-harassing-chichi-daisy/
News Diggers — Diamond TV asks court to enter default judgement against Mutale Mwanza, March 6, 2025: https://diggers.news/courts/2025/03/06/diamond-tv-asks-court-to-enter-default-judgement-against-mutale-mwanza/
News Diggers — Court adjourns Mutale Mwanza's cyberbullying case, April 14, 2026: https://diggers.news/courts/2026/04/14/court-adjourns-mutale-mwanzas-cyberbullying-case/
Mwebantu — Chichi Daisy asks DPP to withdraw the Mutale Mwanza case, March 13, 2026: https://www.mwebantu.com/chichi-daisy-asks-dpp-to-withdraw-the-mutale-mwanza-case/
Zambian Observer — Chichi Daisy rejects apology as Mutale Mwanza pleads not guilty, December 3, 2025: https://zambianobserver.com/chichi-daisy-rejects-apology-as-mutale-mwanza-pleads-not-guilty/
Zambia Monitor — Emotional moment as cyber-harassment case against Mutale Mwanza faces possible withdrawal, March 13, 2026: https://www.zambiamonitor.com/emotional-moment-as-cyber-harassment-case-against-mutale-mwanza-faces-possible-withdrawal/
ZNBC News — Courthouse footage by Memory Bbuku, April 20, 2026: https://fb.watch/GBT43qMZiS/?
Kalemba News — Courthouse footage and reporting, April 20, 2026: https://fb.watch/GBSCpXQZKu/?
Disclaimer: This article summarises publicly available reporting from named Zambian news outlets and a public apology published by Mutale Mwanza on her own official Facebook page on April 20, 2026. While every reasonable effort has been made to ensure accuracy, VersaEdits does not guarantee that every detail is complete or free from error, and nothing in this article should be taken as a statement of fact by VersaEdits itself beyond what is attributed to the listed sources. Direct quotations are reproduced from the public apology as published. Mutale Mwanza pleaded not guilty to the cyber-harassment charge and the case was discontinued by the Director of Public Prosecutions without a judicial finding on the merits. Corrections, clarifications, and right-of-reply requests can be directed to editorial@versaedits.com and will be reviewed and, where appropriate, acted upon promptly.
