Ex-OPM aide hits back at ‘vicious’ attacks by PL insiders following resignation

Former OPM official Aaron Zahra has hit back against a wave of "cruel and vicious" insults and threats, saying that some of his attackers on social media are high-ranking officials within government entities and the Labour Party. 

Zahra, who recently stepped down as the OPM's head of government events, broke his silence on Tuesday after controversial Labour blogger Neville Gafà publicly celebrated his departure last Friday, labelling him part of a "dangerous clique" that fractured the party.

Zahra strongly rejected claims that he was pushed out of Castille as part of recent post-election reshuffles, insisting he chose to leave voluntarily and turned down requests to reconsider his resignation.

In a Facebook post accompanied by screenshots of harsh online comments, Zahra hit out at internal party toxicity.

He said some people commenting under Gafà's post are employed within Transport Malta, the Civil Protection Department, and the PL's own mass events team.

"I walked into Castille clean and I left clean, with full integrity and a clear conscience," Zahra wrote, adding that the Labour Party does not deserve to be consumed by "bitterness, jealousy, and hatred".

A 'black period' - Gafà

Gafà, a staunch loyalist of former prime minister Joseph Muscat, on Friday uploaded - and subsequently deleted - a scathing post claiming Zahra's 2020 appointment to the OPM marked the beginning of a "black period" where Muscat supporters were treated "as if they had the plague".

The post, which was uploaded on the day of Zahra's departure from the OPM, said the "clique" was finally being swept out.

The first part of Gafa's post, which was uploaded on Friday and later deleted. Screenshot taken from Facebook

This exercise had already begun after the 2024 MEP election, Gafà said, when party CEO Leonid Mckay and OPM chief of staff Mark Mallia joined the leadership, but with Zahra still at Castille, many party activists and even cabinet members were still being treated like "fourth-class" citizens.

Gafà, who was himself heavily involved in Labour's election campaign this year, thanked anyone who was behind the decision to move Zahra out.

In his Facebook post on Tuesday, Zahra fiercely defended his integrity and denied rumors that he was dismissed.

He did not mention Gafà by name and said he would not sink into personal insults like the ones that were directed at him. But he said he faced internal hostility since Gafà's post, and revealed that his family had suffered "insults, attacks, and threats" from a "very small minority of Labour supporters".

A screenshot of the second part of Neville Gafà's Facebook post.

"We talk and pontificate a lot about mental health, but when it comes to the moment of truth, you find nothing. In these six and a half years, I did nothing more than what the role demanded of me," he wrote.

"What I did was always approved. In my work, I never showed favoritism, despite being defamed and accused of doing so."

Times of Malta was among the newsrooms that revealed Zahra would move out of his OPM job last month, along with Anthony David Gatt and Owen Grech.

Zahra was a close aide to Abela and was responsible for organising and managing logistics for the PM’s events and appearances.

In 2022, he was appointed chair of Festivals Malta, an agency set up in 2017 to oversee national and international events, festivals and cultural projects. He has retained that role.