Category: National

By Alinafe Nyanda:

After more than a year of absence from the music scene, Ronald Thamakera, a Lilongwe based gospel artist has just released a new song Mbuye wakana as a reminder of God’s greatness and a celebration of his life.

Speaking in an interview on Thursday, Thamakera who is also a worship leader and a radical follower of Christ has been in the music scene for about a decade said he decided to dish out a new hit song as he anticipated to release his third album end of this year.

He said the song talks about taking God by His word and having faith that he will do what He said about our lives, saying his fans should look out for more spirit filled & blessed sounds.

“The song mbuye wakana refers to the greatness of God with strong words of worship and praise, and is a reminder of God’s greatness and celebration of His goodness in my life but also in the lives of others,” he said

According to Thamakera the song mbuye wakana and other which will be included in his upcoming third album end of this year was composed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Singer Thamakera said: “The upcoming album also talks about the victory, great future that God gives His children. We all have needs as humans and we depend on God for them, with prayer and this song always on our lips to edify our Lord, the Heavens would surely open up and grant us our hear desires”.

Mbuye wakana was recorded and produced in Lilongwe by Lobodo record.

By Alinafe Nyanda:

Member of Parliament for Salima South East Mike Ng’ombe Mwawa has said the expansion program of New Chigombe Ecco bricks in the district would fight deforestation in the country as most people will manage to build houses using blocks and bricks as opposed to red-burnt bricks.

Mwawa said this in an interview on Wednesday in Salima, saying as government they are pleased to learn that New Chigombe’s capacity expansion plans are on track as this will make sure that cement is available in the district at reasonable price.

“It is an open secret that human survival crucially hinges on how well we take care of the environment. I am also aware that conservation and sustainable use of environmental resources and their protection depends on changed behavior by all individuals household, consumers, private sector as well as public institutions,” said Mwawa.

He then saluted New Chigombe for producing cement blocks which he said preserves the environment.

“They are also demanding information about how the product is produced, processed, transported and marketed. I am pleased to see New Chigombe answering to these construction needs,” he said.

Meanwhile Salima district council environmental officer, Adam Jason has therefore urged New Chigombe Ecco bricks to continuously read the trends and respond with similar products.

On his part New Chigombe executive director, Joseph Kandyesa said the tradition of burning bricks accelerate deforestation in the country hence the coming in of expansion plans.

Kandiyesa said this will go a long way in addressing our environment concerns and in preserving the environment as most people will manage to build houses using blocks and bricks as opposed to red-burnt bricks.

“The construction industry in Malawi is growing at a fast rate together with demand for quality products to meet complex and varied needs of its end users, so as a company we thought of expanding our production in a quest to conserve and preserve the environment in the process,” said Kandiyesa.

New Chigombe Ecco bricks it’s a local construction company based in Salima.

By Chilungamo Missi:

Malawi Sounds Enterprise, a body which conducts MASO awards has disclosed that this years awards edition aim to promote youth empowerment in the country through arts.

The wards which will open for nominations on September 10, 2022 were first established in 2019 as online awards to promote upcoming artists and other sidelined genres targeting both secular and gospel artists.

In an interview on Wednesday in Blantyre, Director of MASO Awards, Augustine Mukusi said this years awards would be conducted under the theme Youth Empowerment through Arts.

“One of the main agendas of our country is to create employment for the youth, and we thought of contributing to this agenda by coming up with awards which targets everyone in the creative sector.

“Right now creative artists are not being appreciated, we believe that through the platform of MASO Awards we will be able to bring this to light and solicit solutions on how youths can be empowered through arts,” he said.

Mukusi added that this years edition would be unique from previous ones in a way that they would attract international artists and introduce more categories which would be announced in due course.

He said that, “We have partnered Amaryllis Hotel, we are going to have pre awards event on October 15 and an after-party event, all which we did not do during the previous awards.”

The Director said that currently the awards have 14 categories and six more are yet to be announced adding that they are trying to not focus on musicians only but everyone in the arts industry.

Nominations for the awards will start from October 10 to 14, 2022 and the Pre MASO-Awards, dubbed MASO Acoustic Night is slated for October 15, 2022 while voting starts from October 15 until November 19, 2022.

The Award ceremony is scheduled for November 26, 2022.

This will be the second physical MASO awards ceremony from the 2021 ceremony since they were introduced and conducted virtually in 2019 and 2020.

By Memory Chatonda:

Alpha Arts Malawi Wednesday partnered Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) to run this years Miss Malawi Beauty pageantry slated for December 3, 2022 at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Speaking during the signing ceremony in Blantyre, Alpha Arts Director, Francis Kaphuka said ZBS had previously run Miss Malawi Beauty pageantry successfully such that it has vast experience to make even this years event glamorous hence the partnership.

He said currently regional auditions for 2022 Miss Malawi event were underway and close to 60 contestants are participating in the event.

“Two weeks ago, we had the auditions at Bamboo Boutique Hotel in Lilongwe. Last weekend, the event took place at Rotus Hotel in Blantyre and next week, the auditions will take place at Grand Palace Hotel in Mzuzu,” Kaphuka revealed.

ZBS Miss Malawi Liaison Officer, Ruth Kulaisi described the partnership as a relief to the station having run the event for years.

She underscored the importance of Miss Malawi Beauty pageantry for promoting and driving social change by bringing attention to different issues such as climate change, mental health, education, ending child marriages, gender based violence and HIV and AIDS among others.

“Beauty pageants like Miss Malawi draw peoples attention to pertinent social issues happening in the country and put Malawi on the map,” Kulaisi said.

The Officer said ZBS being one of the top broadcasters would continue focusing on women empowerment and girls issues through its programs such as Womanity, Girl-Child Initiative and Ife Amayi to promote, protect and respect women and girls in the country.

She called for companies and organizations to support the event in order to achieve unquestionable visibility through advertising and associating their products with the pageants.

Miss Malawis aspiring contestants are selected based on academic achievements, leadership skills, eloquent and communication skills among others.

The last Miss Malawi event was done in 2018 which crowned and entrusted Miss Tionge Munthali to champion issues of Sexual and Reproductive Health and rights for youth, women and girls.

 

By Solister Mogha:

Zomba District on Wednesday registered its first Cholera case, Malawi News Agency (Mana) has established.

Speaking to Mana, Zomba District Hospital (DHO) Health and Promotion Officer, Arnold Mndalira said seven more suspected patients were admitted to Zomba Central Hospital.

He said all the seven cases are from Dzaone Trading Centre in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Mtholowa.

“Seven cases are admitted to Zomba Central Hospital now and arrangements are being made to transfer them to Matawale Health Centre,” Mndalira disclosed.

Meanwhile, the DHO has requested managers of some health facilities in the district to release for free lingers lactate to the district pharmacy for redistribution to Matawale Health Centre.

Cholera is caused by vibro cholerae bacterium.

It is rabidly spread through consumption of faeces.

By Hannah Chimkulu:

An organization behind the annual Tumaini festival, has hailed last Friday night of cocktail fundraising concert successful as they have managed to bit their estimated targets.

The concert was aimed at increasing awareness about Tumaini festival coming in November, 2022.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) in Lilongwe, Communication Officer of Tumaini Letu-Malawi, Bright Malenga said the turn up was good as many people attend to the concert which made it to be a successful night.

‘’I am thanking everyone who participated in the fundraising concert which brought together people from all walks of life who enjoyed a top –notch cultural night. The night was full of music and poetry performances by Malawian artists and artists from Dzaleka,’’

One of Organizers of Tumaini letu Festival, Menes Lapuluma said they managed to sell all the tickets’ and others were paying at a door step as they planned to hosts 150 people.

‘’It was more than what we planned as many people came to the concert, as organizers we printed 150 tickets’ and we sold them all, we have manage to raise the funds we needed which will help in youth related program in Dzaleka refugee camp,’’ he said

Lapuluma said the team was planning to do another pre-festival fundraising on October 21, 2022 in Lilongwe, venue to be revealed soon and they want to provoke people’s mood for the main Tumaini festival.

The funds raised at cocktail night will support the youth’s engagement and behaviour change and its one of the programs Tumaini Letu runs within Dzaleka refugee camp.

 

By Chancy Namadzunda:

Chief Resident Magistrate Court sitting in Zomba has sentenced former MEC Commissioner, Linda Kunje to 18 months Imprisonment without Hard Labour.

Magistrate Austin Banda has also sentenced Kunje’s former official driver, Jones Tewesa to 15 months Imprisonment without Hard Labour

The sentence will run from 19 August, 2022, the day the two were convicted.

Kunje and Tewesa were convicted in a case the two obstructed President Lazarus Chakwera’s convoy in 2020.

On Tuesday the court heard sentencing submissions from both the state and the defence before it delivers it’s sentence.

Following the conviction, the two were remanded to Zomba maximum prison.

Kunje was one of the Commisoners who presided over the nullified 2019 Presidential Polls.

By Robert Nayeja:

The camp court conducted by National Initiative for Civic Education Campaign (NICE) on Monday revealed some juveniles who had spent more than a week in police custody at Bangula Police.

This is contrary to the constitution that stipulates that a person shall be in detention for not more than 48 hours before being taken to court.

There are so far three boys; 16 and 17 in Police custody suspected to have stolen five heads of cattle and another one 14 suspected to have stolen metal bars.

Police Prosecutor at Bangula Police Philemon Banda, said they have communicated to social welfare to assist with the matter.

However, in an interview Nsanje District Social welfare officer Chikumbutso Salifu brushed off police claims saying they were informed on Monday this week that there were juveniles at Bangula Police.

“They cannot blame social welfare office as we have just been informed of the development yesterday about the arrest of these children. If we were communicated earlier we would have gone there to assist them in time,”Salifu said.

He was quick to say his office has already taken up the matter immediately after being informed by the police.

Nsanje District Third Grade Magistrate Haneeph Ngundende who was conducting the camp court has since directed that the juveniles be released on bail.

Civic Education Officer for Nsanje NICE Kondwani Malunga disclosed that the Trust will support camp courts up to 2025 through a project callede Chilungamo Project with funding from European Union.

He said the project aims at decongesting cells and improve speed of justice delivery within courts, police and prisons.

“NICE trust is endeavoring to contribute to enhancement of good governance, rule of law and access to Justice. The overall objective is to expedite delivery of justice to those that have overstayed on remand or are ill,” Malunga said.

By Madalitso Wills Kateta:

Value addition is the solution to the growth of the country’s agricultural sector, trade and industry minister Mark Katsonga Phiri has said.

Katsonga Phiri was speaking in Lilongwe on Tuesday following discussions he had with a visiting delegation of the African Agriculture Transformation Initiative who are in the country on a familiarization tour on how Malawi can improve agricultural productivity.

Katsonga said the initiatives that the AATI are promoting are speaking to the agricultural transformation agenda that is being promoted by the Tonse administration.

“We have discussed much of the market access to our farm produce, but our discussion focused on value addition so that our produce does not end in a factory but rather on the shelf of a shop,” said Katsonga.

He said for the recent past agricultural activities in the country have been on the downward spiral, but it was the agenda of the Tonse administration to promote agriculture, but this he said could be achieved with private sector involvement.

“Government is only there to provide policy direction, it’s the private sector that can invest in the agriculture sector and as the Tonse administration we are committed to provide a favorable environment for agriculture transformation in the country,” he said.

Safia Boly executive director of the African Agriculture Transformation Initiative said the organization was engaging with various sectors to look at how the organization can establish the Malawi Agriculture Transformation Agency.

She said the organization wanted to understand the perspective of local players on how the agency could be operationalized in the country.

“We have seen a strong commitment from the local players as well as the ministry of trade on the best ways we can transform the country’s agriculture sector,” said Bolly.

Earlier in the day, the AATI relaxation met with the minister of agriculture where they discussed different initiatives on how the country can transform its agriculture sector.

The delegation will as part of its engagement visit different agriculture establishments in the country.

The AATI is financed through a US$2 million grant from IFAD and a US$10 million grant from BMGF with McKinsey & Company providing a substantial in-kind contribution and AGRA providing on-the-ground support.

By Madalitso Kateta:

Standing on the debris of what used to be her home, Dorothy Nowa, a 50-year-old widowed mother of four from Mgabu in Chikwawa district southern Malawi vividly recalls incidents of February 24,2022.

It had started like any normal day-not until she observed how the weather had suddenly changed. Despite her low literacy levels, Nowa who is one of the close to a million people that were affected by what she later learnt was Cyclone Ana had to make a quick decision. She had to move to a higher area as in the wake of climate change the area has become vulnerable to floods.

“I knew that the non-stop down pour would lead into floods and I had to urgently move to higher ground with my children and some few valuables,” said Nowa.

The heavy downpour which was accompanied by strong winds ended into a tropical storm and floods washed away homes, crops, livestock and other valuables. The loss incurred during this climate change extreme events means that climate change is also negatively impacting the socio-economic development of the country.

“I am just happy that I am still alive, of course I lost property that I worked for several years but this can’t compare with losing life in those floods,” she said.

Since 2006, every rainy season in Malawi has been characterized by ugly scenes of climate change induced extreme events such as floods, hail storms and agricultural pests which threaten the country’s agriculture sector- the agriculture sector employs 80 percent of the country’s population.

According to available data, Malawi has from 2000 to 2022, experienced more climate change extreme events as compared to the period between 1970 to 2000. In the 2015 to 2016 and 2016 to 2017 rainfall seasons alone, Malawi declared two consecutive state-of-disasters both related to climate change with the loss that arose after the 2015 floods alone estimated at US$ 494 million.

Incidentally as climate change continues to take its toll, the number of food insecure people has been steadily rising from 350,000 in the period between 2007 and 2011 to 1,700,000 in the period 2012 to 2014. And this year (2022) and estimated 5.4 million people mostly from southern Malawi are facing acute or moderate food insecurity.

Silver Dackson, a resident of Dembo village in Chikwawa who was affected by cyclone Ana, told this writer his family had lost all their property to the floods as they had no time to rescue some of the property since the floods happened within a short time.

“Things were happening very fast. Even though the rains were falling fairly we just saw a lot of water surrounding our house,” said Dackson. “Then all of a sudden the fence collapsed and later when we were on safe ground the whole house. We have literally lost everything”.

The climate crisis in Malawi is driven by unsustainable management of the environment and charcoal production has been identified as the major culprit behind the rapidly dwindling Malawi forests. Moses Chabuka, executive director for Neno Active Youth in Development (NAYODE) however believes the situation could be stabilized if the rich nations kept commitments made in the Paris Agreement.

“Careless cutting down of trees for charcoal production is driving environmental degradation and as the forests become bare we are experiencing climate change induced extreme events like floods and droughts,” said Chabuka adding, “However the situation could be reversed if the rich nations kept their Paris climate commitments and were remittang the carbon funds as per their commitment”.

He said as the global community meets at the Convention Of Parties (COP) 27 in Egypt, African negotiators should ensure that they demand the industrialised nations to honor their Paris commitments.

“Industrialised nations should respect their Paris commitments, many people in Africa are dependent on biomass for their energy needs and this situation could be changed only if the industrialised nations kept their commitments by remitting the carbon funds which could be used for alternative energy projects,” said Chabuka.

While the humanitarian face of climate change is very clear in Malawi, experts say there is a need for the government to set deliberate policies to economically empower the people that are suffering from the effects of the climate crisis.

“While there has been a rise in programs addressing effects of climate change, however, the scale is still small as the programs largely depend on external funding through projects, this puts a dilemma to the long term financing that climate change resilience requires,” Says William Chadza Executive Director of Mwapata Institute.

Chadza says while Malawi has achieved to put in place policy measures to address effects of global warming over dependence on external funding means that the county’s poor who usually suffer from extreme climate events will continue to be exposed at the risk of climate shocks such as floods and droughts.

“We need to gradually reduce reliance on development partners and consolidate the national budgetary arrangements for disaster management as currently operational resources fall under the unseen vote that makes it difficult to respond to extreme climate change events,” said Chadza.

Meanwhile as global leaders are expected to meet for the COP27 in Egypt, it’s the wish of climate vulnerable people like Nowa that they will strike a climate deal that will be inclusive.