A thought on accidents, DPP convention

August 22 2024

Dear Diary,

Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm. All is well down here. Our major worry is for the villagers surrounding the farm: Are they going to afford to buy fertiliser this year? To say the least, at over K100 000 per 50-kilogramme bag, this is really worrisome.

Of course, the farm has been conducting on-hands training for the farmers in making liquid manure using urine, imparting on them knowledge on making Mbeya manure and mazolo pellets, but then what about those farmers so far away from the farm? You see, we have so many technologies at the farm but to get it down to the farmers elsewhere is the big problem.

And the manure from cow and goat dung as well as chicken and duck droppings is only presented to those around. Shame.

As I write, the rate at which accidents are occurring in the country is alarming.

It all started last week, when four people, including a three-year-old, were confirmed dead in two boat accidents in Chikwawa and Nsanje. Six were missing, and given that the accidents happened in the Shire River, the six that were reported missing chances are high that finding them is a tall order.

While that news was sinking, Dear Diary, the news reached us on the farm that a Cessna 210 aircraft crashed in Lake Malawi in Nkhotakota, claiming lives of the pilot and one passenger while another passenger survived.

It has been painful as some have been trying to draw similarities between that crash and the one on June 10, which claimed the life of the then Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others. Drawing contrasts and comparisons from accidents is a very weird way of deduction. Every accident is unique in its own way. Because someone died in a Toyota Corolla accident after hitting the side of a bridge, does not mean that when someone survives a Toyota Corolla accident hitting another side of a bridge is a wizard!

Just as the Nkhotakota plane crash reality was sinking, we saw video clips of charred bodies from a minibus that collided with a fuel tanker in Kasungu where 26 people perished, sending shockwaves.

As if that were not enough, the social media was awash with yet another accident in Zomba where four people were reported dead.

May the souls of those who died in the accidents rest in peace. Here at the farm, we don’t go about speculating about mysterious causes of death in any manner.

Dear Diary, some women from across the farm came over some days before the Democratic Progressive Party convention at Comesa Hall in Blantyre. They said they were some delegates with voting powers at the elective conference and wanted to know who they should vote for into the party’s national governing council (NGC).

You see, since leaving the hustle and bustle of your city, I have never really cared about who gets what political position, and why. Politicians are all the same.

All I advised them was to vote for women and the youths. These are in the majority and certainly must be lording it over us, not just enjoying dashes of blue painting and memorising Sendera Sisters’ songs to sing at campaign rallies that are coming around the corner.

As they left the farm, I offered them some rice and a chicken. Zakudya za ku kovenshoni sizilondeka. I was glad to learn later that they did not starve, although at some point they had to sleep on the verandah as voting progressed.

But then, my advice on voting for women and the youth made little sense. Apart from Peter Mutharika going unopposed, nine others went into the NGC unopposed. None of these was a woman, and all of them were beyond 40.

When the race was done, five women made it as directors, and another five as deputy directors. There were about 80 contestants for different positions in the NGC.

Two posts were an all-women battle. Mary Navicha beat Roza Mbilizi as director of women while Gladys Ganda defeated Jean Mathanga for the director of elections slot. The others beat fellow contestants, including men.

At the conve n t i o n , Mutharika said the party goes for a 1:1:1 representation among men, women and the youth. But the convention showed otherwise.