Balaka West and North shadow members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with youths to bind them to fulfill campaign promises. Speaking during the signing ceremony at Phalula in Balaka on Tuesday, Balaka West independent candidate Lucy Tchale promised the youth that she will deliver on her promises.…
Malawi Girl Guides Association (Magga) on Saturday courted parliamentary candidates in Mulanje to commit towards protecting girls from sexual abuse which is fuelling school dropouts. During the function, the aspirants signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) pledging to solve challenges girls experience in their quest to attain education in the district. Speaking in an interview,…
The tendency by politicians to give out financial and material handouts to entice voters continues to thrive despite the 2018 Political Parties Act outlawing the same, it has emerged. Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC) executive director Emma Kaliya fears the practice will disadvantage female contenders in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections because…
Floods in the country have forced families to live separately in camps as they wait for the season to be over. Left destitute, family members now belong to a larger community in the camps where men and women sleep and eat separately. The temporary separation is in two ways. Some married women staying alone in…
In Ndirande Township in Blantyre City, houses have dotted either side of Nasolo River from Mpembu, through Chakana down Makata all the way to Goliyo. As early as 1996, people settled on the periphery of the longest river in Ndirande following pressure for land in the township. James Maloya, 57 is one such resident who…
Women’s Legal Resources Centre (Wolrec) has empowered councillors, area development committees (ADCs), chiefs and village developments committees (VDCs) in Nsanje to engage communities to track projects implementation from start to completion. The need to engage communities follows the missing of K91 million at the council during the 2016/17 fiscal year, a development which affected completion…
Fifteen-year-old Fazira Cassim is back in school at Mtakataka Primary School in Monkey Bay, Mangochi District one year after being humiliated by her first menstrual period. It was in the morning hours of April 22 last year and theteen was only 14 and in Standard Seven. The day began like any other but not until…
Minister of Homeland Security Nicholas Dausi has laughed off claims by estranged Vice-President Saulos Chilima that there is an assassination plot against him, saying it is an attempt “to score cheap political points”. The minister, who is alsospokesperson for the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which Chilimaditched in June this year, was responding to the…
Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima’s UTM on Monday held elections in Blantyre where the party elected people to positions that were being held on interim basis. The elections come following the announcement by the newly registered party that it will hold its convention in December where national executive committee (NEC) positions will be up for grabs.…
At Ginnery Corner in Blantyre, labourers are sweating in the scorching sun to clear the ground for a monument of a man most of them do not know. On Sunday, we saw about 15 working more than eight hours at a site where a bronze look-alike of Mahatma Ghandi will sit for travellers on …
Pacenet on Friday launched the 50:50 Campaign project in Mulanje that will see the organisation, together with Oxfam, work with the district council’s gender technical team up to June 2019. Speaking during the workshop, Pacenet 50:50 Campaign project coordinator Pearson Malinda said his organisation and Oxfam will also offer support to female aspirants’ campaign…
I t is 7am in Ndirande, Blantyre. The township is already abuzz with fabrications and tinsmiths and a sight of consumers leaving shops with finished products. But while many are busy with pick and pay services, one entrepreneur, Graduate Kaphiri, is deeply engrossed in mechanical engineering for innovation sake. For 19 years, he has been…
The first phase of the on-going Malawi Congress Party (MCP) primaries has been marred by several irregularities, including complaints by mostly losing aspirants. As the party goes into the second phase of the primaries, Our Reporter AYAMI MKWANDA engages the party’s spokesperson the Reverend Maurice Munthali on this and other issues. Excerpts: Q :…
In 2001, professor David Rubadiri, who breathed his last on Saturday, was to deliver a lecture to second-year literature students at the University of Malawi’s (Unima) Chancellor College. He was Unima Vice-Chancellor then. Although not a lecturer in the English Department at Chancellor College, he was granted permission to teach to “serve as…
Next week, on September 7, civil society organisations (CSOs) have planned to hold nationwide demonstrations against government. Our reporter AYAMI MKWANDA caught up with Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) national chairperson Timothy Mtambo on why the groups wants to hold demos instead of engaging government on dialogue. Q1 Why are you resorting to demos instead…
Inspector General (IG) of Police Rodney Jose has warned communities in Chiradzulu against vandalising police units, saying the malpractice negatively affects community members themselves when there is security lapse. The IG said this on Saturday when he officially received K10 million City Boundary roadblock facility between Blantyre and Chiradzulu from Chiradzulu Central legislator Mahomed…
On June 9, smallholder farmers in Group Village Head (GVH) Symon in Neno assembled 359 head of cattle under a giant mgosa tree. The animals were to undergo vaccination against foot and mouth disease. Signs of panic were all over among the farmers, who mainly rely on taming animals for their living. They were…
Our journalist AYAMI MKWANDA tracks the footprint of the raging foot and mouth disease in Neno. When cattle started foaming and limping, livestock farmers in Neno and Blantyre West saw their world crumble. This was the start of the foot and mouth outbreak confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development. The…
At 18, Bertha Limbuli gave birth through an operation that left a hole in her pelvis. That was in 2015. The operation may have saved her life, but the baby died. The young woman from Phalombe calls the misfortune a double-edged sword which drilled holes in her heart and womb. “The baby died, but…
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in conjunction with the Malawi Government conducted an obstetric awareness campaign in Phalombe on Thursday urging women with the condition to seek medical care. During the ceremony, Ministry of Health and Population chief director Beston Chisamile said government is joining hands with different stakeholders such as UNFPA to raise…