The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and immediate past vice-president Saulos Chilima met on Friday as part of the quasi-religious body’s ongoing efforts to resolve the current political impasse, but both sides were tight-lipped on what they discussed. PAC met Chilima as part of dialogue with different stakeholders to resolve the political crisis which has rocked…
The case of three Nepalese girls, who were allegedly trafficked to Malawi, has exposed lapses in the country’s security system as they went missing under State protection after being rescued from forced prostitution. The development has not only shocked the United Nations, but has also forced the High Court to reprimand police for failing in…
As the country burned during protests for the resignation of Jane Ansah last week, at least 40 people suspected to have participated in a series of illegal acts in the mayhem have been arrested. The protests against the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Ansah also left over 60 business property damaged while 36 police officers…
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said its officials and supporters are living in fear following the aggravated political violence targeting the party in the aftermath of the May 21 presidential election results. Speaking at a press briefing in Lilongwe on Friday, DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi said it is sad that party officials have been…
The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) mediation team has pledged to meet Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah as part of the ongoing dialogue with different stakeholders to resolve the political impasse facing the country. PAC made the promise during a closed-door meeting with Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) in Lilongwe on Saturday. The dialogue…
The United Nations Human Rights Council has demanded an explanation from the Malawi Government on harassment of human rights defenders in the aftermath of the disputed May 21 presidential election results. In a highly–guarded communication to government, the Geneva -based Human Rights Council, which commands global influence, has singled out the recent arrest of activists—Gift…
With only a year to go, government’s dream of connecting 30 percent of the population to the national grid remains far-fetched as most of the planned electricity power projects are yet to take off. Government had under the National Energy Policy of 2003 planned to increase the number of people connected to electricity from four…
A day after violent demonstrations to force electoral body chairperson Jane Ansah to resign, President Peter Mutharika dubbed the protests as a means of toppling his government. Mutharika, addressing the gathering at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre to mark the 55th Independence Anniversary Celebrations shunned by the opposition leaders, started his speech by preaching unity and…
A misdirected teargas canister accidentally lands in a police vehicle, a panick-stricken officer and others jump for their lives and then hell breaks loose and one of the hunters becomes hunted with stones, earning himself a hospital bed. This is a tale of a police officer on duty to quell violence in Lilongwe city streets…
From a long march earlier on Thursday, protesters in Lilongwe turned up in large numbers for a vigil, held in the Presidential Way—between Parliament Building and Kamuzu Mausoleum. By 7pm, people had started congregating, and by 10pm, dancing to the music, which played throughout the night. Once in a while, organisers fired up the situation…
As scary as death is, 128 people have committed suicide in the last nine months in the country—translating into one death every two days—a Nation on Sunday analysis has established. These latest figures have alarmed both the police and experts— calling for psycho-social interventions to handle depression—identified as a lead cause of suicide. Data from…
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) councillors have won the mayoral positions in the capital city, Mzuzu City and Kasungu Municipality while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party has won it in the old capital, Zomba. Former Lilongwe City deputy mayor Juliana Kaduya, who is councillor of Chilinde 1, is the new mayor of Lilongwe with fellow MCP…
CATHERINE GOTANI HARA is the new Speaker of the National Assembly. She has become the first woman to head the Legislature in Malawi. Gotani Hara, who is Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Mzimba North East parliamentarian, is now leading a house which is politically divided due to the disputed presidential election results. She speaks to our…
Post-election violence continues to surge days after Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) organised demonstrations calling for the resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson as the protests spread to some trading centres in rural Lilongwe at the weekend. Police units at Nsundwe and Mpingu Trading centres along the Lilongwe-Mchinji Road were torched on Friday while a…
The political controversy on the disputed May 21 general election results erupted in Parliament in Lilongwe on Friday when Malawi Congress Party (MCP) legislators stormed out after booing President Peter Mutharika. The booing, heckling, bench-banging and shouts were directed at the President for allegedly securing his re-election victory through rigging and fraud. The drama started…
Newly-appointed MDF Commander General Vincent Nundwe has said top on his agenda is to ensure that Malawi remains a peaceful country amid on-going electoral disputes. The Commander was speaking in an interview with Weekend Nation just hours after being appointed to the highest rank in the army. Nundwe said people have a right to demonstrate…
South Africa’s Chief Justice Mogoeng Thomas Reetsang Mogoeng has weighed in on the electoral impasse currently facing Malawi with a plea for the Judiciary to discharge its duties without fear or favour. In an interview with our News Analyst SUZGO CHITETE, Mogoeng states why it is important that only people of integrity become judges. The…
It is not necessarily the often cited shortage of judicial officers that is leading people to stay up to 10 years on remand. But the slow wheels of justice and the subsequent increase in backlog cases, as some highly placed judicial officers have told Nation on Sunday, is also a sum of lack of proper…
The whole process was troubling right from the start, even as Malawi faced a 67 percent ambulance shortage. And the conduct of some government officials—who we have established pocketed ‘allowances’ from bidders during the procurement process—has raised eyebrows of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and a public sector procurement specialist. Twice—within…
The record of resorting to court for perceived electoral fraud was played in 2014 and is now running, but could be replayed in 2024 in the absence of electoral reforms, Nation on Sunday understands. Parliament rejected proposed electoral reforms, including the 50+1 system of electing the president, which anticipated the challenges that the May 21…