It’s never warm, but hot
So, as I write, it is apparent that the Met Department goofed in alerting everyone else that by today, the cold weather that is synonymous with June should start being felt. But as it is, the weather still maintains to act strange.
Oh what times we are living in! On Sunday, Malawi lost Thlupego Chisiza at Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre to diabetes. A memorial service was conducted at Robin’s Park before his remains were interred at the HHI Cemetery.
I come not to praise Thlupego in his death, but truth be told he did his part in Malawi theatre. Watching him perform with Nanzikambe, in several TV soaps, his own Lions Theatre, there was a display of talent. The performance I will live to remember most from him was the production Semo where he was arrested while on stage. Semo (seen as a transposition of Mose, a reference to then President Bingu wa Mutharika) was seen as a thorn in Mutharika’s side.
At that time, it was difficult to fill up the Robin’s Park but many flocked there to watch the satirical play exposing the political and economic situation at the time. Police used the draconian Censorship Act to arrest Chisiza for not submitting the script to the classifications board for vetting. He paid a K5 000 fine for it all.
During the memorial service, members of the National Theatre Association of Malawi deplored the love for priaising artists when they die. In her speech, Tourism Minister Vera Kamtukule said Chisiza was crucial in promotion of tourism. How far government realised this is a question for another day.
It is painful to hear that some artists have died paupers. It is painful that calls have been made on assisting an artist who is failing to settle medical bills.
It is a fact that the arts and creative industry (if I may call it that) is a tricky business in Malawi. For so many years, the country failed to adopt an arts policy. Now there is a National Cultural Policy in place that is supposed to provide proper direction. At the moment, the arts sector is ‘everyone for themselves’ kingdom.
We have seen festivals being organised in the same week with no order at all. Piracy has been the order of the day. Artists have been paid peanuts. The corporate world has done little or nothing in the promotion of the arts. The welfare of performers is never considered.
Currently, the arts and heritage bill has been gathering dust at Cabinet level in the past regimes. It is still gathering dust. The bill that proposes the establishment of an arts council is still in somebody’s briefcase.
Shame. An arts council would help bring order in the creative industry. We have a Malawi National Council of Sports and a number of other sectors, why not the arts?
Well, it’s not warm but hot for those running government, really! Imagine, the other day Northern Region Water Board chairperson Frank Mwenifumbo said they had rescinded their plan to conduct a shortlisting exercise that was slated to take place in Nkhata Bay for two days at a cost of K13 million.
It becomes real hot to hear that the decision was made after a public outcry after The Nation reported on the extravagance in the process of choosing candidates the board would interview. Mwenifumbo here is simply acknowledging that if our sister paper did not reveal this act, 15 people would have gone home with over K1 million each for that vetting process which could have been done at Kawiluwilu House.
Now, who really approves this kind of plunder? Is this the reason boards are seen to be lucrative ways to reward political bootlickers given that about 5 of those earmarked for the trek to Nkhata Bay were members of the board?
It is indeed not warm, but hot in my little shack when I hear President Lazarus Chakwera was a witness at the signing of the deal between the Malawi Government and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Accra, Ghana. Our ministers of finance and trade, Sosten Gwengwe and Simplex Chithyola signed on behalf of the government while Afreximbank’s Benedict Oramah sined on behalf of the bank.
The $950 million deal seeks to ‘implement industrial parks in Blantyre and Lilongwe, provide advisory services on mega farms and establishment of export trading companies.
It sounds good. But, I take it with a pinch of sort. Remember Bridgin and up to now, we still don’t know what really led to the signing of such obscure deals. By the way, advisory services on mega farms should read provide consultancy services blah blah blah. If Government were really serious about mega farms, would they be sourcing external services that will not only fleece Malawians but also end up into what they are: A bundle of emptiness?
