April 2 2026
Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace and harmony reigns supreme here and we don’t suffer peacefully like you do in your concrete jungle.
You see, sometime in the 70s Malawi first President Hastings Kamuzu Banda banned the observation of the Fools’ Day on April 1. He called it nonsense, that was inconsistent with his vision of discipline, seriousness and respect in public life.
While our neighbours in Zambia were making fools of each other, this was never so in Malawi. That is why the born frees have never had a knack for the day.
But then one villager yesterday came early in the morning. They heard about fuel price hikes and thought it was just a Fools’ Day hoaks! It all ended up to be too true.
So, the war in Iran has indeed taken its toll on energy geo-politics. World news outlets are abuzz with stringent measures countries are putting in place to cushion the effects of the shortages.
For the villagers around the farm, this is another hit on their face. They foresee hard times ahead with rising costs. Transportation and food—read it as maize—is critical in Malawi inflation.
Dear Diary, spending much time on this is addressing given facts.
We hear members of Parliament (MPs) have given the nod to the government to introduce new tax measures and levies proposed in the National Budget. The MPs from all fronts agreed to milk the already thin cow that is the villager around the cow.
The new measures, in Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha’s words are to broaden the Malawi tax base, which will help Malawi raise income from K6 million, at a time the country is heavily crippled with a K24 trillion debt.
All this puts the villagers in a tight spot. It is these MPs who approve unnecessary debt by the government and it is these same MPs who see it logical to raise the tax base and squeeze the povo.
Dear Diary, you haven’t heard the most hurtful part! It is these same MPs who import SUVs into the country duty free.
You see, it is these same MPs who will not care to push phone companies like TNM and Airtel to stop robbing Malawians in broad daylight. One can’t tell if the pricing of airtime makes sense but of concern is the logic behind expiring bundles.
Most of the villagers buy bundles for their Mose wa Lero phones and for it to vanish into thin air when it is unused. That is primarily because the bundles are apparently cheaper and, therefore, convenient for them to communicate.
It is a fact that the folks use the phones to pass important messages for their daily livelihoods and to capitalize on it, is gross unfairness.
For those of us at Munda wa Chitedze Farm feel there is no proper explanation the mobile phone operators can come up with for the vanishing bundles. These bundles are the people’s liquid money.
Expiring talk, SMS and Internet bundles is theft by trick for the mobile service providers.
Let us put it this way: It is unfair that the mobile operators are left to go scot free with the robbery just because they have a way to let the bundles vanish.
Just imagi n e i f fuel companies were to say that if you buy fuel under a certain, and cheaper premise, it would vanish if you don’t use it for a day, week or month! Imagine the water utility companies selling their goods under a cheaper package and withdrawing if, for instance, water or electricity is not used within the prescribed period.
Total chaos.
It becomes really disturbing that the best MPs have done so far is to ask the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority to address the expiring data bundle issue with the service providers.
We at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm wish we were given the chance, in Parliamentary parlance move the speaker in a private motion to make data bundles fall so that service providers can’t stop the robbery on their own.
