Kondwani Munthali -Malawi

Atupele Muluzi's vehicle detained

2012-02-08T10:32:00.001-08:00

Breaking now: Police in Lilongwe have detained a Mercedes Benz vehicle used by UDF Presidential hopeful Atupele Muluzi and detained the driver on charges yet to be known. Personnel close to Atupele have confirmed the devevelopment. Muluzi's vehicle is said to have hit a Police officer assigned to his father Former President Bakili Muluzi when fracas broke at Bvumbwe. The officer was identified as Barnet Mponda whose number is A5020 at Sub Inspector Grade. Police had earlier confirmed that they were investigating a road traffic offence under the charge of failure to report a traffic accident. Atupele enjoys parliamentary immunity as the house is currently sitting. The Young Muluzi addressed mammoth crowds from the vehicle in Mchinji and delivered his Agenda for Change speech in Parliament on Monday

No Injuries or arrests so far, Town clear

2012-02-06T02:49:00.000-08:00

Police have just managed to clear the depot area for people to operate normally. After whipping a few people including a woman, they have generally managed to clear the Old Town and calm has returned. It is advisable however to stay alert as some of the rogue elements might regroup and cause mayhem.

Burning of tyres and Police cordoning off Town area

2012-02-06T01:33:00.001-08:00

The bus depot area has become a no gone zone area with Police now beating off people to clear the bus terminals and otehrs areas of the vendors. Do not go into Malagalanga as people have been inflitration those doing own programmes. Businesses remain close in old town area.

Vendors now singing and marching

2012-02-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

The town business area is almost impassable and vendors are dancing and singing in the face of some Police officers. No reports yet of smashed properties as some were putting on facebook. Mostly they are around Malangalanga road area.

Vendors resisting getting out of streets

2012-02-05T23:38:00.000-08:00

Well seven days have expired and we have the same old story. They are refusing to go, last week they put up posters saying they will die before moving out of the streets. Tensions remain high, drive and walk into Malangalanga area at own risk.

What Mayeso Chirwa was to me+

2012-02-04T23:04:00.002-08:00

For the first time since Friday morning, I can think and accept reality that Mayeso Chirwa, the Information Specialist at the United States Embassy, the Sports Journalists at MBC and the Basketball player at ABC and later General Secretary of the Basketball Association of Malawi is indeed dead, gone and buried. I give glory and honour to Lord God Almighty for the life of Mayeso.

He was one of the biggest critics, followers and editors of this blog, he never took time to call me if I delayed my update, missed a spelling or if I criticised the Americans or some Western powers. I will miss such guidance for so many years to come.

But that is not what Mayeso was to me. I write with tears as I remember one morning, alongside with Kondwani Chisasa at MBC Broadcasting House at Chichiri they came into the reporters office on the down floor. He said point blank, your report this morning was awful, it did not come from you what was wrong? I had just been seeing him in corridors of MBC and never paid attention to him. We engaged in a heated debate but he ended up inviting for a beer at the Polytechnic Students Common room. We became critics to each others work since then.

He went to join the United States Embassy and when I was transferred to Lilongwe, he asked me to see where he used to stay, we drunk for the next four days. Later I was to meet his brother Vita of Kalimba and I can say, they together become good and reliable friends.

In 2006 I was awarded Journalism most prestigious fellowship, the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. I was young and did not know the significant of the the award. After all two years earlier I had been a Chevening Scholar at Cardiff in Wales and thought that was the pinnacle of it all.

But the Nieman Fellowship is something else, all major media houses published my name in Europe and the United States, Mayeso picked it up, he went and did an article which he posted in the United States Embassy page, he interviewed me like we were chatting, I told him that I never wanted people to know I was travelling to the USA for 18 months, the same African superstition that someone may bewitch me. I never said it, but he answered "but this has to be known, you are going to be among the best in the World and I am proud of you."

Later when I learnt that I had to pay for my own ticket or apply for an advance in the USA, I told Mayeso and the then Public Affairs Officer, they gave me a grant to travel to the USA.

As I always cherish my stay at Harvard and the doors it opened, Mayeso will always remain part of my life.

I came back from Harvard and we discussed extensively what I wanted to do, my other thought was to pursue a career as a Public Health Specialist in Communication, my stay at Harvard had opened to me great works of people like Paul Farmer and Jim Kim, whose Partners in Health was just opening in Malawi, then Management Sciences for Health who deal with health data and also Professor Richard Cash and Max Essex who are pioneers in their own feild. I explained to Mayeso how Dr. Elizabeth Burling mocked Journalists in my first day of Principles of Epidemiology and how she seemed shocked that a Journalists fellow was in her class at Harvard School of Public Health that fall of 2006.

But Mayeso said, how many Journalists Kondwani will ever go to Harvard and learn what you have learnt. Stay five years and write more on Health as you say, it could change a lot. I said I will be in media for five years and go into health as a profession. That was seven years ago.

When I heard Mayeso was in hospital, my heart sank and registered unknown fear.

I recalled one day morning at the peak of fuel crisis in May 2011 as I walked to work, he drove up in his small Mercedes Benz and said let me give you a lift. We started talking a lot, I had always criticised him for excessive drinking though he had a surgery, he said 'life is very short Kondwani" have fun while it lasts.

I told him that I had been appointed by the American Cancer Society as a Global Journalists Fellow on Cancer, he kept quite and parked the vehicle near the Assemblies of God and said- congratulations it means you have an important job to tell the World that Malawi does not give a damn about cancer. I shared to him the pain of loosing two aunts and some closest members of my family to cancer, I said without thinking that the biggest pain is knowing that "we could have saved this person had the diagnosis been done early."

He never commented much but drove in silence. When I needed assistance to travel for a trip I included several meetings on Press Freedom in Malawi, Mayeso and this time Benjamin Canavan his boss, were happy to dip into American tax fund and provide subsidy for the trip.

I returned on July 10 and most people I had met in USA never thought we were going to be worse off in terms of issues, but I said most people were angry and something could erupt anytime. 10 days later we had July 20. When I was beaten by Police, Mayeso was among the first to call me and check how we were doing and if I needed assistance. He raised alarms across the World on behalf of Journalists in Malawi. It was his passion to care for others.

After I posted an article on Cancer in Malawi recently, he called me and told me he was touched that I was working like a Cancer ambassador but he never said anything of his condition until he gave me a lift in December and said, you know I know you are emotional, but know that I am not very well now.

I quizzed him, he said he will tell me after the Holidays, I should not think about it.

On Friday in a black hearse, while rains dropped, I thought I could be a Journalist and take a picture of Mayeso in his final home, a white casket with gold rims. I was the first to see him lying as if he was sleeping in a dark grey suit, blue shirt and rimmed glasses, it could not be true that he was dead.

I tried to take the picture, but the real stuck in my mind, I left the hearse and went out behind the mourners. Reality sunk that Mayeso Chirwa was no more and those morning and late evening phone calls on hundreds of articles I write here or in the Nation or elsewhere, will never come again.

I saw Kusali Kubwalo and Lewis Kulisewa who found me near Madisi with a tyre burst, I saw Mayeso again and again and someone who touched all he came into contact.

I asked a question, why do the good ones not last?

Mayeso for Journalism, especially those starting up in Lilongwe as Freelance, will all agree alongside Edith Tsilizani of Airtel are very rare gems, who welcome everyone with open arms and provided guidance and skills to the freshmen in Journalism.

Mayeso went further, each training, international telephone calls or press release he shared with everybody without looking at the prominence of a media house. To him a Journalist was a Journalist.

Mayeso opened the Kennedy Library to the media and alongside Allison Liwanda and successive Public Affairs Officers, guaranteed that today, the only Foreign Mission in Malawi with a computer is its library with high speed connection is available to any Journalist when they need it. Mayeso loved Journalism and offered alternative views to some who held contrary views.

He taught me one value, that of treating everyone in the profession as equal and worth your criticism if you want them to move on in the career. He used to say if you cannot accept my criticism, better join politics and live in a lie. People critique your work everyday and they pass judgement even when it is not justified. He used to remind me days of working at MBC and people thinking that you all belonged to a particular political grouping yet there was diverse.

Mayeso, stood up for me, my work and contributed immensely to my professional career. I am not ashamed to say without Mayeso Chirwa's open spirit and care, I could not have been a Journalist who walks tall and proud today.

I could not look at Benjamin Canavan or Lisa Vickers, the two people Mayeso introduced to me and freely I can talk to on issues, I cannot look at Kusali Kubwalo or Vita Chirwa, for the image of Mayeso will always come back as someone cracking the next joke after a heated debate.

But each life has an end, Mayeso's time has come, as much as at unacceptable time for some of us, we have to live to honour his courage, dedication, love and passion to the profession of Journalism in Malawi. I know several media bodies got funding or support from his insistence.

To Mayeso Chirwa- my brother, mentor and critic, fare thee well

Your work and zeal remains with us forever

Your love and friendship eternally valued

Your commitment and words ringing every hour

Till we meet again

Till we sing again'

Till we play again

Tears bring a soothing pain'

Knowing you are watching me from above

Knowing you are following this blog in spirit

Knowing your spirit forever will guide me

You lived a life of honour'

Your battle with cancer well fought

Many lessons you have left with us.

You were a great man comrade

Rest In Peace Mayeso Chirwa!

Some political musings: If Bingu resigned today

2012-01-29T06:36:00.000-08:00

One thing about Malawi is that you never get bored of what is going to happen next. Already there is a talk of an impending Cabinet RESHUFFLE. I would not render credence to such rumours.
Others have been questioning the appointment of the Head of the National Intelligence Service. Someone asked me my opinion, I said he has just been made the most powerful politician in the land. He, by this week now knows everything about his political rivals, in and outside the Democratic Progressive Party. Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin was the head of KGB and he used it to rise to power, the same with South African President Jacob Zuma when he was in exile with the ANC. So Bintony today holds the fate of many politicians especially those that used to step on his toes, otherwise the general public has nothing to worry, it will mainly be an internal fight in the ruling party.
But I was reading one of the many articles that justify the call for President Bingu wa Mutharika to either quit or change. My thoughts took me to the rest of the parties and decided to muse what type of cabinet we would have if the Peoples Party, UDF or MCP won the election or were asked to form Government today:

The Malawi Congress Party

President HE John Tembo
Vice President Rt. Honourable MacDonald Lombola
Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamphantengo Yona
Minister of Finance Watson Makala Ngozo
Minister of Justice Henry D. Phoya
Minister of Health Maureen Bondo
Minister of Home Affairs Joseph Njobvuyalema
Minister of Toursim Vitus Dzooole Mwale
Minister of Gender Jean Sendeza
Ministry of Education Joyce Azizi Banda
Minister of Local Government Rachel Zulu
Minister of Agriculture Beston Majoni
Minister of Youth Alekeni Menyani
Minister of Information Nancy Tembo
Minister of Trade Titus Malipa
Minister of Labour Jeromy Waluza
Minister in OPC Portipher Chidaya

Could this be the best team to take Malawi out of this crisis? My mind wondered to another party:

Peoples Party

HE President Joyce Banda
Vice President Khumbo Kachali
Minister of Foreign Affairs Brown Mpinganjira
Minister of Finance Henry Chibwana
Minister of Justice Paul Maulidi
Minister of Gender Clara Makungwa
Minister of Health Boniface Kadzamira
Minister of Home Affairs Anita Kalinde
Minister of Information Clement Stambuli
Minister of Education Rev. Chimkwita Phiri
Minister of Labour Kizito Ngwembe
Minister of Trade Salim Bagus
Minister of Youth Jane Chirunga
Minister of Agriculture Harry Mkandawire
Minister in OPC Steven Mwenye

That would be the best shot from Peoples Party present line up and the final one to be though of was a combination of UDF factions headed by FRIDAY JUMBE. Atupele has not been considered as he does not qualify till 2013.

HE President Friday Jumbe
Vice President Sam Mpasu
Minister of Foreign Affairs Davies Katsonga
Minister of Justice Dr. Cassim Chilumpha
Minister of Home Affairs Hophmally Makande
Mnister of Gender Lillian Patel
Minister of Health Dr. George Nga Mtafu
Minister of Agriculture Humphrey Mvula
Minister of Trade Kennedy Makwangwala
Minister of Youth Moses Dossi
Minister of Youth Levi Luwemba
Minister of Information Ken Ndanga

That is all I could recall from the fromer ruling party. It was very amusing to think what alternatives we have should the DPP exit from power at the moment. I hope we are all wide awake and think seriously of our future. I will do my own cabinet list for 2012 which can help solve the current crisis, this is just an amusing cabinet I could think of!

Russia and China's human face

2012-01-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt that President Assad of Syria is butchering up his own people. There is a lot one can say about the situation, the same almost related to Saleh in Yemen- thank God he has left and of course to other global hotspots such as Iran, Democratic Republic of Korea and very fast going the same way Venenzuela. Of course there is Burma or Mmymar if you like it.
Interestingly however there is very little doubt that almost all of the global crisis spots, the despots like Assad or Kim's empire in DRPK are being propped up by two global super powers- Russia and China.
These two countries have become so obvlious to the fact that human life and suffering is so greater in the country's they are supporting its dictator to kill or torture own people.
It is disgusting that almost a year on, China and Russia are blocking concrete efforts at the United Nations Security Council to bring in order in Syria, just as they are happy to reap off oil from Iran in exchange for weapons which could end up devastating the whole world.
Imagining an a Nuclear armed Iran a country that has made it clear that it does not want another country-Israel to exist is not only frightening but also very dangerous in the course of global challenges which will soon culminate into strife as frustrated citizenry take up arms against most of the dictators.
I wish the two countries had a human face and morals enough to realise that Governments are supposed to have the mandate of the people and not force them into submission by military or torture as it is happening in so many countries.
Russia and China needs a new human face that inspires the next generation that they are capable leaders that mean well not to Governments but to the people of Syria, Iran and DR Korea.

Chanthunya update

2012-01-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

There are many reports alleging that he has escaped lawful custody. These are merely rumours but as of 4pm Malawian time he was still at Rusternburg Police. This blog will updatebyou accordingly should there be any developments.

Special announcement

2012-01-24T09:05:00.001-08:00

International Police in South Africa this morning arrested Misonzi Chanthunya, the fugitive suspected to have killed his girlfreind Linda Gasa. Full details buy the Nation tommorrow. You first heard it on this blog. Keep checking for more updates.

Breaking News at 7pm: special announcement only here

2012-01-24T04:06:00.000-08:00

Getting reports of a case that has been finally completed. Confirmation and full details here before 7pm Malawian time. Keep checking.

Zambia's currency realigned and one minute noise

2012-01-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

Zambian Government announced yesterday that it is knocking off three zeros from its currency. This effectively means that their currency already really strong in comparison to Kwacha has become one of such in real terms in the region. Mozambique did that a few years ago. Malawian kwacha K1000 which was at K26000 or thereabout is not wort K26 as of yesterday. Very interesting development.
I am holed up in the Northern part of Malawi in Chikangawa forest where there is very little access to communication. Is anybody aware what is happening after all the noise people made after women were stripped? It was one minute noise as I predicted and everyone has gone back to work until vendors do something nasty again!

Caution: Blantyre, Lilongwe reports of heavy rains

2012-01-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

A record rainfall of close to three hours is being reported in Malawi's key cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe. The rains which started on Wednesday night has been going on through out the night and currently fears are growing of flooding rivers and poor stuctures in various areas.
Meteological services long seen as very inefficient did not give a prior warning, though reports are yet to emerge of any damages especially in slums where the majority of city dwellers live in the country.
Most people use mud built houses and toilets though progress has been reported in most areas of cement enforced walls over the years.
The Heavy rains also raise fears of cholera after City Councils have been failing to collect refuse across the country due to the biting fuel shortage. So far Cholera has been reported in two districts.
Updates on the rains to follow.....

Stop the blame game, act now

2012-01-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

One thing I said after July 20 is that our politicians went to their usual bickering. And today its sad that amid attacks of women and attempts to attack more women in the cities of Blantyre and Mzuzu, Civil Sociaety and Government officials have found a heart to fight each other.

On Tuesday night, I heard more of attacks on President Bingu wa Mutharika from Civil Society leaders than what they would do to stop such barbaric attacks on innocent women.

I spoke only to two other people Vice President Joyce Banda and Gender Minister Reene Kachere, they are only two people who did not blame anyone but tried to offer solutions. Vice President Banda called for serious reflection and an indaba to find out the deep cause of the attacks and frustrations while at the same time said people should offer help to all women that had been attacked.

Minister Kachere called on security forces to act immediately and save our women.

But the rest of speakers have been busy blaming each other while the problem is growing. We had children demonstrating today and someone will blame some NGO or politician.

The problems that are causing these fustrations require that we act responsibly and not accelerate our vulgar language to inflame one section of society. Malawi is facing a huge crisis and even primary school kids are demonstrating, wake up and act if you want to be counted as a leader or keep shouting until you are dead!

Ngwenya riots update

2012-01-18T02:33:00.001-08:00

Primary schools students at Ngwenya are staging sporadic demonstrations against the Government after Teachers shunned them out of classroom claiming they do not get hardship allowances.

The children some as young as 6 have caused havoc as they have been approaching different places such as Area 24 Chipiku shop and being dispersed for the past two hours.

Though calm has returned tensions remain high

Joyce Banda, Reene Kachere, Dorothy Ngoma, Martha Kwataine and men speak out of disgust over attacks

2012-01-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

Three more attacks have been reported this evening with Area 18, Area 23 and Kanengo joining the list of molestation of women that started in the morning. This evening we have also seen a chorus of voice condeming the attacks with Vice President Joyce Banda asking all women to unite and speak out against injustice. "Women give life and that should be respected at all times" said Banda at her residence in Area 12 as soon as she arrived from Blantyre.
Banda who looked very shocked asked the press to give her a reason why young men would go wild and attack their own mothers, sisters and aunts and more importantly their customers.
Dorothy Ngoma the Executive Director of Nurses Organisation of Midwives and Nurses in Malawi has threatened to ask all female nurses to stop attending all middle aged men if attacks continues. She says Nurses wear trousers as part of their easy operations and attacks were a threat to all Nurses.
Executive Director of Malawi Health Equity Network Martha Kwataine said poor Malawians were venting anger on each other asking the vendors to go and sort out whoever has caused the frustrations they have.
Gender Minister Reene Kachere has described the attackers as worst that rapists asking Courts not to give them light sentence. She is planning to meet the victims.
"Tikugule lero-utivule Mawa" a campaign to boycott vendors wares has been launched and we are yet to assess the impact tommorrow. Stay on this blog as we give you latest updates on what is going on!

Boycott vendors

2012-01-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

Human Rights and Gender activists have announced this evening that all Malawians should boycott products and wares being sold by vendors across the country as a protest to attacks against women wearing trousers.

This is the first time Malawians will be tested against fellow Malawians that the campaign should fail especially women who are the largest buyers. The campaign targets male vendors after six women were attacked in Lilongwe.

This blog endorses the campaign until the vendors association apologises to women and all Malawians.

The dehumanising attacks of Women in Lilongwe

2012-01-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

There is no excuse that any Malawians can give about this morning's attack over women in Lilongwe. They are a shame to us as a country, a shame to our democracy and a shame to our cultural values that puts special respect and status on women as anakubala.

Why should we see our sisters naked or mothers naked.

The challenge we have as a society is accepting that we all have equal rights and nobody can take them away. We have shed blood for it, we have been beaten, injured and lived for it for 17 years.

Someone, somewhere needs to find a long term solution to the issue of vendors, when they are not in the streets the hooligans do not feel better as they end up loosing their market.

I should not fear walking in my own streets which for years I have called home, neither should my sister or Mother fear dressing how they like for fear of the same.

Either we lack a serious youth development programme, that will engage the jobless young people now becoming terrorists in our own country that they can lead productive lives.

Please stop politicising youth loans, give them to professional youth workers and we will have a meangiful impact on interventions made to address the challenges young people are facing.

I am now scared, there is too much anger in Malawi and our statements as Leaders seem to fuel and not heal the pain being felt across the country. What happened in Lilongwe has nothing to do with politics, it is a state of lawlessness where abused young people are venting their frustration on what they see as a weaker opponent.

I am ready to quit work and develop a programme for youth in streets, that will transform the thugs we have into entreprenuers, if someone is willing to invest in these young people.

Very soon, after the women have stopped wearing what they want in our towns, the same vendors will pounce on us, rob us and even kill us for being frustrated with the current limited opportunities.

The two warnings we have had in Lilongwe should jolt any sensible leader into action than talking and condemning someone after the fracas.

The first one was unplanned and it turned into violence, this morning as I walked through Malangalanga, I saw angry faces, frustrated faces and eager faces that will one day not be able to control.

Let us invest meangifully without political strings in our young people that we should turn their energy, overzeleousness and anger into productive machineries to end unemployment and poverty among the majority of our citizenry.

Though the memory of being attacked publicly and dehumanly paraded naked can never be erased, I wish to offer my sincere apologies and regret to all the women who suffered the dehumanising attacks.

We are ashamed to be called Malawians men, who attack women in the 21st century.

God heal the pain and anger of this nation!

Lilongwe vendors and women politician

2012-01-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

Vendors this morning ripped off clothes from almost 11 women, allegedly ordered by some politicians to enforce Malawian culture. the disgusting habit spread and shop owners anticipating trouble have closed their shops.
The question is where are the female leaders of Malawi to pick up the challenge and engage the vendors instead of shouting in the media. Please informe First Lady Madame Callitsa Mutharika, Vice President Joyce Banda, Government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati, Gender Minister Reen Kachere, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Juliana Mphande, Deputy Governor of the Bank Mary Nkosi and even Police Commissioner Doreen Kapanga and Gendera activists Dorothy Ngoma, Martha Kwataine, Emma Kaliya and others to get into Lilongwe Old town now and speak to these vendors.
The job should be done in the streets and not on radios

Some unreported issues Honourable Kaliati may wish to know

2012-01-14T03:54:00.000-08:00

Well it was a great week, that is rich in news. We had a joker thrown by Henry Duncan Phoya who only a fool would wish to believe that the smart lawyer and a politician we call HDP will not be on a presidential ballot in 2014. We had Akweni, my great amuser kneeling down and believing still that I write for Nyasatimes. But I like her honesty and straight forward. Mai Kaliati will always call or tell you her piece of mind, thats where she earns my respect. She is not a political gossiper who create things that do not exists. She is a very realistic person.
If you ask her a question expect an answer, but if she knows that you know, she will be the one asking you questions.
Then we had the UDF continuing its comedy, as Raphael Tenthani ably put it, trying to outdo each other in writing a political comic that nobody knows the end. My projection is that if a solution cannot be found this year, UDF will be in court until 2014 and very likely it will not have a candidate.
Unfortunately someone told me I support Aupele, so I have decided not to comment on who is suitable to take the UDF to new levels. But I think they should look outside current squabblers and get real quality and freshness. I reserve the names now.
Malawi Congress Party now has all the attention, people are thinking who would combine better, Phoya-Chimunthu Banda team would change the political landscape, just like Peter Mutharika-Chimunthu Banda team.
I reserve still my comments on what would be expected as a comibination of Joyce Banda, but she needs a strategic alliance that delivers Central Region.
The next election will be fought in central region, he who wins big in Central Region will definately carry the day.
The DPP has to find loyalty from Ken Kandodo, Bintony Kutsaira, Wakuda Kamanga and even Uladi Mussa where it matters and another strong character from Mchinji to have a stable vote. Dr. Kalirani represents Dowa, but you need her to convince Ntchisi as well.
Every district matters as of now for the ruling party. Its candidate needs to win or emerge second in every district to win the Presidential vote in 2014.
If I had powers I would not hesitate to appoint Hyacinta Chikaonda- the only Dedza MP who won on DPP ticket. Sosten Gwengwe has a mountain to climb to convince poeple in Dedza Central that DPP is the best option.
Thats enough on politics, two important incidents happened in Lilongwe this week and they were not reported:
At Biwi Police were beaten by fuel traders after they arrested some of them. This shows a dangerous path the country is heading to, where rule of law will be severely undermined if we do not address our challenges.
The more problems we face, the more angry people we generate and lawlessness will become part of defiance to authority, we cannot afford the same today and tommorrow.
At the same time the President travelled to Blantyre via Biwi and he was waved with Zigubu, I hope someone noticed and gave good answers to the Head of State. Bingu needs to show that he cares what people are going through than a defiant person who is out of touch. He had to pass through Biwi at a very high speed.
Lastly Akweni asked us to report who is hoarding fuel. On Wednesday fuel was available at one Puma station in Lilongwe owned by a DPP politician, I passed at 2am there were several Ministers and DPP officials fueling. She needs to ask that question in cabinet.
Otherwise, the week has been interesting. I particulary liked the US marine saving Iranians and Presidenn Assad of Syria behaving like Ghadaffi days before he was chased!

Phoya and a few more suprise

2012-01-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well by now people are having their second guess on what has made Lawyer Henry Duncan Phoya join the Malawi Congress Party. Definately he is not there to be an ordinary member, he passed that stage long time ago. The only truth he spoke at todays press conference was that he would remain in MCP.

For starters his joining MCP has boosted the attention that the party requires, but his speaking of experience of the party and its leaders could prove fatal especially in the hands of the former President Bakili Muluzi and his team.

Phoya represents the few surpises we predicted at the start of the year, but he has come out soon to gauge the response.

For the MCP the only benefit it could get over Phoya is to make him a Presidential candidate in 2014 and seek another fresh face to complete the rejunivated party. Otherwise making Phoya a running mate would not be an ideal situation as many has stopped regarding the position of Vice President as relevant.

Other opposition parties especially candidates such as Joyce Banda and Atupele Muluzi, they need to restartegise quickly and absorb the shock of having Phoya as a competitor in the 2014 general elections.

The DPP's Peter Mutharika's luck is not dependent on any of the new developments as he will have the strong Government machinery and resource envelope but only on how the situation improves socially, economically and politically.

HDP as he is fondly called has just thrown the wake up call on the 2014 general elections, but the real suprise is yet to land this year, I am sure by end March, we will close the suprise chapter. Watch who will grace the newspapers next!

Phoya joining MCP

2012-01-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

A press conference with John Tembo starting soon stay in touch

No deaths but injuries

2012-01-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

Three people have been injured by stones that were being pelted during the riots involving vendors and Police over trading space.No deaths have been reported and no bullets were fired.
The Malawi Defence Force moved in to remove a roadblock in the main Malangalanga trading centre and calm has returned to the City after almost two hours of riots.
Bata Shop and a PTC shop have been looted. Shops remain closed.
This is the final update unless something happens again this afternoon!

Malawi Defence Forces moves in

2012-01-05T02:14:00.000-08:00

The defiance shown by vendors has seen Government seek the help of the Malawi Defence Force to move into the streets of the capital as tensions remain high. Vendors did not move an inch when Police arrived in their trading area opting to take stones and chase them.
The huge crowd of vendors estimated around 2,000 has gathered along Malangalanga street and they are cheering the military truck that has made a round tour of the area.
No bullets fired so far!

Riots in Lilongwe

2012-01-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

Police have been fighting running battles with vendors in the Capital City's shopping districts with only four people reported injured by stones thrown by vendors. Police who are armed to teeth have been very calm despite insults and hurling of stones, very few tear gas canisters were thrown early in the morning.
One Police woman was reported to have been attacked while glasses to several shops have been brocken by stones. Only one shop is reported to have been looted.
The vendors were being chased by Lilongwe City Council Patrol vehicle and very few of them have moved with all shops closed and few minibuses plying from their main depot.
Interesting some Malawian motorists continue using the road despite stone and roadblocks, seemingly unconcerned of the risk it poses to their vehicles.
The chanting and singing continues..... update in next one hours as Bata and NBM are reporting now to have been stoned near the main M1 road.