The Maravi Post

BLANTYRE--Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL), Malawi’s leading fixed telecommunications services provider, has unveiled a new technology called WiMax as the company continues to provide its data customers with modern services.

WiMAX, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is an IP based, wireless access broadband technology.

The announcement was made to mark the commercialisation of the technology, MTL Acting Chief Executive Officer Elias Imaan said.

Customers can now  enjoy wireless broadband internet access services in the comfort of their homes, offices or on the move through WiFi.

WiMAX is being rolled out in phases with the first phase launched on May 2 covering the Central Business Districts (CBDs) and some suburbs of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. The second phase which is scheduled for Q4 2012 will fully cover Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu Cities before rolling out to other districts.

This means MTL now has three access technologies – WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), CDMA (Code Divisional Multiple Access) and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) ensuring that customers (both businesses and individuals) have access to services across the country.

Since WiMAX is wireless it’s services are easier and faster to deploy.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

LILONGWE—Pres Joyce Banda Monday thanked visiting heads of state and government for their assistance to Malawi as the country buried the late president Bingu wa Mutharika.
 
South Africa has offered the cash-strapped southern African nation which has been experiencing fuel shortages a month-long supply of the commodity. Zambia provided fuel, Mozambique did the same in addition to foodstuffs for the funeral.
 
"I and the people of Malawi are very thankful for this kind gesture during this hard time. I wish to therefore ask the organizing committee to ensure that all this is used for its intended purpose as the family says [it] will mourn [for] 40 days," she said at the sombre event in the tea-growing district of Thyolo where Mutharika came from.

She also praised Mutharika whom she said was her mentor. She said the man who appointed her foreign affairs minister had also taught her that Malawians weren't poor.

"He championed self belief, independence of the mind and hard work. He spent most of his life making Malawi a better place," she said.

Foreign dignitaries at the funeral included Almando Guebuza of Mozambique, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Phamba of Namibia, representatives of the Chinese leader Hu Jintao and
representation from Angola, Benin, AU, EU and the diplomatic corps.

Mutharika was buried in the Mpumulo wa Bata (Peaceful Rest) mausoleum alongside his first wife, Ethel, who died in 2007.

Pres Banda appealed to the family to take care of Mutharika’s widow, Callista. The late president’s younger brother and foreign affairs minister, Peter, said his sister-in-law “will never walk alone” and thanked her for the “love you gave my brother.”

Born 24th February 1934, Mutharika died after suffering a heart attack on April 5.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

LILONGWE--Zambia is negotiating with Angola towards a deal to import refined petroleum products from Angola to help reduce fuel pump prices.

Energy Permanent Secretary George Zulu said the two governments are discussing how best Zambia could benefit from the importation of cheap petroleum products from Angola.

In an interview with the Times of Zambia, Zulu said his government was determined to cut off the middle men
involved in petroleum importation cycle and ensure that fuel was affordable to all Zambians.

Angola, which borders Zambia in Western and North-Western provinces, is Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria. Zulu said the country plans to start importing finished petroleum products from Angola once the negotiations were completed.

Zambia has in the past been importing all its petroleum products from the Middle East.

"Both governments at ministerial levels have met and the two are still negotiating, to find ways of reaching out to cheaper sources of fuel and therefore, our tradition is to tender for the supply of petroleum products through the Zambia Public Procurement Authority and that tender was floated as the negotiations continues," he said.

Zulu said it was the government's intention to ensure that fuel was affordable for all Zambians saying, Zambia was the highest in the region in terms of fuel pump prices.

"The President has been instrumental in seeing that we go out to look for cheaper petroleum products and the former president Kenneth Kaunda was sent to Angola and went with the Minister of Energy, Christopher Yaluma to explore possibilities of procuring petroleum products from there," he said.

Zulu explained that a technical team led by the minister of energy travelled to Angola to discuss the details of importing finished petroleum products.

He says government has been looking at ways of bringing down the cost of fuel and that so far, it seems the answer lies in importing fuel from neighbouring Angola.

Zambia, which like Malawi is a landlocked country, relies on semi-refined oil imports from the Middle East but of late has been studying plans to import crude oil from Angola and set up a new oil refinery locally.

Malawi has however been hardest hit by fuel shortages a situation compounded by an endemic lack of foreign exchange that was exacerbated by poor polices that saw aid taps run dry. Malawi, dependent on tobacco as its major export commodity, relies on aid to meet its ever-increasing input bill.

It remains to be seen what new and sustainable initiatives will be hatched by the new government to redress the situation which has more or less crippled the industry in Malawi rendering it a far cry from the Malawi whose economy was once projected to be bettered only by Qatar’s stellar performance.

Malawi was recently a beneficiary of a South-South cooperation that saw the Zambian and South African Governments donate five million of litres of fuel and US$35 million respectively to ensure that the late President Mutharika was accorded a decent burial. Ironically, a valid case can be made to crown the late President Mutharika as the sole architect of the Malawi fuel and forex crises.

Fuel was not all that Malawi had to be assisted with to accord her fallen president a decent funeral. Neighbouring Mozambique joined the band-wagon of South-South donors, donating two wagon loads of maize, one wagon of fuel, and one wagon of cooking salt plus ten head of cattle, 505 sacks of rice, 20 sacks of sugar, 500 sacks of salt, 20 crates of cooking oil, 50 crates of biscuits, and 50 crates of sardines to facilitate the late President Mutharika’s funeral, the man some would want to remember as a champion of food security.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

LILONGWE--Trade minister John Bande, embarrassed by the scarcity of sugar that has sent prices of the sweet commodity skyrocketing, Thursday threatened to close down businesses which are ripping off customers.

Malawi has run out of sugar although the commodity is produced locally prompting Bande to visit several shops in Lilongwe to check sugar prices.

The country's sole sugar manufacturer Illovo has blamed the scarcity on exports by unscrupulous businessmen.

Half a kilo of sugar which was going for K220 just a few weeks ago now is selling for up to K800. Vendors and residents buy sugar in bulk which they resell at a higher price.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment