BLANTYRE (MaraPost)—World Vision International has joined with others around the globe to express sympathies to the family of former South African President Nelson Mandela, paying tribute to a modern legend of peace-building.

“Nelson Mandela has been, and will remain, an inspiration for many of us around the world involved in humanitarian work,” says Kevin Jenkins, World Vision International President.

“Mandela was probably the greatest leader of our age, a tireless, fearless advocate for the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in our world, particularly children. He believed in justice, and wasn’t afraid to do what he thought it would take to achieve it.

“Mandela’s death is, of course, most keenly felt in his home country, and we join with South Africans in sending our condolences to his family, and in mourning his loss.”

“Many of the children we work with, and our staff, have life-changing stories to tell of meeting Madiba over the years. All talk of his great compassion, and his tireless commitment to seeking justice and change.

Jenkins recalled a statement by Mandela that: ‘All people are created in the image of God and are his children.’ When his time came to lead his nation, he preached tolerance, respect and forgiveness.

“What he achieved for his nation took determination, hard work and perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable opposition at times. He knew when to get his hands dirty and when to be diplomatic. He made the world better for countless millions of children. What better legacy is there than that?”-MARAPOST.

BLANTYRE (MaraPost)—A 30 year-old security guard has been beaten to death by angry College of Medicine students, a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima) for allegedly stealing one of the students’ trousers.

According to Blantyre Police Assistant Publicist, Constable Grace Mwale, one of the students, Willard Lumetcha alerted fellow students that his trousers was missing and made rounds searching for the missing trousers until it was found with the guard, who reportedly confessed to have stolen the trousers.

Following the confession, angry students confronted and started beating up the guard who was working for Roma Security Services.

“He was taken to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital for medical attention as he had sustained severe head injuries. But he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the facility,” said Mwale.

She insisted that investigations are underway on the matter and that they will bring to book students that have a hand in the death of Banda, who hailed from Namalaka village, Traditional Authority Changata in Thyolo district.

“We have not arrested anyone in connection to the matter but will surely bring those involved to book,” she added.

The deceased’s body is still lying at the referral hospital’s mortuary pending postmortem, according to Constable Mwale.-MARAPOST.

Rumphi District Council is saddened to announce the death of Traditional Authority Mwalweni who passed on Wednesday afternoon 4^th December, 2013 at Lura Health Centre in Rumphi. He was born Samuel Jabu Harawa in 1954 and got installed to Sub Traditional Authority (STA) Mwalweni in 2003 after the death of his father Samuel. 

The deceased was promoted to Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwalweni on 22^nd April, 2004. He is survived by 13 grandchildren, four wives and 9 children. Burial of the Late T/A Mwalweni is expected to take place on Saturday, December 7, 2013 at his headquarters Lura, in the district. 

For further communication you can contact the undersigned on 0888713084 or Mr. James Tembo, Director of Administration on 0888399762  

Selina Chimphamba

DISTRICT COMMISSIONER.

Creative Centre for Community Mobilization (CRECCOM) an organization that was recently recognized by The Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) and its partners in education as the 2013 Number One Most Innovative Organization in the Promotion of Girls’ Education in Malawi continues to innovate and promote Girls education.

CRECCCOM has been implementing Enhancement of Girls Participation and Completion of Primary Education Project in Partnership with PLAN Malawi in the Education districts of Mulanje, Lilongwe Rural East and West, Kasungu and Mzimba North. In the implementation of the project, Community Leaders, School management committees, Mother groups as well as Parents and Teachers associations were trained on the importance of educating a Girl child as well advocating for full community participation in infrastructure development of their school.

During recent follow up meetings that the organization conducted in Mzimba North education district, it was reported that using the knowledge that different stakeholders acquired during training and sensitization meetings, over 20 girls have been saved from early marriage.

One such girl is Lifa Chisi aged 14 and learning at Mkana primary school, Njuyu Zone in Mzimba North. Her story starts during the long school holiday (July –September). It was during this period that Lifa moved from her parents’ house into her Grandmother’s House (her dad’s mother) following the discovery that she had now reached the adolescent stage. The granny told the girl that it was time for her to get married and  the granny together with her dad,  identified a husband for her. As per custom the girl was supposed to send her blouse to her would be husband as a sign of acceptance which is known as Chigomezgo. The granny facilitated the process and the blouse was sent but all this was happening without the knowledge of Lifa’s mother.

The headmistress of Mkana primary school Ms Getrude Mphepo noticed that Lifa was not going to school and she got the news that Lifa was bound to get married after she inquired from some learners who come from the same area with Lifa. The headmistress was upset considering the fact that Lifa is a bright student and has a promising future. The head mistress summoned Lifa’s mother, Fyness Tembo who is also a member of the school’s mother group and asked her about Lifa. The mother was not aware of the arranged marriage and with the knowledge acquired from CRECCOM the two ladies agreed to do whatsoever it takes to have Lifa back in school. Lifa’s mother confronted and challenged her husband and the mother in-law on the issue. After long and heated argument the husband and the mother in-law got some sense and accepted to stop the marriage arrangements but the two were ashamed to collect Lifa’s blouse which was earlier presented as Chigomezgo.

Lifa’s mother (Fyness Tembo) went to collect the Chigomegzo but the young man’s family was not cooperative and she returned home but vowed that with or without the blouse, Lifa will still go back to school.

The mother group of the school had sometime to counsel Lifa and she vowed never to be cheated again because she wants to become a nurse in future.

Currently Lifa is back in school and doing well in class. The headmistress and Lifa’s mother are thankful to CRECCOM for the training sessions and sensitization meetings that were conducted at the school because it is the knowledge from these initiatives that helped them to save Lifa from early marriage.

BLANTYRE, December 5, 2013 (MaraPost)—Senior Chief Lukwa of Kasungu and Senior Chief Nthwalo of Mzimba have bemoaned the slow progress in reviewing Malawi’s anti-abortion laws.

According to the chiefs, medical evidence indicates that hundreds of women and girls die and suffer multiple complications as a result of undergoing unsafe abortions.

A 2010 ministry of health study on abortion in Malawi also indicate that 70 000 Malawian women have abortion every year.

 The study further shows that 31 000 Malawian women are treated for complications of unsafe abortion annually. Approximately 17 percent of maternal deaths in Malawi are attributable to unsafe abortion, making it one of the primary causes of maternal mortality. In addition, 30 percent of all admissions in country’s gynecological wards are due to unsafe abortion.

Efforts to have abortion legalized in the country are stifled by religious leaders, who largely argue that abortion is unacceptable before God.

“Malawi as a country has not provided a legal environment where safe abortion can be accessed easily. The laws should be reviewed so that abortion should be carried out by any person with reasonable care and skill to carry out an operation to preserve mother’s life,” said Chief Lukwa.

One of the gynecologists, Dr. Grace Chiudzu also said women who obtain abortions from backyards risk severe blood lose and infection of the reproductive system and death.

She said medical workers are forced to curry out post-abortion care which in most cases lead to removal of the fallopian tubes.

“It is a big problem in the hospitals, statistics show that 17 percent of our maternal mortality is being contributed by unsafe abortions and that is costing the government a lot of money, almost K300 million is being lost annually.

“We need to come up with a law to regulate safe abortions and stop the free for all and chaotic situation in the country right now. If you go to the hospitals, especially in gynecological wards, they will tell you that 30 percent of the space is being occupied by unsafe abortion patients,” said Chiudzu.-MARAPOST.

BLANTYRE (MaraPost)—The Executive Director of Justice Link, Justin Dzonzi has described claims that Mangochi district is an Islamic State as both illegal and regrettable, arguing that there is no land in Malawi that is ruled by religious laws.

Dzonzi, who is a lawyer by profession, has since faulted Magistrate Jack Njikho’s judgment that went in favour of some Muslims who were against the sale of pork in the district, describing the ruling as unlawful and unconstitutional.

Last week, some Muslims protested the sale of pork and alcoholic beverages in the district claiming that the district is an Islamic state amid a court case where a businessman, Paul Msangwa drugged two Muslims for confiscating and burying the pig carcass he was selling at Maldeco market there.

Msangwa, who was claiming K85,000 compensation, lost the case on Monday this week.

Likewise, the Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) has also described remarks that the district is an Islamic State as both regrettable and uncalled for, saying Malawi is one country, governed by one Constitutional.

“Malawi is one State, we cannot create two States. This is a secular nation and we must tolerate each other,” said MAM Chairperson Sheikh Mohammed Idrissa.

Business, according to Dzonzi, is guided by the council by-laws and it is not an offence for anyone to sell pork anywhere in the country as long as they follow the council by-laws.

“No one can be forced to follow the teachings of other religions. It is unfortunate and worrying to say Mangochi is an Islamic State,” said Dzonzi.

He also faulted the magistrate for failing to punish the accused persons although it was made clear that they confiscated and buried the complainant’s pork.

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent them.”

By now President Joyce Banda (JB) and her cohorts must be thinking the cashgate saga is some kind of a witch-hunt. Yet, what is haunting JB is her initial attempt to distance herself and her political party from cashgate and her attempt to portray her administration as fighting corruption that the previous regimes tolerated.

JB should have accepted that cashgate has erupted on her watch and take on it head on instead of playing politics with it. Now the toothpaste is out, how do put it back in the tube?

JB’s attempts sent two wrong signals: the first one is that her inconsistency at the beginning gave impression that she something to hide, especially now that senior members of her cabinet and key financer of her political party have been implicated. The second impression is that she has decided to put her interests above national interest; the hiring of London-based PR firm Bell Pottinger for damage limitation affirms that she cares more about people’s perception of her and not necessarily stopping future cashgates.

These outweigh JB’s justifiable argument that looting of public resources stretches back to Bakili Muluzi era. Even though this argument on its own comes across as justifying the loot and denying responsibility. It is crucial to note that cashgate is a symptom of a rotten society whose morals have been in gradual decline. Cashgate is a tipping point for a society whose people have been indoctrinated to believe that it is important to put interests of their political parties ahead of national interests. This is why there are Malawians that are happy to defend cashgate for the sake of their political parties.

The last 15 years or so Malawi has natured a mentality that the public purse is at the mercy of those in power. This is among the prime causes of cashgate; it could have been any party in power and cashgate would be there. It is a public knowledge that recommendations were made in 2009 (under the late Bingu wa Mutharika) and again in 2012 (under Joyce Banda) to seal the holes in the government money paying system, which is at the heart of this looting of state resources. Yet, nothing was done. We know that a lot key members in Joyce Banda’s administration also formed a nucleus of Bingu administration so they were aware of these shortfalls all along.

It is apparently clear that there is no difference between political parties in Malawi. Forget about opposing benches in parliament, it is the same political class, one and the same. They share interests and their ambition is to protect those interests. If anything, those in opposition are only annoyed about cashgate because, first it is not them stealing and second, they know cashgate will make it harder for them to steal should they get in power. This is why no political party and political leader have come forward to denounce the cashgate in strong terms. There is nothing that the opposition leaders have said beyond what Malawians are discussing in social media and other public fora.

For the political class, cashgate is politics as usual. Those in opposition are happy to tell people about everything possibly wrong with the current administration without necessarily holding it to account. Could MCP, UDF, DPP, Petra, Aford, PPM etc. show us what they will do to change this rotten political order? Forget sorting out the government payment system alone, that is equivalent of wrapping a boil with a bandage; you only succeed in hiding the boil but it will not heal because the wound is intact inside the boil.

The lack of choice in 2014 is there for all to see. 2014 elections are a choice between lesser evils, especially for poor Malawians in the frontline of poverty and injustice, forced on them by the political establishment that stands for nothing by self-enrichment. 2014 elections will change bums on some seats but not how this country is run. The power to change this country rest not in the hands of the political establishment but us, the ordinary citizens.

The recent Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter that reads like a collection of extracts from social media and various historical edicts, for lack of originality and nuanced ideas has mentioned of a “growing spirit of fatalism” engulfing Malawi. This is true, even though the Pastoral Letter does not offer solutions or enlighten Malawians that they have power to change things and control the destiny of this country, beyond the ballot. Calling for people to hold their leaders to account is a call to national duty, one of the key democratic principles, not a call for revolution, as some understands it.

We must at all cost resist the ideology implanted in us by the political class that we should think in political party lines. We must owe our allegiance not to political parties, not its leaders and not its colours; instead, we must owe our allegiance to our country, to fellow Malawians, uphold our national flag and take pride in it.  We must not worship our leaders; we must hold our leaders to account. We must ensure that leaders act by the oath – to serve and protect Malawi. Malawians can no longer afford to have kleptocrats shoving everyone left, right and centre. If ordinary Malawians take full control of the direction of the country, the political establishment has no choice but to oblige; they need our mandate to govern.

*Jimmy Kainja is a MaraPost traditional columnist

© 2013 MaraPost, Reproduction without acknowledgement prohibited 

Blantyre, Malawi, Dec. 3 (MaraviPost) _ The European Union (EU) delegation in Lilongwe and the Malawi mission to the EU in Brussels have denied reports that President Joyce Banda cancelled her trip to Brussels last week because she was barred from entering the EU following financial scandals currently rocking her government.

Banda was supposed to fly from Abu Dhabi and Kuwait straight to Brussels to attend the European Development Days’ activities on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. But State House Press Secretary Steven Nhlane announced that the President would not go to Brussels because the trip was not fully-funded.

Social media was nonetheless abuzz with suggestions that EU was annoyed by the financial scandals at Capital Hill that it imposed a travel ban on Banda and her government. 

But head of the EU delegation to Malawi Alexander Baum described the suggestions as ‘false’.

“There is nothing like a travel ban for anyone and this is also not the way the European Union or any state conducts international relations,” he told maravipost.com on Tuesday.

Baum said President Banda was welcome any time in Brussels and the entire 28-member economic bloc.

“We believe that it would have been an opportunity for bilateral political consultations, but at the same time, we do fully understand and respect the fiscal constraints under which government is operating currently and that the President wishes to set an example, even if it would have been important to travel,” he said.

Following western donor nations’ decision to suspend US $150m in aid, new Finance Minister Maxwell Mkwezalamba announced new austerity measures including a ban in both unnecessary local and international travel for all government officials, including the president. The former African Union Economics Commissioner said government officials can only travel if such trips are very important or have been fully-funded.

Malawi ambassador to the EU Brave Ndisale corroborated Baum’s statement, saying international visits by the heads of state and government are arranged through diplomatic channels and, in this case, her mission. She said Brussels never communicated any travel ban for Banda to her office.

“You may wish to note that under the (Africa Caribbean and Pacific and European union) ACP–EU Partnership Agreement, there are procedures that are followed by either party before any form of cooperation is suspended. Suspension of aid or travel is done in a transparent and consultative manner,” she said.

Ndisale said when it was learnt that Banda would be in Brussels a lot of leaders, including EU commissioners for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Development Catherine Ashton and Andris Piebalgs respectively, asked for bilateral talks with her.

“She was also supposed to be on several panel discussions,” she said.

Africa was represented at the European Development Days activities by presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Mahamadou Issoufou of Liberia and Niger respectively, Cape Verdean Prime Minister Jose Pereira Neves and African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The European Union Commission and the Presidency of the European Union Council organise European Development Days annually where leaders and organisations discus issues affecting development in the world.-maravipost

Note: Maravi Post was also one of the Media Outlets that had reported in error that President Joyce Banda was barred from Travelling to EU Countries.

Lilongwe, December 2: The newly appointed Japanese Ambassador, Shuichiro Nishioka, who presented his Letters of Credence to President Dr. Joyce Banda at Kamuzu Palace, Lilongwe, on Monday, pledged his government’s continued support to Malawi.

Nishioka told journalists after meeting President Dr. Banda that he was proud to have finally presented his Letters of Credence to the Malawi leader and that he would see to it that Malawi continued to receive grant aids from Japan.

“Japan is willing to continue supporting the country with grant aids and technical expertise in various interventions such as irrigation, and agriculture in general, among other areas,” explained Nishioka, who has replaced Fujio Samukawa whose term ended recently.

He added: “For the past 40 years Japan has supported Malawi with over 1, 600 grant aids and currently, there are about 70 grant aids that are operational and we intend to continue with this support.”

He said he had also conveyed to President Dr. Banda and people of Malawi message of goodwill from the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and that the latter looked forward to seeing diplomatic ties between the two countries getting stronger by the day.

Receiving the new Japanese envoy, President Dr. Joyce Banda, expressed gratitude over the Japanese Government’s support in areas such as agriculture and rural development, basic education, water development, maternal and child health and transport infrastructure development.

The Malawi leader said she looked forward to increased cooperation with Japan on natural resources, industrial development and education as per her meeting with Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe in June 2013.

Dr. Banda also noted Prime Minister Abe’s pledge to support SADC and Africa’s regional development and agro-industries through the Japan-African Regional Economic Communities Summit.

Malawi-Japan relations date back to Malawi’s independence in 1964 when the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) opened offices in Malawi in 1964.

Japan established a Residential Embassy in Lilongwe in 2008, while Malawi’s Embassy in Japan was opened in 1992.

Main areas of cooperation between Malawi and Japan include: agriculture and rural development, basic education, water development, maternal and child health, medical services, transport infrastructure development, rural electrification and the One Village One Product (OVOP).

Japan hosts the Tokyo International Conference on African Development every five years, with the objective of ‘promoting high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners.

TICAD is an evolving element in Japan’s long-term commitment to fostering peace and stability in Africa through collaborative partnerships.