Eventually seeing real Africa, as I am going through villages on dirt tracks.
Written by Patseni Mauka
I once wanted to be a Mandasi seller. It fascinated me. Every time I saw a boy selling fritters at a bus depot, I thought it was cool. I also wanted to be a soldier. The strength and coolness of soldiers attracted my attention all the time. The military uniform mesmerized me. These were the things I saw often in my childhood. You can never dream to be what you have never seen or heard. We are products of what we see, hear and read.
Christopher D. Connors, a writer and coach said, on our journeys to high achievement, we are often guided by an inspiring example or experience that keeps pushing us to climb higher. We press forward with a burning desire to reach our goal because of someone or something that left an indelible impact on us. Often, it is a model or great person that helps us make sense of our mission and how we choose to define our path toward greatness.
My dreams changed when my uncle went to study at Chancellor College, University of Malawi. It was a rare opportunity in those days and a first in my family. After his graduation, he found a good job and lived in Area 10, one of the few wealthy suburbs in Lilongwe at that time. At his invitation, I travelled from Ntcheu to visit him. I saw what hard work can produce and my vision completely changed. I now wanted to be like him. The rest as they say, is history.
Just like my uncle changed my dreams and inspired me to go higher with education, my friend Z. Allan Ntata inspired me to start writing. I always knew there was a writer in me but it took Ntata’s frequent prolific writings for me to believe that I can also write. His book Trappings of Power: Political Leadership in Africa is a must read for those that enjoy political commentary.
Malnourished Malawian children sit with their mothers at a feeding center at the Zomba Central Hospital
Majority of Malawians are not exposed to high standards of development. Many people’s meaning of quality is low. Our sense of quality comes from Malawi’s developmental history. Our colonial masters, the British , never developed the country. What we call development started from our independence under first President Kamuzu Banda. What we currently have is what many people have ever seen, nothing else.
The damaged part of Kamuzu Bridge- pic by Mana
Nobody denies that Kamuzu did a reasonable job of developing Malawi according to standards that the country could afford at that time. But we must realize that the standards that might have been brilliant in the Malawian eye during the Kamuzu days were already many years behind other countries including some African countries. It’s worse now 25 years after Kamuzu and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) lost power.
From 1994, we were supposed to be building better infrastructure than built under Kamuzu or even much better than some standards within Africa. But the buildings and some roads built during the Bakili Muluzi and United Democratic Front (UDF) era were worse. The officers who approved both public and private buildings in that era must have taken lots of bribes. A sad example is Kampala building near the mosque in Lilongwe as you go to the main bus depot. Built like a kindergarten arts and crafts model, it’s an eyesore.
It’s only the late Bingu Wa Mutharika who had a better sense of quality and used his international exposure to build structures that even the current mediocre Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led by old and tired Professor Peter Mutharika is quick to show as it’s own achievements. For me, there was DPP under Bingu and there is a watered down DPP under Peter Mutharika with nothing spectacular to show as it’s achievements in the last four and half years.
Under Peter Mutharika, roads are eroding away one or two years after construction. Roads with double lanes for just a few kilometers and a roundabout are being lauded as something out of this world. Yet this is an internationally exposed professor approving substandard roads and buildings. Designs of buildings are terrible. An example is a bat shaped building that was launched this other day.
Strangely, some Malawians want us to believe we can’t do better than the Kamuzu days. Some like MCP leader, Lazarus Chakwera, are actually promising to do things the ‘Kamuzu way’. Malawians should not be blinded by low quality, poorly designed infrastructure. This country can do much better. There are a lot of areas that need better roads and buildings. Short low quality roads and extensions of school campuses used as bait for unsuspecting voters should not cheat us.
Our politicians know that many people’s meaning of quality is low. That’s why they exploit us with poor projects. Politicians use substandard roads, stadiums, flyovers, bridges, rented generators, sports tournaments and many other things to convince voters that they know what Malawi needs in terms of development. Some of them, like Peter Mutharika, lived overseas for decades and saw high quality infrastructure but came back home to implement mediocrity. They are not ashamed because some people applaud inferior projects.
No wonder when visionary people like UTM President Dr. Saulos Chilima say they will bring high speed trains, these dodgy politicians lead their supporters in saying it’s impossible for Malawi to jump from the current poor state of infrastructure to a much better one. They will do anything to maintain implementation of shoddy projects because if they execute the best, there will be no money left for them to steal and do personal projects. Malawians should demand the best and avoid giving power to crooks who just want to steal tax payers’ money to build mansions and lodges as well as buy fleets of expensive personal and party cars.
A celebration of the life and works of the first President of Malawi, Kamuzu Banda.
And when your children ask you: “What does the ceremony mean to you?” then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice when the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshipped. – Exodus 12:26-27
As I listen and watch many of the political rallies that are prepping voters in Malawi for the 2019 Presidential, Parliamentary, and Councilor elections, I have been concerned about an omission that could be exigent or necessary for the candidates to appear as democratic as possible. In their omitting to make mention of the principal architect of Malawi’s development, the candidates are really doing the most harm, to themselves and to the electorate (whether young or old).
While rummaging in my mind’s eye about the end of year topic, I was privy to a conversation of former Principle Secretaries that captured one of my running themes: as a scholar of history, I’m always mindful of my past being the molder of my present and foreshadow of my future. This column has reiterated the need for Malawians to remember their heroes in the immediate, recent, and distant past. Thus, it is important to remember how Malawi became a democratic country, how Malawi progressed following the attainment of independence from colonial rule, and how Malawi (then Nyasaland) faired under colonial rule.
For example, while credit from the political podium make mention of the country’s progression to democratic rule, through some fearless (often unnamed) Malawians that fought the tyranny of dictatorship (that too left unnamed), many are at ease to jump to 1915 and in their oratory, linger on the hardship faced by John Chilembwe. Let history be recalled in its fullness. While Chilembwe could be cited as one of Malawi’s first heroes, it is erroneous and a grave injustice to omit the other truths about Malawi’s full list of heroes.
Malawi’s major international airport KIA
This is a call to all political candidates running for office, to remember, recall, and recount the numerous achievements made in the rule (tyrannical though it may have been) of Malawi’s first late President Ngwazi Dr. Kamuzu Banda. He and hundreds of his followers spent one year in prison in Gwero and Khami (Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federal Detention Centers) in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). Many of his development projects were realized with help from such Gwelo/Khami prison mates as Dunduzu Chisiza, Orton Chirwa, Aleke Banda, the Bwanausi brothers, Nyemba and Jasper Mbekeani, David Rubadiri, John Msothi, Lewis Makata and many others.
Upon his release, he surrounded himself with people that helped him in his development agenda (dubbed “the three Gwelo Dreams”). This is a credit to Dr. Banda; that he had a development agenda and several strategies in realizing that agenda. And sometimes the strategies required him to align himself with countries deemed by the majority of other African countries, to be “our enemies.”
But it was through Dr. Banda’s pragmatism, that he realized the achievements that one former Principle Secretary itemized. It is re-produced, with the former PS’s permission:
RWANDA : Miracle and its Magicians
[12/12, 8:42 PM] Regarding the Rwanda economic development miracle being so much talked about, we have a Retired PSs WhatsApp chat forum. I was prompted to post on it a write-up I crafted, cataloguing a glorious record of the scale of the colossal economic development Malawi attained in the immediate post-independence period of just under 25 years. I lamented to colleagues that we seem to have lost that drive in the later years. It was anybody’s guess which later years (the multiparty era).
I believe if we had maintained that pace and drive, we would probably be what little Rwanda is today and more. Or indeed what little Mauritius has reached today in its very high level of economic development. These were equally resource-poor countries.
There was a posting on the forum of a development vision conceived by a prospective Nigerian presidential candidate in their general election next year and for that country. It is the comments that some of the forum members made that prompted me to reflect on what was without doubt, a proud development record by an otherwise resource-poor country that Malawi was at independence.
This is what I wrote. It is lengthy. You will have to take your time to read it…
Of course, one must admit we had a down side to our politics especially in the area of human rights; but, I submit, not in the area of economic development.
In Malawi have had the glory in our post-independence past from which we can draw a lot to inspire our nation to move forward. Imagine if we had kept the pace of the economic and development drive we had in the 60s, 70s, and 80s during a period of just under twenty-five years counting from 1964!
Ndirande Mountain from Blantyre Malawi
This is the period when we built the housing estates of Ndirande New Lines, Nkolokosa Lines, Soche East Lines, Zingwangwa New Lines, Chinyonga, and Njamba in Blantyre. When we built Areas 18, 15, 12, 10, 11, 43, Chilinde in Lilongwe; when we built Chasefu, Katoto and other sites in Mzuzu and Zomba.
We built Capital Hill, City Centre, Army Headquarters, Police Headquarters, Malawi Armed Forces College, Moyale, and Chilumba Barracks, MYP Training Bases (38 of them) throughout the country; we built our Security Forces Air wings and Naval Units for all the three of them: Army, Police, and MYP.
We built our magnificent and majestic State Houses in all the three regions of the country to stand solid a thousand years and more. Included among these state residences, is the imposing Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe with capacity to host multiple dignitaries in the residential wings.
And we built the Reserve Bank of Malawi Headquarters, and other statutory headquarters in the Capital City.
We built our referral hospitals and we built modern district hospitals in virtually every district by 1992, except in just five districts.
We built our University of Malawi including a well-provided College of Medicine and other tertiary colleges and when we built major secondary schools in every district. This sector enhanced our human resource capital and pool of professionals that help run the country.
We built our dams and hydro power stations and we constructed thousands of kilometers of tarmac roads, the railway line to Nacala in Mozambique, and extended the railway lines to Mchinji with a magnificent railway station in Area 25, which had a presidential suite.
We built our agriculture schemes that rolled out to every corner of the country and of every food and cash crop and when smallholder agriculture boomed that earned Malawi the admiration and praise of the world. (Among the crops in the schemes, were the staple food crop maize, ground nuts, rice, cotton and tea).
We built our tobacco auction floors in Kanengo comprising a building known at the time to be the largest building in Africa.
We owned and operated our own airline, had our own trained pilots we were so proud of and whom we knew by their names endearingly, and we were proud to fly on our national airline we called Air Malawi.
We bought our own Boeing 737 aircraft we named Kwacha, which saw some of us travel to Seattle USA, to negotiate and conclude the sale agreement. We acquired two French ATR aircrafts of 48 passenger seat capacity, for regional flights; and one 18-passenger seat German Donier aircraft for domestic short hauls. And I recall a second Boeing 737 aircraft was in the offing and would have been in-country, had it not been for the coming in of the change to multiparty dispensation.
We built our international airport in Lilongwe opened provisionally in1983 and operationally in 1984, bringing into Malawi large airlines that included BA, KLM and the UTA. At this time, we could fly to and from major European capitals directly from Lilongwe. The Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) project included the building of the Lumbadzi housing estate and ADL House in the City Centre.
We built the Capital Hotel in Lilongwe as a requirement by IATA in relation to the building of the international airport in Lilongwe. As was the building of Kamuzu Central Hospital opened in May 1977, and which we achieved with a loan from the Danish Government that became a grant.
We built our stadiums, among which of course, our own CIVO must be mentioned along with the Kamuzu Institute Stadium, Silver Stadium, Police Stadium; all these are in Lilongwe. Situated in Blantyre are the MDC Stadium and of course the great Kamuzu Stadium where we proudly won the East and Central Africa Challenge Cup in 1978, are. And Blantyre erupted into a ding of the patriotic song of our national independence: “Zivute zitani Ife Amalawi tili pambuyo pa Kamuzu” (Come what may, we are Malawians, we are behind Kamuzu).
We trained our people in all fields of human endeavor, some of which others would have thought were on the peripheral such as in antiquities, anthropology and in arts and culture up to doctoral levels.
We developed our veterinary services and had highly trained professionals, with animal disease control services easily accessible throughout the country.
We established and protected our national parks, wildlife, and game reserves and forestry reserves, the last of which was the Lake Malawi National Park at Cape Maclear in Mangochi; the latter to protect the ornamental mbuna fish species, which was declared a national park in 1977.
We built three traditional court buildings every year, one in each of the country’s three Regions, which were part of Malawi’s system of courts. These buildings are currently proving to be very useful court structures for the magistrate courts in rural areas. These Traditional Courts buildings, in total 320 by 1994 at the change to the multiparty system of government, had spread to every part of the country. For that purpose, the Ministry of Justice maintained its own building units.
We purchased and sometimes, built and our own buildings for embassies and consulates abroad. And I can happily recall being in a delegation to Bonn in 1984, to conclude a sale agreement for a vacant site, on which to construct our embassy building in that country, although, later the embassy moved when Berlin became the new capital of Germany.
Being one from the lakeshore area, I cannot omit to recite the time when we developed our fisheries and boat-making industry.
As secondary school and college students, we always rushed to a radio at lunch hour to listen to the reading of the English lunch-hour news bulletin by our most admired Malawian news readers at the time.
Virtually all groceries, household products, and consumable goods, and other essential goods for livelihood, were produced in the Makata Industrial Area, Ginnery Corner and in other parts of Blantyre; when we hardly ever faced any shortages of such essential goods and commodities.
The supply of utilities was consistent, such that if you had no electricity or water supply at your house, it meant you were disconnected for non-payment of bills, and you were ashamed of that eventuality of disconnection.
It is a source of pride and joy for the country for the fact that Malawi is one of the few countries in Africa, to have built a new capital city so successfully, which is said to be among the fastest growing cities in Africa. Justice Elton Singini, SC
This is the lament of the former Law Commissioner, who poses the challenge to other professional Malawians in economics and development to look at the achievements of the 31-year progression Malawi made under Kamuzu Banda; and aspire to continue to attain such feat of development in Malawi. The main purpose of this expose is to ask the same to candidates in the Malawi 2019 Tri-Partite elections.
Next year Malawi commemorates 25 years of democracy, what have been our development achievements in that time? Do they measure up to those made under the Kamuzu Banda rule? What grand schemes can candidates craft to sell to Malawians to vote for you in 2019? Do you have songs of hope that as a candidate you can bring to the table, or rally grounds, and sell to Malawians that you are a deliberate and development-driven politician?
Happy New Year!
Janet Karim The maravi Post senior Editor
Janet Zeenat Karim
Author of Women & Leadership: Women are the Change you seek
…..but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15
Joyce Banda Former President-MCP Lazarus Chakwera-Current President Peter Mutharika-and-Vice President Saulos Chilima leading UTM
Written by Patseni Mauka
It’s amazing how children trust their parents. Every child believes his dad is all powerful, he can beat up anybody. The fact that the father always lost fights in school does not exist to them. Such is the trust and belief that kids have on their parents that a child who I will call ‘John’ believed his mum so much that it led to one embarrassing and sad incident.
One day John’s Mom cooked meat, a rare dish in the family. Being a rare dish, John wanted to have it for lunch and dinner that day. But there was a problem, the family suddenly received a visitor just before lunch. John’s mom had to include the visitor on that day’s lunch. That meant sharing the meat with the visitor. Sadly, all the meat would be finished during lunch. That was a big headache for John’s mom. The only consolation that slightly helped lessen the headache was the fact that the visitor came just on the right day, when the family had a meat dish. Every family wants to have visitors on a day when the meal includes meat. Ndizonyaditsa.
When John saw his mom emptying the meat pot in the kitchen, he started crying. He cried because he would have no meat to eat in the evening. To avoid embarrassment and keep John from crying, mom told John that the visitor would definitely leave some meat in the plate. She promised to give John the visitor’s expected leftover meat for his dinner later that day.
John ate his meal quickly and went out of the house. Carefully hiding, he stood on the window peeping through a small space, watching the visitor and mum enjoying their meal. The visitor hungrily ate his food. Then he grabbed the last piece of meat and devoured it. Just at that moment, John broke into a loud cry on the window, “mami amaliza nyama ija!”(“mom he has finished the meat!”)
Johns mom banked on the fact that visitors have the tendency to be shy and eat just a little, leaving some food. Unfortunately, not that visitor. This was a very hungry visitor. Perhaps that could explain why he came just around lunch hour. He finished eating all the food. The visitor was embarrassed. Mum was shocked and embarrassed. But John simply believed her promise. Such is the power of promises.
With the Malawi general elections just about five months away, party leaders are competing to prove to the electorate on who is the best person to lead the nation after May, 2019. So many promises are being made. Some so real, credible and convincing you just wish the implementation started immediately. Some so wild, and unbelievable, you wonder whether they can be fulfilled. Some so abstract, it’s difficult to understand whether those making promises really understand what they are talking about.
Some promises are so dumb you know they are outright lies. Some party leaders have completely abandoned the promises they made just about five years ago and embarked on a campaign of new promises as copied from other parties. Some are making new promises believing that voters have forgotten scores of unfulfilled promises they made just about five years ago. Such is the race to win the elections next year.
So whose promises should voters believe? No one want’s to be lied to. Nobody wants broken promises. Nobody wants to be taken for granted. Nobody wants to be taken for a fool. Therefore, it’s easier to start with who we should not believe. We should not believe those who have lied to us before in terms of election promises. We should no believe those who promised us the moon. We should not believe those who deliberately promised things they had no clue on how to deliver. We should not believe those that promised us excellence but delivered mediocrity.
Mutharika at Anglican prayers in Mangochi
Take DPP, for instance, they promised five universities in five districts of Karonga, Mzimba, Nkhotakota, Mangochi and Nsanje. Until now, not even one university has been built. The best the DPP government and President Peter Mutharika did was to lay a foundation stone for the Mombera University in Mzimba. As usual, millions of Kwachas were spent on transportation and allowances for the president and his henchmen to attend the foundation stone ceremony in Mzimba. DPP members danced and praised Mutharika for this achievement of laying a foundation stone. Over three years after this expensive jamboree, the foundation stone is still lying in loneliness gathering mosses. No university in sight.
Peter Mutharika promised to fly in a helicopter soon after the 2014 elections to open the Shire Zambezi Waterway or what is also called the Nsanje port. The 2014 elections are way gone. He partly won based on this promise. But about five years after this careless promise, Nsanje port is dry with some small boats rusting away on the surface. Not to lose everything after being lied to, Nsanje citizens have devised a genius way to make use of this multi-billion Kwacha white elephant. The Nsanje citizens are using the platform of the port as a wedding venue!
The promises that DPP made and failed to fulfill are numerous. They promised zero-tolerance to corruption, fraud, theft and other economic crimes but now the president is the highest suspect of corruption. If I were to list all DPP broken promises, this article would easily transform into a book about DPP’s lies. But this article is about whose promises voters should believe, not DPP broken promises. So let’s not waste time talking about people whose promises should not be believed. DPP is a bunch of liars. They should not be believed when they come back with more promises on the back of the numerous unfulfilled ones.
There is a new broom in town which is also making promises. It’s the UTM party, formerly movement of the people that was formed by people who just couldn’t permit DPP and Mutharika to continue with mediocrity, cronyism and corruption of the highest order. The party is led by Vice President of Malawi Dr. Saulos Chilima. Chilima and UTM have brought a totally different kind of politics in Malawi. For once, we are able to sit on our couches, watch and listen to rally speeches without immediately switching back to football highlights of the 1998 World Cup. Switching to old football highlights was what we used to do before Chilima transformed the art of speaking at a rally in Malawi. In the past, it was insults after insults at political rallies. Now we are able to listen to alternative policies and vision for the country with keen interest.
Kaliati and Chilima; trouble in UTM
UTM under Chilima’s leadership seems to have done fantastic homework. The party has come up with original promises, which in my opinion, are genuine and implementable. What other way to know the quality and credibility of promises than to have all other parties copying and pasting them in their rally speeches? DPP and MCP have already copied some of UTM promises.
But the question is; should UTM’s promises be believed? My answer to that question is affirmative. The reason why one would give UTM the benefit of doubt is how it’s leader, Dr. Chilima, has consistently and passionately articulated the party’s vision and promises. Chilima has not only made promises, he has even gone to the extent of proving what will be the source of financing for the promises made. For all promises to deal with infrastructure, health, education, agriculture and others that need money, Chilima as a person who has seen the government at the highest level, has said the country has enough resources to meet most of it’s needs.
If you are in doubt, note that over 20 billion Kwacha was misappropriated in the cashgate scandal within six months! That’s only money that could be traced in the financial system! What about the money that could not be traced? What about potential revenue that is not corrected because of corruption? With good leadership and proper governance structures, this country can do a lot of things with locally available resources.
As for MCP, it’s main promise is to run the country like it did under Kamuzu. At least this is what it’s leader Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his supporters tell us consistently. Nothing new from this party. Just copying other parties’ policies and repeating ‘we will do what Kamuzu used to do’. No clue whatsoever. No one should believe parties that rely on past policies unless the old policies are refined to suit realities of modern life. So many parameters of development have changed since the Kamuzu days. MCP’s insistence on old ways of doing things just shows why they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of the Publisher or the Editor of Maravi Post
Kamuzu Barracks crowned TNM Super league champions
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost): –The capital city based soldiers, Kamuzu Barracks, have been crowned Malawi football champions for the first time since they joined the country’s elite league after beating Dwangwa United 4-1 on Saturday at the Chitowe Stadium, Dwangwa.
Govt has no money; Mutharika appears to be telling Mzuni Vice Chancellor in this file photo
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments Psalm 78:5-7
In the twenty years that Malawi has enjoyed democratic governance, ironically the country has also experience a degeneration in the delivery, administration and undertaking of higher education. Among the reasons for this degeneration are hiking of tuition, demands by tutors or support staff for salary or displeasure with the head of the various institutions. Continue reading MY TAKE ON IT: Higher political figure takes up ownership of higher education→
Irene Botha farms tobacco, an important cash crop in Chigumba, a village in northern Malawi which has been hit hard by drought and hunger. Tobacco has traditionally been grown, in addition to corn, as a way for families to earn cash. Yet falling tobacco prices have made it a less lucrative crop.
Bishop Fanuel Magangani of the Anglican Church of Malawi has appealed to government to immediately identify subsistence commercial farmers in the country in order to curb the hunger crisis.
