Blessings Tambala

Director of Chiefs in the Ministry of Local Government, Charles Makanga, has clarified that President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera was not involved in the selection of Senior Chief Kaduya of Phalombe to become Paramount Chief of the Lhomwe people.

Makanga was reacting to banters some disgruntled Lhomwe chiefs made against Chakwera, accusing the Head of State of imposing of a Mang’anja chief on them.

The concerned Lhomwe chiefs, who addressed journalists in Thyolo on Friday, claimed that Kaduya is not Lhomwe by tribe and, therefore, not fit to be overall queen among the Lhomwes.

Mulhakho wa Alhomwe board chairperson, Mutchanakhwayi Mpuluka, said he believes that there is a hand that is trying to divide the clan, arguing that most of the disgruntled chiefs attended a chiefs meeting a week ago where they supported the decision.

But Makanga wondered why President Chakwera should be drawn into the selection of a traditional leader, stressing that this is a matter that can best be handled at cultural level.

He stated the Mulhakho wa Alhomwe Heritage Foundation could better explain the reasons it selected Senior Chief Kaduya because the President simply approved and installed as a Lhomwe Paramount Chief yesterday.

Makanga said it was the cultural grouping that selected and submitted the name of the chief for approval.

Governance and Human Rights Advocate Undule Mwakasungula says he is surprised with the noise some Malawians are making over the trip President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has undertaken to Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.

The presidential trip to DRC has drawn mixed reactions from the public, with others questioning his seriousness about the travel ban he announced late 2023 as one of the measures to save the resources.

Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) Executive Director, Willie Kambwandira, told the local media that by undertaking a trip to DRC amidst his own instituted travel ban, President Chakwera demonstrated lack of seriousness.

But Mwakasungula held a different viewpoint, arguing that Chakwera’ presence at the swearing-in ceremony for the new leader in DRC should not be perceived with political eyes.

“I don’t see any reason to make noise while the President is traveling for the sale of the nation. This is part of his job description, let us appreciate these international trips without politics or hidden agendas. Malawi is not an island. The importance of the president’s international trips, such as the one where President Lazarus Chakwera is breaking international travel suspension to attend the swearing-in ceremony for Felix Tshisekedi in DRC Congo, can be viewed from several angles,” he said.

Mwakasungula further stated that presidential visits to foreign countries strengthen diplomatic ties between nations, adding that President Chakwera’s presence at the swearing-in ceremony for Felix Tshisekedi indicates Malawi’s support and goodwill towards the incoming president of the DRC.

He said this would help in fostering a positive relationship between the two nations, potentially leading to cooperation on various fronts, including trade, security, and regional stability.

“Such trips often provide an opportunity to negotiate and sign bilateral agreements or memorandum of understandings (MOUs) with the host country. These agreements can cover a wide range of areas, including trade, investment, and cooperation in various sectors, which can have long-term economic and political benefits for our country. Presidents’ participation in international events allows them to engage in discussions on regional and global issues. They can collaborate with other leaders to address common challenges such as peacekeeping and others. These interactions contribute to collective efforts in finding solutions to global problems.

“Presidential visits can also promote economic opportunities for the home country. They can attract foreign investment, open new markets for Malawian products and services, and create a positive image of the country internationally, which can benefit various sectors of the economy. Strengthening International Influence: Being present at important international events allows a country’s leader to have a say in shaping the global agenda and representing their nation’s interests on the world stage. This can enhance Malawi’s influence and visibility in international affairs,” he explained.

Mwakasungula further stated that any president’s participation in international events demonstrates solidarity and support for fellow nations in times of transition or celebration, such as a presidential inauguration. It can strengthen bonds of friendship and cooperation among nations.

He said it is therefore important to note that international trips by the president can have great benefits to our country and must be planned to ensure they align with the nation’s priorities.

President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has donated 400 bags of maize and other food supplies to the newly renamed John Chilembwe Hospital in Phalombe.

Chakwera made the donation on his tour of the hospital a few days after he directed the change of the name from Phalombe District Hospital to John Chilembwe Hospital.

The President said he had decided to rename the health facility after the martyred freedom fighter, Reverend John Chilembwe, who was gunned to death on 3 February 1915.

Chakwera said the donated food supplies are aimed at easing the pressure the hospital faces to feed the patients.

He said his government remains committed to improving the welfare of both health workers as well as patients.

This afternoon, President Chakwera will preside over the installation of Senior Chief Kaduya of Phalombe to the rank of Paramount Chief.

Kaduya succeeds departed Paramount Chief Ngolongoliwa of Thyolo district.

National Aids Commission (NAC) has disclosed that it is taking deliberate stronger measures to increase acceptance and uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in an effort to control further spread of HIV in Malawi.

This follows observations made at Area 25 Health Centre in Lilongwe, during a site visit by the NAC Board of Commissioners and executive management. 

PrEP is a medicine that reduces people’s chances of getting HIV from high risk behaviours such as  sex with an HIV infected partner or with multiple partners.  Evidence shows that when taken faithfully as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV.

But speaking during the site visit, the NAC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Beatrice Matanje, was dismayed with the low number of people that are retained on the oral PrEP  after initiation. 

Matanje said, her organization plans to engage the Ministry of Health, through the Department of HIV, STIs and Viral Hepatitis, into a discussion on how best they can integrate PrEP into the routine healthcare system and mitigate the challenge of low retention.

“Our mandate as the NAC is to provide leadership,  as well as coordination of the national response to HIV and AIDS,  but we do this through various implementing partners and stakeholders. So because PrEP is a biomedical intervention, we will engage with the Ministry of Health through the DHA where we are going to present the policy related issues that we have observed here” she said.

“For example, if within the policy and guidelines, there is no allowance for follow-up of those that have missed appointments or that have defaulted from taking subsequent doses of PrEP, then you’ll find that the implementers on the ground are hand tied to act, yet those people might still be at risk of getting the HIV infection. We know that with injectable PrEP coming up, this will have an implication on resistance. If people go on and off of the medication while still at risk, they will end up increasing the chances of development of resistance to these medications.

“So, since the follow up or tracking guideline is something that a facility cannot change on their own, we need to talk with all the relevant experts (through Prevention Technical Working Group) in order to allow some active follow up of those that have started taking PrEP and to see that they continue if their risk is still significant,” she added.

But Matanje was quick to point out that there has been a significant increase in the PrEP uptake, saying data at the national level show positive results on trends of PrEP coverage.

In a separate interview, NAC Board Chairperson Chipo Kanjo said the main purpose of the visit to the clinics was to appreciate how PrEP program was being implemented on the ground.

Kanjo said the board was impressed with the strides health facilities are making in providing the medicines.

In his presentation, an officer from Partners in Hope, an HIV implementating Partner that supports Area 25 Health Centre with funding from USAID, Frank Nanga, highlighted retention as a huge problem in PrEP administration, with other issues being seasonal variations of people accessing PrEP due to variations in market seasons around the facility, misconception that once one PrEP course (30 tablets) is taken, lifetime protection is acquired and limited space at the facility.

Nanga also bemoaned inadequate trained providers and workload, stressing the need for authorities to address the gaps in order to improve the uptake.

Malawians have yet another reason for celebrating and rejoicing following the decision by the Executive Directors of the International Development Association (IDA) to approve a grant of US$240 million to the Republic of Malawi.

The Executive Directors approved the grant on December 20, 2023, according to the communication from the World Bank.

The communication says the grant will go towards the Regional Climate Resilience Program.

“We look forward to an early signing of the Financing Agreement,” reads a brief communication from the World Bank addressed to the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Simplex Chithyola Banda.

The grant comes barely weeks after the World Bank unlocked US$137m direct budgetary support to Malawi, a development that sent a strong message that it is satisfied with how the administration of President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is running the affairs of the country, especially on rescuing the country’s ailing economy.

In a statement announcing resumption of direct budgetary financing package, the Bank stressed that the Chakwera government “has demonstrated commitment to address macroeconomic imbalances, unsustainable debt, and longstanding structural and business environment constraints inhibiting private sector-led growth”.

“It is also taking robust steps to restore macroeconomic stability through addressing long-standing fiscal, monetary and external sector imbalances, as reflected in the new Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” reads the statement in part.

The World Bank budgetary support was stopped in 2017 following the massive plunder of government resources by the previous administration of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led by Arthur Peter Mutharika.

The World Bank said resumption of the support is meant to enhance fiscal sustainability and transparency while stimulating private sector-led growth and increase resilience to shocks.

The Bank further said the budgetary support will also help the country achieve economic growth.

“The World Bank applauds Malawi’s authorities for taking tough but necessary decisions to stabilize an acute macro-economic crisis. I am pleased the Bank is now able to respond with a substantial budget support operation that supports an ongoing program of reforms,” said Nathan Belete, the Bank’s Country Director for Malawi.

Belete said the Bank will continue to work closely with the authorities and all international partners to protect the poorest while pursuing a much needed economic turnaround.

“Together, we must ensure this operation marks a turning point in the country’s economic fortunes,” said the Country Director.

The budgetary support package, in the form of US$137 million Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat-DDO), consists of an immediate release of $80 million to support reforms and recovery and a US$57 million Cat-DDO that can be triggered in the event of a crisis.

President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is set to inspect taxpayer-funded development projects in Blantyre and Chikwawa districts on Wednesday (tomorrow).

Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba, in a communication issued on Tuesday, said Chakwera will start his inspection of the development projects at 8am.

The Malawi leader is currently in the Southern Region where he also presided over the commemoration of Reverend John Chilembwe Day at the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) in Chiradzuli on Tuesday.

Chilembwe is being honored for the contribution he made in the struggle for independence from the colonial rule.

President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has changed the name of Phalombe District Hospital to John Chilembwe Hospital honour of the martyred freedom fighter, Reverend John Chilembwe.

Chilembwe was a Western-educated Malawian missionary who led an uprising against the British rule in 1915 and is seen as a forerunner and martyr of Malaŵi nationalism.

He strongly preached against forced labour, which Malawians were subjected to by the white settlers.

He also preached the values of hard-work, self-respect and self-help to his congregation and, although as early as 1905, he used his church position to deplore the condition of Africans in the protectorate, he initially avoided specific criticism of the government that might be thought subversive.

However, by 1912 or 1913, Chilembwe had become more politically militant and openly voiced criticism over the state of African land rights in the Shire Hinglands and of the conditions of labour tenants there.

Speaking at the commemoration of the Reverend Chilembwe at the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) Church in Chiradzulu on Monday, President Chakwera said his government recognizes the role the fallen hero played fighting for the liberation of the natives.

He said the renaming of Phalombe District Hospital after John Chilembwe is therefore a sign of acknowledgement by the government of this role.

All-African Conference Sister to Sister (AAC:SS) – a group within the Roman Catholic Church – has asked the Government of Malawi to devise sustainable mechanisms for building resilience of the survivors of the cyclones.

AAC:SS supports the initiatives of women religious in sub-Saharan Africa that respond to emerging needs and educates and inspires all people to share responsibility for a world in need of healing and love.

The organization draws its membership from women religious and partners who collaborate globally to enhance their capacity as leaders in church and society and to improve the lives of others.

Recently, the group has been reaching out to Tropical Cyclone Freddy survivors in a number of ways, including provision of relief items and psychosocial support.

Speaking at the opening of an advocacy training in Lilongwe, AAC:SS Senior Programmes Officer, Sister Eneless Chimbali, said it was said that the needs of the survivors are still enormous, close to a year after the tropical storm hit Malawi.

“All-Africa Conference is working in the African continent connecting the countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, South Africa and Malawi. From what I’ve observed with our sisters here working on the ground, I think we’re doing badly, especially in the recovery process,” said Chimbali.

She further expressed disappointment with the slow pace at which the government and its partners are rebuilding damaged infrastructure.

“It’s sad that basic things such as roads are still the same way they were before the cyclone. We don’t have houses and there’s nothing much that has happened. So it’s very sad,” she said.

Chimbali appealed to the authorities in government to come out in the open if it does not have the resources so that the partners can complement its efforts by mobilizing the resources from their donors.

“As for us as sisters, we feel bad because they don’t come to our houses. Sometimes it’s very difficult for us to reach out to them. But it’s not enough because these people need to survive and they need to go back to their normal life and cannot continue these people. Other things that need to be done by the governing body to be solid, and if they don’t have medicine in the hospitals and they’re sick from consumption. We need something that the government cannot manage,” she narrated.

In her remarks, the Chairperson for the Association of Women Religious Institute in Malawi (AWRIM), Sister Agnes Jonas, said the training has been organized to equip stakeholders involved with advocacy skills to help them meaningfully engage the government and stakeholders towards reducing the plight of those affected.

“What we have discovered is that what we have done so far is not enough. And we want to believe that the government can do much more from where we live. So, we want our stakeholders to be advocates for the marginalized, for the poor, for the needy, they should be able to talk to the government and we make them aware how these people are suffering and what else they can do. We know that the government is done. We feel if not enough they should expend their energy, their resources, and the ideas to people who are still dying on the ground. So we want our sisters to advocate to speak on behalf of these people,” said Jonas.

Founder of Life International Church, Prophet Amos Kambale, has cautioned the Malawi Government against rejoicing when it receives direct budgetary support from the developed countries, arguing that aid cannot help in healing and growing the economy.

Kambale made the sentiments to a fully-packed Mbinzi Community Day Secondary School auditorium during the early hours of 1st January 2024.

“It’s high time we started getting more farm machinery for villagers and computers for youths in schools, minerals detection, extraction and purifying plants not cash only. No economy grows by receiving cash, NO! We need to spend money on sending prudent citizens to find out what is on high demand in foreign markets, secure the markets there, come back and produce the same products en masse for export,” he said.

The prophet further emphasized the need to invest money in fact-finding missions and willingness to implement what the country sees as workable, what is on demand outside the country and endeavor to produce for export.

“Ever since we have been getting cash, what have we benefited from except accumulating debts? It’s time to pause and reflect. Even within ourselves as individuals this is the way to develop. You look at what you can provide out there which people need and work toward supplying that,” observed Prophet Kambale.

He further taught that the congregants that the word economy comes from the latin word economia, which translates ‘the study of lack’.

He said this means people spend years studying lack instead of abundance, stating that this also explains why Malawians are broke as a nation and as individuals.

“We need to study abundance, because what one studies is what they become, quoting 2 Corinthians 3:18 what you behold is what you become. You become what you study. So all the years they study shortage and lack. Sad!”

“But do prophets know the economy? There is nothing God cannot do, but by the spirit. Remember in the bible the prophet declared tomorrow by this time, the economy will change in the nation of Samaria. Prices will not go up, they will go down and it will be in abundance (2 Kings 7:1). Normally, once prices have gone up, they don’t come down but by the declaration of a prophet, this abnormal thing happened – prices of commodities went down! Lack is not consistent with our God. Jesus said he came that we might have abundance of life not lack or minimum life,” he said.

Prophet Kambale declared 2024 as the year of Shining Stars, saying the people of God who will keep themselves holy, innovative, work hard, pray more will rise and shine despite the little improvements to the economy he sees.

The theme was taken from Philippians 2:15 by the International Standard version of the bible.

“You will not walk alone but you will be accompanied by the Holy Ghost throughout this year. Every year your problem is money, every month your problem is money, no. Stars up there in the sky don’t worry about money”. You will have enough blessings that you will not have room enough to contain them. 2024 is not a year, it is a land where you have arrived to possess your possessions, he declared quoting Deuteronomy 11:10-12,” he said.

During the service, Prophet Kambale healed the deaf, the crippled, the diabetic, in front of everyone, and he prophesied to several individuals, mentioning places, their challenges, names of relatives and so on. The power of God was visibly present. People were falling on each other without being touched and got delivered in the process.

Apart from claiming to have powers to heal any disease instantly, Kambale is an ardent teacher of the word of God who dissects the scriptures with clarity and through this, many lives are changing spiritually and economically.

During the crossover night, two men testified of buying cars, building self-contained mansions within the year against all odds despite all the nations’ economic woes through the teachings, grace and prophecies made by the man of God.

The prophet says God has given him strategies for people to shine in their spheres of influence in this dark world through the teaching he is going to deliver at Mbinzi CDSS Hall this coming Sunday morning. 

Prophet Amos Kambale says that he gets inspiration from Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa whom he highly regards as his spiritual father.

Spot interviews with people who travelled from many districts around the country to attend this red carpet event, showed that the attendees felt the event lived up to its billing.

Managing Director of Joyce Banda Foundation International (JBFI) Edith Akridge has paid examination fees for all needy students who were yet to pay by the close of deadline 12:00 midnight of Friday, January 12.

A total of 45 students expected to sit for the Junior Certificate of Examination (JCE) and Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) were likely to miss the examination for failure to pay for examination fees.

Akridge intervened to save the situation saying the students deserve better if we are to build a good foundation for social economic development of our country.

“Education is the key to our success as a country. When I heard that our JCE and MSCE students were to miss the deadline, I was so touched and felt obliged to do something, so we have paid and our officials at Joyce Banda Foundation are working with officials from the Ministry to make sure that all students from Zomba Malosa are able to sit for examinations regardless, ” said Akridge.

A total of K1,030,750 has been deposited into Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) examinations account for the 45 students from various schools in Zomba Malosa.

Following revelations that 29,817 candidates risked not sitting for Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) examinations this year over failure to pay examination fees, the examination body extended the fees payment period to midnight of January 12, 2024.