Zimbabwe's moment of madness

The hope, when dipped in the soup of desperation and anger, has the effect of giving people a false sense of accomplishment.
What else, if not hope for a 'better'life, could be fuelling the fury of Zimbabweans who have turned against themselves by destroying property and looting in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
This wave of demonstration is a self-defeating recipe for disaster.
If not because it will take months, and millions of dollars to redo what these demonstrations are undoing, it is because it is the regret that will surely come that will defeat Zimbabweans' sense of purpose.
Come to think of it, where on earth do people turn on a legitimately government to force it's leader out? The worst part is that the world, which has often called for respect for letimately-elected government, has decided to watch as a hot-blooded child turns on them self, burning their finger and stuff.
Let me put it this way. When Malawian visit Harare, they often regret that they 'chased' the colonial masters quicker than necessary. Harare is a city, real city, while Malawi's capital of Lilongwe has a tinge of a village.
And Malawian can't help but feel sad that,today, Zimbabweans are destroying what they did not construct: Harare!
The only thing, or, rather, being they constructed, namely Robert Mugabe, is not there to be destroyed.
Illegitimate lyrics that is.
My apologies but, today, I did not want to come out clear.
Deliberately.
The kind of deliberation the Zimbabweans have put into the act of destroying themselves.

Chichiri Shopping Mall: More Guarded Than Malawi's Airports, State Residences

They roam around in the background, sometimes in the open, but are always on call.
Whoever you want: plain-clothed police officers, intelligence officers, military personnel, ruling party sympathisers, Malawi Revenue Authority agents, and what have you.
Malawi's shopping complex at Chichiri in Blantyre is safer than the country's airports and, perhaps, state residences.
Try it. Drive a vehicle [heavy goods vehicles are not allowed entry, by the way] with a foreign number plate into the open parking yard and, soon, you will be swarmed by officers and agents from Malawi's tax collecting body resking for this or that document. I have seen unsuspecting drivers being forced into vehicles with tinted glasses where, some of those who have been approached claim, they are made to pay something.
If the truth be told, Tips Anonymous initiatives, run by auditing who make a financial killing, have become the in-thing in Malawi. In fact, we have seen some of the biggest customers for the auditing firms, most notably parastatals such the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, Blantyre Water Board, Lilongwe Water Board, pay out millions of Malawi Kwacha through Tips Anonymous.
Surprise! Surprise! One of the hunting grounds for those wishing to make quick bucks is the shopping complex at Chichiri Shopping Centre in Blantyre. Here is a hub, innocent as it appears, oiling the engine of tax collection, law enforcement, intelligence and counter-intelligence in Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre.
The unemployed, especially those who are clever, have found a way of making money at the expense of others.
So, it turns out, the Chichiri Shopping Centre [they prefer calling it a Complex] is probably one of the safest places in Malawi.
No wonder, it is not often, if ever, that you will hear of car robberies, car-jacking at the Complex. Criminal elements know how safe the place it, because, at any point in time, except from 9 pm to 08:00 am, the place is I filtrated by state agents of all kind, each of them doing their job unobserved. They watch over the 'world', for the world gathers at Chichiri Shopping Mall everyday. Maybe except on Sunday from 2 pm, as the place takes the shape of a museum during the school holidays, or a graveyard of a wife cleanser: deserted, isolated and forgotten.
Just that this condition does not last long.
Over the past three years, state agents have arrested 62 people, all of these suspected of doing one thing or another. Suspected car-jackers, unaware that the place is safer than Malawi's ramshackle airports, have been nabbed.
Those who have stolen vehicles elsewhere have been nabbed there.
But corruption is also commonplace. Those with fake foreign number plates get away with a slap after paying K20, 000. Those who are caught with vehicles that got into the country without following procedures are made to 'cough' K20, 000 and they take the vehicle back home, more free to do whatever they want to do with it than ever before.
No wonder, out-going British Ambassador to Malawi, Michael Nevin, said it loudly last week: "Corruption is getting worse in Malawi". By worse, he means the cases are on the arise.
They are.
But equally escalating are security measures being put in place. Go to Chichiri Shopping Centre.
So, the next time you go shopping and bump into some familiar, and often unfamiliar faces, do not be quick to smile: They are there for a purpose.
Often, only them know what the purpose is.
Please note that figures on thwarted criminal activities at Chichiri Shopping Centre have been obtained from Southern Region Police headquarters.

As Justice Maxon Mbendera Turns Ancestor

It has been a hard, tearful 12 years to the point when Malawi, an orphan of virtue, has lost Justice Maxon Mbendera.
The Surpreme Court of Appeal Justice becomes the third high-profile official to die suddenly while on duty.
And, coincidentally, the high-profile officials who have left Malawi in that sad-like manner belong to the three branches of the government: The Legislature, The Executive and The Judiciary.
This trend, this sad trend, started during for president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika' first term in office.
When Bingu unceremoniously, but unsurprisingly, dished the United Democratic Front, his sponsoring political party, on February 5 2005, the former ruling UDF ganged up with the Malawi Congress Party to make his life politically difficult and unbearable.
And, there, rose Rodwell Munyenyembe, a man more national than regional, to bring sanity in the politically-poisoned atmosphere.
Munyenyembe, who went to Parliament as an opposition member of Parliament, put national interests before everything else and, for years, was Malawi's only sober member of Parliament.
One day, he bathed, had breakfast and was driven to the House of Chaos, Parliament, not knowing that that would be the last time he would be having breakfast at home. The last time he would be Malawian.
He ceased to be Malawian because death is a global moment.
He collapsed in the act of trying to bring peace between jostling parties in Parliament and never attempted to bring peace again. The shame and sadness that engulfed Parliamentary chambers became the reference point to what chaos to do.
A Speaker of Parliament had died in the Parliamentary chamber.
Malawian have never recovered from that loss. For Munyenyembe was a rare breed of politician. The shame of being Malawian is that people forget fast.
That time, there was talk to equip our health facilities well. At least so that they can help us resuscitate those who suffer from heart attacks.
Nobody cares.
And Munyenyembe went. Sadly.
And was quickly forgotten. By those who quickened his death and those who did not.
The Judiciary had lost a dedicated officer. Malawi was one wise man down.
Up next would be Bingu wa Mutharika.
That fateful April 5 2012, Bingu the hard worker set out to work.
His day was well mapped out by those responsible for drawing up the president's daily routine. And death was not on that map. And death was not part of that routine that day.
But came it did, death. And took Bingu with it.
Bingu had been busy talking to one of his members of the Cabinet.
And, then, he collapsed. Or so we were told. And we are still told.
His heart had failed and it could not be resuscitated there and then because the equipment was far aware.
When they took Bingu to the hospital, he was no longer the president. Have was a corpse.
Talk bordering on the necessity of buying the necessary equipment resurfaced.
Malawi had lost the head of state and government.
Today, under similar circumstances, Malawi lost Justice Mbendera on Thursday.
In the course of duty, as he prepared to go home that evening, he just collapsed and his home is the grave.
It is sad. The Judiciary has lost its own.
Malawi has lost a silent giant.
It can be said that, between May 30 and June 1, 2014-- when Malawian went to the polls, and the results because a ball tossed left and right in court-- Justice Maxon Mbendera, as Electoral Commission chairperson, and Justice Kenya that Nyirenda were about the only men who were sober in Malawi.
The rest were intoxicated with feelings of either loss or victory.
It was either this type of extreme anger or happiness.
Today, it is sadness that dominates.
Justice Maxon Mbendera, the former SCOM chairperson at Chancellor College, calm and ensuring a man, waits for us on the other side of veil.
Reminding us that we need to take this talk about heart resuscitation machines seriously.
As he lies peacefully, but dead anyway.
A man who died before the nation could have enough of him. A man who measured his words against his values before speaking them out to be measured but other men, and women.
Justice Maxon Mbendera is our ancestor now.

As Justice Maxon Mbendera Turns Ancestor

It has been a hard, tearful 12 years to the point when Malawi, an orphan of virtue, has lost Justice Maxon Mbendera.
The Surpreme Court of Appeal Justice becomes the third high-profile official to die suddenly while on duty.
And, coincidentally, the high-profile officials who have left Malawi in that sad-like manner belong to the three branches of the government: The Legislature, The Executive and The Judiciary.
This trend, this sad trend, started during for president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika' first term in office.
When Bingu unceremoniously, but unsurprisingly, dished the United Democratic Front, his sponsoring political party, on February 5 2005, the former ruling UDF ganged up with the Malawi Congress Party to make his life politically difficult and unbearable.
And, there, rose Rodwell Munyenyembe, a man more national than regional, to bring sanity in the politically-poisoned atmosphere.
Munyenyembe, who went to Parliament as an opposition member of Parliament, put national interests before everything else and, for years, was Malawi's only sober member of Parliament.
One day, he bathed, had breakfast and was driven to the House of Chaos, Parliament, not knowing that that would be the last time he would be having breakfast at home. The last time he would be Malawian.
He ceased to be Malawian because death is a global moment.
He collapsed in the act of trying to bring peace between jostling parties in Parliament and never attempted to bring peace again. The shame and sadness that engulfed Parliamentary chambers became the reference point to what chaos to do.
A Speaker of Parliament had died in the Parliamentary chamber.
Malawian have never recovered from that loss. For Munyenyembe was a rare breed of politician. The shame of being Malawian is that people forget fast.
That time, there was talk to equip our health facilities well. At least so that they can help us resuscitate those who suffer from heart attacks.
Nobody cares.
And Munyenyembe went. Sadly.
And was quickly forgotten. By those who quickened his death and those who did not.
The Judiciary had lost a dedicated officer. Malawi was one wise man down.
Up next would be Bingu wa Mutharika.
That fateful April 5 2012, Bingu the hard worker set out to work.
His day was well mapped out by those responsible for drawing up the president's daily routine. And death was not on that map. And death was not part of that routine that day.
But came it did, death. And took Bingu with it.
Bingu had been busy talking to one of his members of the Cabinet.
And, then, he collapsed. Or so we were told. And we are still told.
His heart had failed and it could not be resuscitated there and then because the equipment was far aware.
When they took Bingu to the hospital, he was no longer the president. Have was a corpse.
Talk bordering on the necessity of buying the necessary equipment resurfaced.
Malawi had lost the head of state and government.
Today, under similar circumstances, Malawi lost Justice Mbendera on Thursday.
In the course of duty, as he prepared to go home that evening, he just collapsed and his home is the grave.
It is sad. The Judiciary has lost its own.
Malawi has lost a silent giant.
It can be said that, between May 30 and June 1, 2014-- when Malawian went to the polls, and the results because a ball tossed left and right in court-- Justice Maxon Mbendera, as Electoral Commission chairperson, and Justice Kenya that Nyirenda were about the only men who were sober in Malawi.
The rest were intoxicated with feelings of either loss or victory.
It was either this type of extreme anger or happiness.
Today, it is sadness that dominates.
Justice Maxon Mbendera, the former SCOM chairperson at Chancellor College, calm and ensuring a man, waits for us on the other side of veil.
Reminding us that we need to take this talk about heart resuscitation machines seriously.
As he lies peacefully, but dead anyway.
A man who died before the nation could have enough of him. A man who measured his words against his values before speaking them out to be measured but other men, and women.
Justice Maxon Mbendera is our ancestor now.

As Justice Maxon Mbendera Turns Ancestor

It has been a hard, tearful 12 years to the point when Malawi, an orphan of virtue, has lost Justice Maxon Mbendera.
The Surpreme Court of Appleal Justice becomes the third high-profile official to die suddenly while on duty.
And, coincidentally, the high-profile officials who have left Malawi in that sad-like manner belong to the three branches of the government: The Legislature, The Executive and The Judiciary.
This trend, this sad trend, started during for president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika' first term in office.
When Bingu unceremoniously, but unsurprisingly, dished the United Democratic Front, his sponsoring political party, on February 5 2005, the former ruling UDF ganged up with the Malawi Congress Party to make his life politically difficult and unbearable.
And, there, rose Rodwell Munyenyembe, a man more national than regional, to bring sanity in the politically-poisoned atmosphere.
Munyenyembe, who went to Parliament as an opposition member of Parliament, put national interests before everything else and, for years, was Malawi's only sober member of Parliament.
One day, he bathed, had breakfast and was driven to the House of Chaos, Parliament, not knowing that that would be the last time he would be having breakfast at home. The last time he would be Malawian.
He ceased to be Malawian because death is a global moment.
He collapsed in the act of trying to bring peace between jostling parties in Parliament and never attempted to bring peace again. The shame and sadness that engulfed Parliamentary chambers became the reference point to what chaos to do.
A Speaker of Parliament had died in the Parliamentary chamber.
Malawian have never recovered from that loss. For Munyenyembe was a rare breed of politician. The shame of being Malawian is that people forget fast.
That time, there was talk to equip our health facilities well. At least so that they can help us resuscitate those who suffer from heart attacks.
Nobody cares.
And Munyenyembe went. Sadly.
And was quickly forgotten. By those who quickened his death and those who did not.
The Judiciary had lost a dedicated officer. Malawi was one wise man down.
Up next would be Bingu wa Mutharika.
That fateful April 5 2012, Bingu the hard worker set out to work.
His day was well mapped out by those responsible for drawing up the president's daily routine. And death was not on that map. And death was not part of that routine that day.
But came it did, death. And took Bingu with it.
Bingu had been busy talking to one of his members of the Cabinet.
And, then, he collapsed. Or so we were told. And we are still told.
His heart had failed and it could not be resuscitated there and then because the equipment was far aware.
When they took Bingu to the hospital, he was no longer the president. Have was a corpse.
Talk bordering on the necessity of buying the necessary equipment resurfaced.
Malawi had lost the head of state and government.
Today, under similar circumstances, Malawi lost Justice Mbendera on Thursday.
In the course of duty, as he prepared to go home that evening, he just collapsed and his home is the grave.
It is sad. The Judiciary has lost its own.
Malawi has lost a silent giant.
It can be said that, between May 30 and June 1, 2014-- when Malawian went to the polls, and the results because a ball tossed left and right in court-- Justice Maxon Mbendera, as Electoral Commission chairperson, and Justice Kenya that Nyirenda were about the only men who were sober in Malawi.
The rest were intoxicated with feelings of either loss or victory.
It was either this type of extreme anger or happiness.
Today, it is sadness that dominates.
Justice Maxon Mbendera, the former SCOM chairperson at Chancellor College, calm and ensuring a man, waits for us on the other side of veil.
Reminding us that we need to take this talk about heart resuscitation machines seriously.
As he lies peacefully, but dead anyway.
A man who died before the nation could have enough of him. A man who measured his words against his values before speaking them out to be measured but other men, and women.
Justice Maxon Mbendera is our ancestor now.

Telecommunications' sector cheating Malawians on 'Spy machine'

For sometime, Malawians have been hoodwinked into believing that the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) is up to something bad.
And the victim of the Macra's act, we have been made to believe, is the individual citizen.
That individual citizens have come to believe this version is testimony of how powerful telecommunications companies are in Malawi.
Nobody knows where the issue of Macra planning to spy on Malawians using the 'spy machines', as opponents call Macra's revenue analysis machine, came from, but it must be from some public relations people.
The truth, though, is that Malawi needs the so-called spy machine because, as things stand, nobody, not even Macra, knows how much telecommunications companies generate a year.
Malawi relies onion formation from these companies, actually, and that is a bad way of operating because you cannot ask a cow you are about to milk whether it is ready for milking.
It will surely tell you it has malaria!
But, then, the fact that Malawians quickly believed the telecommunications sector players means they -- Malawians-- do not trust Macra.
It is up to Macra to work on this!
Otherwise, the revenue arising out of taxes milked out of telecommunications companies may go a long way in lifting Malawi out of the pit of poverty.
At least if the money is used for the intended purpose!

Has The President Lost His Influence?

President Peter Mutharika must be a man who does not follow up on his own words.
What happened to the meaning of "immediate" or, by extension, 'effectively'?
The President, the other day other than this day [and that must be two weeks ago], ordered that Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, be opened "immediately". This was after representatives of the students, met with Mutharika as one way of ironing out differences arising out of the University Council's decision to hike fees by over 100 percent for generic students, and 200 percent for mature entry students, depending on college.
Days down the line, the generic students are not back on campus at Chancellor College. So, instead of being on campus effective the presidential order, they are effectively sliding down the academic calendar.
Time without number, it has been opined that the University of Malawi is one of the most unpredictable universities in Africa.
Come to think of it. Two years after Malawi attained democracy in 1994, University of Malawi lecturers went on strike. They wanted a pay hike.
That disagreement stretched for months, leaving students academically stranded.
From then, it has been one disruption after another, until things went haywire under former president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika's administration. The year was 2011.
One innocent lecturer gave the example of the Arab Uprising as an example of people power and all hell broke loose because one Malawi Police Officer student in that class informed his boss, then Inspector General of Police, Peter Mukhito.
As they say, the rest is history. University of Malawi constituent colleges went eleven months without students, lecturers doing what they know best; and without hope!
The incumbent president was Minister of Education then. Instead of attending to the issues at hand, he flew to the United States of America for holidaying, hoping that the problems would sort themselves out.
This time, he has given an order for Chancellor College to be opened. Students at the College of Medicine are on holiday. And, so, are those from The Polytechnic.
But Chancellor College students are supposed to be on campus.
And are not.
'Immediacy' delayed and nobody understands why.
Back to Square One, perhaps.

Wait and Wait: Justice the Malawi Way

There is something disturbing about the court system in Malawi. This is delays to come to the logical end of court cases.

And the cost, emotional and otherwise, is high on those subjected to this unfair treatment.

Come to think of it, Mark Peterson Kapwepwe, from Namanolo in Liwonde, Machinga District, has been in and out of the courtroom in Ntcheu for the past 27 years. His crime?

Causing malicious damage to property belonging to a neighbour.

And here is what happened.

On February 3, 1989, Kapwepwe, now 54, discovered that his first-born daughter was pregnant.The daughter [name withheld] was 18 years old when this incident happened.

Kapwepwe, who learned about the pregnancy-incident from his wife, referred the issue to village elders. The elders advised him to ask the daughter about the identity of the man who did the 'damage'.

Well, it turned out that it was Kapwepwe's neighbour.

However, the neighbour was not home. In fact, he had left Malawi to work in the mines in South Africa four weeks before Kapwepwe discovered that his daughter was pregnant. The man, said to be in his 30s at the time, had no wife and children. So, he travelled to the village, negotiated with his relatives on the need to allow him take one of the relatives in the village to watch over the house while he was away.

That is how a relative came to live in the house while the man was in South Africa.

Kapwepwe was infuriated when he learned that the man's return date was unknown.

Thus, infuriated, he broke into the house of the man responsible for Kapwepwe's pregnancy and smashed everything he could lay his hands on. The relative was there, overpowered and helpless.

It is the relative who reported to police and was nabbed. He started going to court in his district, before his wife died a year later. He found another wife from Ntcheu, and relocated to Ntcheu.

It's now clear what happened, but the case was transferred to Ntcheu. Two months later, he was back in court. Then, according to him, the files went missing.

He was ordered to be reporting to Ntcheu Police every fortnight until last year when he was told by one of the officers at Ntcheu Police that he should consider the case dropped. This, according to Kapwepwe, is because the man related to the man who impregnated Kapwepwe's daughter died in January last year.

Kapwepwe is having none of it.

"I want justice to be done. As far as I am concerned, I am still on trial. I want documented evidence showing that the case has been discontinued and I will sue the state," he said yesterday.

Zachimalawi would like to say: work on the system. Make it quick, I mean, justice. And less painful, if need be.

Malawi Government Shaming Itself on Hapless Eric Aniva

The Government of Malawi has been behaving like an African elephant that falls on a hapless grasshopper.

Look, the way it has treated Nsanje man Eric Aniva is, to say the least, heartless.

Even the Nsanje Magistrate Court should be ashamed of itself. How could it deny Aniva his right to bail? People have committed serious offences in this country and received court bail.

Why should Innocent Aniva be incarcerated for days on end, as if he went about raping and defiling women? The truth is that the man was paid to do whatever he did.

President Peter Mutharika acted out of emotions when he ordered that Aniva be arrested. He is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, yes; but he should not abuse his powers.

Just imagine, what would stop him from ordering the arrest of political opponents? The truth is that the President has set a very bad precedent and Malawians should not condone that.

I am, therefore, glad that, sensing danger, and that some people want to gain political mileage out of the hapless Aniva, the Malawi Law Society has come forward to represent him.

Yes, Malawi Law Society President, John Suzi Banda, has confirmed on Friday that the society has stepped in because, like any other citizen, Aniva has a right to a fair trail. Bravo the Malawi Law Society.

To say the truth, the Malawi Law Society has come in to challenge Mutharika's decision to order the arrest of innocent people, or those deemed to have 'wronged' the law.

The President may one day order the arrest of people who have done nothing wrong, save for differing with him on some issues, and we will have no moral justification to condemn the president.

Come to think of it, Aniva is HIV+. And, come to think of it, he is being peddled like a chicken for sale. And that is bad.

Who infected Aniva? It's definitely the women because, when you are a hyena, you do it without putting the rubber on.

And Hyena practice involves adults.

Is Aniva taking his ARVs now? The prison conditions in Malawi are horrible and it is a shame that the United Nations commended the continued incarceration of Aniva of these flimsy grounds.

Shame to human rights!

BRAVO, MR PRESIDENT!

For immediate release

August 5, 2016



Ministry of Information, Communication

Technology and Civic Education

Private Bag 310

Capital City

Lilongwe 3

Malawi

Tel: +265111770311

Fax: +265111774568



BRAVO, MR PRESIDENT!



Government wishes to thank the State President His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika for being a listening leader and arriving at a compromise with the University of Malawi students over fees.

We are proud that Malawi has a true democrat under whose leadership citizens are free to express themselves, including through demonstrations.

Government also wishes to commend the members of the Malawi Police Service who were in action yesterday for demonstrating yet again that we have a professional police service that has undertaken to respect the right of the people to demonstrate.

This is the kind of police service that His Excellency the President would like to see.

We also wish to thank Malawians for showing organisers of the demonstrations that they missed the point. The numbers were miserable because Malawians understand that any concerns need to be resolved by dialogue, and not politicising everything by going to the streets.

Government is aware that the organisers of the miserable demonstrations wanted to use University fees as an excuse to pursue a desperate agenda of mobilising a national political revolt. This has not worked. The movement has collapsed because Malawians are reasonable.

Listening to the sentiments of the organisers, their issues are scattered and they do not make sense. These are political machinations that wanted to chance a ride on the back of innocent University students. They have failed. Thank you the people of Malawi for rejecting blackmail.

As Government, we would like to ask any Malawian with concerns to present a credible agenda and we will attend to it.





PATRICIA A. KALIATI MP

GOVERNMENT SPOKERPERSON &

MINISTER OF INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC EDUCATION



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