MALAWI KWACHA DEVALUED

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (the Bank) has today 7 May 2012 devalued the Malawi kwacha exchange rate from K168 to K250 per United States dollar. At K250 per dollar the Kwacha exchange rate is fully adjusted. The Bank believes that the black market rate must be substantially undervalued given the extent of the scarcity of foreign exchange.

In anticipation of this devaluation, the Bank has taken steps aimed at allowing the Kwacha exchange rate to be determined by market forces as well as improving the availability of foreign exchange in the market. In this respect, all United States dollars earned at the tobacco auction floors will now be transferred to the sellers’ commercial banks rather than to the Bank. Second, tourists can now settle their local bills in any convertible foreign currency or in Malawi kwacha after selling foreign exchange in the market.

The devaluation of the Kwacha and the liberalisation of foreign exchange market are expected to contribute to government’s efforts to reach early agreement with the IMF. Such an agreement is needed to unlock donor flows in the next few months.  The currency adjustment is further expected to have the effect of reducing demand for imports of consumer goods in favour of domestically produced goods.

Existing exporters, including sellers of tobacco at the auction floors, are expected to benefit from the devaluation through increased Kwacha earnings. Furthermore, the smuggling of products (including tobacco) across the borders is likely to be reduced as a result of the devaluation.

The impact of the devaluation on general prices is anticipated to be muted because most prices already reflected the black market rate at which most suppliers have been sourcing foreign exchanges for quite a while.

Admittedly, the devaluation should have awaited the clearance of external payments arrears to avoid adverse impacts on the corporate sector. However, this was not possible as efforts to source foreign exchange for the purpose were unsuccessful.

Finally, in spite of the devaluation, the Bank remains committed to its overarching objective of price stability in the medium to long term.

Charles S.R. Chuka

GOVERNOR

7 MAY 2012

Leave Omar al Bashir Alone

Against the cold tide of normalcy in Malawi, warm drops of water fall from the Horn of Africa.
The warm drops come with news. The news that Sudanese president, Omar al Bashir, is coming to the Warm Heart of Africa to attend an African Union meeting.
Somewhere very far away, in a country tucked between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania, Joyce Banda, the woman who must ride her luck for ascending to the highest office in the land- in the process becoming the first woman president in Malawi and Southern Africa- shakes in the knees.
Al Bashir is bad news. To Joyce Banda.
He will take all the donors away.
He will push all the development partners far away from the warm-hearted people of Malawi. He will suck all the forex dry.
That is Joyce Banda, a lady swimming in good will. That will has become a common currency. Celebrated by both locals and the international community.
But what Joyce Banda believes in is not the truth.
The truth is that al Bashir is not breaking any African Union law or statute or instrument by coming to Malawi.
He will come to Malawi to represent his people. The Sudanese people.
Sudanese people are African people.
Why is the West crying? Why heap their sorrows and disenfranchisement on Malawi?
Don't they cl;aim to be advanced?
Why can't they arrest al Bashir in the air. Intercepting his plane and arresting him.
That will leave Malawi free of blame.
But the West can't. They want a bait. They want an excuse.
A head of state worth their salt should be able to stand against such bullying behaviour and say- as former Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika used to say-: "Go to hell; I repeat, you donors can go to hell"!
But nobody went to hell. It's the forex that dried.
Does foreign exchange go to hell when it dries? No.
So, let al Bashir come here.
Let the African Union, and not Malawi, stop him if it wants.
After all, the International Criminal Court has no country, no economy, no national currency, no people, and no hope.
In addition, one of its backers- the United States of America- does not abide by its recommendations. In fact, no U.S. citizen will ever go to the Hague.
Why plague developing countries with the budden of arresting another country's head of state?
If the truth be told, the African people should be respected, and not taken for pawns.
Allowing al Bashir in Malawi is a statement. (A statement that) 'African people must be respected'!

Joyce Banda: A President Afraid!

April 7, 2012 is not such a long time.
May 5 (today) is hardly a month since President Joyce Banda accidentally became Malawi's forth President after independence. Her ascendancy, sadly, came about because of death. That is death; always unexpected.
While performing his official duties in his New State House office in Lilongwe, President Bingu wa Mutharika suddenly collapsed.
The nature of the collapse, as Malawi has come to learn, was such that he would never stand again from the carpet he fell onto.
In his collapse, an important chapter in the history of Malawi has fallen.
And another risen.
The rising chapter came with the face of a woman.
Down, on the floors of the New State House, fell the President; up rose a woman. Joyce Banda. That is the name.
This woman, it seems, has inherited fears that have plagued the presidency in Malawi since 1994. It is the fear of nothing.
It started before the turn of multiparty democracy in 1994. People could be arrested on imaginary treason charges. Justice would, then, be dispersed through the infamous traditional courts.
Many a citizen lost their lives to imaginary cases. They will, having fallen  in our moment of political madness, never rise again to defend themselves.
But people said it was a one party regime. That the rulers could be excused.
That, because that is what was happening all over Africa (that most countries had one party regimes, partly fueled by the cold war), those leaders could be excused.
Malawians excused them.
Then the democracy in 1994, bearing the face of Bakili Muluzi.
Muluzi started well.
Then went down the wire in governance.
People like Sudi Sulaimana were arrested on trumped up treason charges.
Government lost millions in compensation.
Then, after Muluzi, came Bingu wa Mutharika.
As usual, he started very well.
During his first term, from 2004 to 2009, the economy improved, agriculture output peaked.
Then, he went towards the same dark path taken by Muluzi. He started arresting people on trumped up treason charges.
The like of Former Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha, politicians such as Alfred Mwechumu and Harry Thomsom.
Others were steal answering to treason charges on April 5, the day that will go down in history as the time Malawi lost a sitting president to death.
After April 5, Malawi has known only one woman as president. Joyce Banda.
This woman started well, with a speech that sent showers of good will across the nation.
But now, Joyce Banda is already losing the key. She has been caught by the fear of imaginary enemies.
She is taking the same path of 'creating' treason charges as if all the themes in creative arts are exhausted.
Joyce Banda, the so-called God-fearing woman, now wants to persecute former Information Minister Patricia Kaliati, former Youth and Welfare Minister Symon Vuwa-Kaunda, former Local Government Minister Henry Mussa, former health Minister Jean Kalilani, former Deputy Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet Nicholas Dausi, and former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa for addressing a late-night briefing at Television Malawi offices telling the Malawi nation that Joyce Banda couldn't take over power from the fallen Mutharika because she had formed her own People's Party.
It should have been better to let bygones be bygones. It would have been wise to stop this chain of treason charges.
But Joyce Banda is already corrupted by power. No, it is because she is afraid; afraid of nothing but her own shadows. She wants to consolidate her power by riding on the back of the good will from people who, just yesterday, ganged up to kill the local economy.
Surely, with the forks in two, Banda is in bad company.
She is being ill-advised.
Bad riddance.  

Joyce Banda Rouses Ecstacy, Excitement in Zomba

This point in President Joyce Banda’s life could, probably, have been entranced by visions, images, and dreams that connected her to this new-found destiny.

After all, these aspects of life have become some of the natural ways of coming into touch with new regions of oneself, and discovering revealing connections with the future.

While it may sound strange for the people of Zomba, President Banda's home district- especially those from Traditional Authority Malemia- to claim that they shared similar visions, images, and dreams with the daughter of their own soil just two months ago, it would be equally baffling if these people did not now share something in common with her: joy and happiness.

This (joy) is what we found in abundance when we visited Zomba on Friday in our quest to ‘catch’ the people's feelings on the ascendancy of Banda to the highest office in the land.

Crown hopes

Group Village Headman Kapwepwe, one of the traditional leaders who stood with Banda during her trying times, talks about how the President’s days after being booted out of the Democratic Progressive Party were just this huge battle of who could get the most favours from government among chiefs, because there was so little faith Banda could one day rise.

“Some of us suffered a lot because people were associating us with her when she formed her own party. Just imagine that I have never been given the cloak given to chiefs simply because I was deemed anti-government. Government officials also reduced the number of coupons I am entitled to from 296 in 2010/11 agriculture season to 41 this year. All this was happening because I knew that, with her heart, she would get to the high office of President one day,” Kapwepwe says.

All this happened to him because of the interview he granted to reporters from Joy Fm. This was after the late Senior Chief Chikowi had told public media that all the people of Zomba were supporting DPP’s Peter Mutharika’s presidential ambitions.

“I said ‘No’; that is not true. There are people here who support Banda. And they started victimising me,” Kapwepwe said.

 Among other things,  Kapwepwe said Banda has done a lot for the people, and points to Mafufuni mosque, a borehole at the mosque, revolving fund initiatives and agriculture schemes, the distribution of cellphones, and the provision of fertiliser coupons bought with her money to chiefs every year as some of the notable achievements.

“She also opened a free secondary school called Msigalira Joyce Banda Foundation where students learn for free, receive free school uniforms and food. She is a caring woman who wants people to be educated and find what they need in life,” Kapwepwe adds.

Ordinary hopes

For Laikia Kusinyala, 36, Banda’s position is nothing more than a mark of hope.

She expects her to drill more boreholes, apart from one she drilled at Mafufuni Mosque, construct feeder roads for cassava farmers, and improve the status of women.

“We also need improvements in the education sector. Our children, especially small ones, travel long distances to go to Nyani Pamtondo Primary. I also hope that the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme will continue,” Kusinyala said.

She spoke as if she had read the mind of Paulo Salim, a 31-year-old we found a kilometre away. Salim, like Kusinyala, was happy that a daughter of Zomba had become the Malawi leader.

Salim said people knew Banda as a hardworker, pointing at development projects she introduced as Member of Parliament for Zomba-Malosa.

“We have benefitted a lot from her sanitation, education, and health initiatives. In fact, Msigalira Health Centre will be opened before the end of 2012, and we hope that this will reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates,” Salim said.

He asked the President to promote rural electrification, and make sure that “those who live in darkness are connected to the national electricity grid”.

Blood is thicker than water

Banda is so many things to so many people. President, business woman, gender rights activist, Southern Africa’s first woman president, the list goes on. To Vera Malamusi, 29, the president is her aunt.

“She has been like a mother to me: Caring, loving, concerned, and helpful. She has always helped me in so many ways; she is educating my son, who is doing Form 2 at Msigalira Joyce Banda Foundation.  Without that chance, my son would have dropped out of school by now. We also have many other people who have benefitted from her charitable works,” Malamusi said.

You would think that, being niece to the First Citizen, Malamusi will be among the chosen few to benefit from Banda. She says ‘No’; Banda is different, she cares for all.

“What surprises me about President Banda is that, often, she helps people who are not related to her first, before shifting her attention to relatives who are in need of help. This only shows that she doesn’t practice favouritism, and treats all people equally,” Malamusi added.

These, workers at the President’s Domasi home said, Malamusi’s speeches are punctuated by smiles. She could be so overwhelmed with her Aunt’s rise to prominence

She pays in time!

MacLoud Nyamuka, 28, has been working for Banda since 2004. He talks of her as an honest employer.

“She has never delayed my salary. Actually, I am paid by the 21^st or 22^nd of every month, which only shows what a virtuous woman she is.  Nyamuka said.

He did not end there; he asked to excuse himself.

“Please, allow me to speak as a Malawian, and not her worker now. So, I will not be speaking as her worker when I say she is a caring individual. She treats all people equally. The one thing about her is that she is a philanthropist, who values human life and dignity,” he said.

All this, Nyamuka feels, is a foundation she has built for herself; one that will help her solve Malawi’s challenges.

The nature of women

Maulana Fulaide, 54, is so happy that, finally, a female President is in charge.

“Women are, by nature, caring individuals who listen to people’s concerns. That is why she has been able to respond to the socio-economic problems facing Zomba-Malosa constituency.

“Because of her, we drink portable water ; poor and vulnerable children have been handed a lifeline to continue with their education, and; women are respected here, instead of being abused. This is because of her example. Men know that, if given a chance, women can do a lot for their communities and contribute towards the development of their areas.

“Ever since I came to know her, in 2006, I have come to appreciate her more and more. Malawians, I think, are blessed,” he said.

Ronnie Kazembe, 43, could not agree more.

“Her pro-poor projects here, including Msigalira Joyce Banda Foundation, have revolutionalised this area. I am a mother of four children, two of them learn for free at Msigalira.

“I also know of orphans, including one I look after, who have benefitted a lot from her charitable projects. She has been feeding them. She has been dressing them, by providing school uniforms, and these children will now have the opportunity to sleep on beds and mattresses because these items have just arrived at the school,” Kazembe said.

Asked what she could do for the area if she were elected President of the Republic of Malawi, Kazembe said:” I would establish revolving funds for women engaged in small scale trade. We all know that the HIV and AIDS pandemic has left women in a precarious situation because they now combine care-giving to their everyday chores. Women need money to improve their lives now more than ever before.

“I would also establish more health centres. It is good that Msigalira Health Centre will be opened soon, but women in other villages need similar facilities. I ensure hospitals have medical drugs because having a beautiful health facility is one thing, and stocking it with medicine (is) yet another thing.”

Banda, like Kazembe, is a woman. It may be that she also appreciates these things.

It was all happiness and hopes for the people of Malosa on Friday. Those from such villages as Machinjiri, Mtogolo, Minama, Chupi, and Kasonga said, with Banda in tow, Malawi was enjoying a good spell of luck.

Is this (sentiment) prophetic, with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank re-opening those closed doors for us? Time is a just judge.

Where Is Chikumbutso Mtumodzi?

Chikumbutso Mtumodzi was once Malawi's State House Press Officer.
A position he abused.
Or, put more bluntly,  (a position) he did not understand.

The problem with Chikumbutso Mtumodzi is that he made hatred his communication strategy. In other words, hatred was his communication strategy. 

Then, probably after realising what sheer folly it was to put Chikumbutso Mtumodzi there, former president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, shifted him to another position. Even without having the necessary qualifications, he was 'made' Director of Information.
In that capacity, he introduced the Malawi Mail- a government publication published by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education.
But, like his State House Press officership, that (publication), too, did not last. It disappeared from the market.
At first (before it existed on the market), the Malawi Mail  was a dream in Chikumbutso Mtumodzi's head. Then, it became reality. Palpable reality. After some time on the newspaper market, where it was not faring well despite having government backing, the dream (Malawi Mail) died with the sunset of September 24, 2011. Needless to say there was no funeral ceremony.
High-tempered dreams die young, really. It is me saying this. It is my impression.
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi may now be somewhere in the civil service, working for the Malawian citizen. But Joyce Banda's broom will get him out of whichever hole he is hiding in.
After all, his was a political position. Especially that of State House Press Officer.
People privy to the issue of how he ascended to that high office have it that his (Chikumbutso Mtumodzi's) mother was friends with the former First Lady, the late Ethel Zvauya Mutharika.
And, on that basis (the basis of familiarity), Chikumbutso Mtumodzi got his job.
As State House Press Officer, Chikumbutso Mtumodzi will be remembered for his reckless comments.
At one time, when former Speaker of the National Assembly, the late Sam Mpasu, was spokesperson for the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), Chikumbutso Mtumodzi touched the ex-parliamentarian's raw nerve when he said:
"Sam Mpasu should not comment on government issues because his son is in prison". That was Chikumbutso Mtumodzi at his best.
What had happened for Chikumbutso Mtumodzi, who once belonged to the duplicate New Dawn for Africa, along with the likes of Thom Chiumia and Ken Ndanga (a party that was formed to foil the agenda of National Democratic Alliance, which was formed by former UDF strongman and Information Minister Brown Mpinganjira. Mpinganjira, the favourite of the British Broadcasting Corporation, is now a member of President Joyce Banda's People's Party politburo), to become this outrageous?
Here is what happened. Mpasu was the spokesperson for the opposition UDF. It was a tough time. Mutharika had just dumped the UDF, the party that campaigned for him during the 2004 Presidential elections, for political waters that were then unknown.
This (resignation) happened on February 5, 2005 during an Anti-Corruption Bureau's Anti-Corruption Day in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital.
This development led to the flaring of tempers.
Surely, the UDF was bitter. The way Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) zealots are bitter right now. That is why they (DPP members) wanted to foil the ascendancy of Joyce Banda to the highest office in the land. They forgot that, as Vice-President, Banda was within stiffing distance of the throne. Poor thinking!
To UDF's pill of bitterness was added political gamesmanship by the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD).
Because State-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation was giving all the airtime to UDF and, later, DPP, CMD's Kizito Tenthani and his colleagues came up with a trap for the ruling party in the name of training for senior members of opposition political parties including those of the ruling party.
At the training, opposition political parties were drilled in how to set the agenda (that is, how to be pro-active), instead of waiting for ruling parties (the government side) to set the agenda. This agenda, the parties learned, could be well-set by having party spokespersons.
These spokespersons, that's what the training was all about, could do well by speaking on issues before the government (which, in Malawi, has come to wrongly mean the ruling party) did so.
The opposition parties could do this by attacking government policies. This way, the government (and, therefore, ruling party) would spend much time defending itself instead of campaigning or 'stealing' all the lime in the light!
Now, if there is someone who put this to good use, it is Sam Mpasu.
Mpasu could, on a clear morning, 'create' dark clouds for the government (and, therefore, ruling party) by introducing an imaginary issue, link it to the national agenda, make all the people believe in it, and steal all the lime in the light!
It was as simple as that.
And that (this;Mpasu's machinations) irked Mtumodzi so much that he run short of counter-arguments.
It is in this light that, one day, Mpasu spoke about the loss of direction on the part of the ruling party, and suggested solutions. He even had the audacity to draw resolutions on behalf of what he thought was a tactless ruling party.
But, instead of coming up with an equally-sound response, Chikumbutso Mtumodzi took it upon himself (and, therefore, upon the narrow shoulders of the 'whole' State House) to shrug off Mpasu's sentiments with a statement that sounded unprofessional at best and childish at worst. It was not a statement worth the effort of an individual with a clean-shaven head like that of Mtumodzi. But from inside that clean-shaven head of his came that statement. Now, it is not up to me to say whether Mtumodzi's head is big or small. This blog is too honourable to focus on that!
Needless to say, under normal circumstances, it was the DPP that was supposed to respond to Mpasu's political jabs. And not the government, let alone New State House. But Chikumbutso Mtumodzi responded. It was a strange world, then.
"Mpasu should not comment because his son is in prison".
Not that Mpasu's son was not in prison. He was. For his own sins.
But does that stop a father from speaking on national issues? No.
At the State House, it is true, people lose their heads.
But not all the people lose their heads at the State House.
Alaudin Osman, one of the directors for private-run Capital 102.5 FM radio, was once the State House's Press Officer.  He executed his duties professionally. He did not pluck people's feathers unnecessarily. He did not take his position (as State House Press Officer) as a license to political madness.
Osman's experience in Botswana could, perhaps, have helped him execute his State House Press Officer duties with impartiality and professionalism. To him, we can just guess, the party was the party, and the State House was the  State House. Two different things.
Not with Chikumbutso Mtumodzi.
To cut a long story short, let me explain one experience I had with Chikumbutso Mtumodzi. This is when he was still State House Press Officer.
I met with him in town. Blantyre Central Business District (CBD) to be precise.
Those who have been to Blantyre CBD may know Escom House, the headquarters of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi.
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi was talking to two city car parking-fee collectors. I knew one of these parking fee collectors. He was a DPP zealot. A DPP Youth Cadet (as the late Mutharika later christened them).
I gave him a "Good Afternoon!".
Not because he was State House Press Officer. Because I knew him. I knew him the time he was running his own media agency.
No, I knew him through and from an encounter at Njamba Freedom Park. As way back as 2003.
I had gone to Njamba Freedom Park (the place Pope John Paul 11 stepped upon during his State Visit to Malawi in 1989) to cover a New Dawn for Africa rally. This, as alluded to earlier, is the party Chikumbutso Mtumodzi, Chiumia and Ndanga formed to counter the agenda of the National Democratic Alliance of Mpinganjira. This New Dawn for Africa was a fruit of Muluzi's head; yes, it was the 'child' of Muluzi's confusion-marred line of thinking. Muluzi 'forced' these rational 'boys' into forming the duplicate party to achieve his own political agenda: That of making sure nobody challenged his ill-intentioned Third Term Bid.
I was the first to arrive at Njamba. No, perhaps the fifth. Chikumbutso Mtumodzi and some four rough-necks were already at the venue of the rally. They were guarding the tent against imaginary National Democratic Alliance attackers!
I arrived quietly and sat under a Mango tree. One of the 13 mango trees that surround the venue of political meetings at Njamba Freedom Park, a place that will, forever, remain in the hearts and minds of Malawian Catholics because Pope John Paul 11 stepped on this very place; yes, the very same Pope who was being beautified by Pope Benedict the Sixteenth on Sunday.
Then, from nowhere, Chikumbutso Mtumodzi came. No, he came from behind one mango tree. I did not see him as he came towards me.
He grabbed my hand, rather violently.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I have come to cover the rally," I said.
"What rally? I say which rally?" he queried, holding me by the arm. Tightly.
"To cover this meeting," I said, as I squeezed his ankle.
Let me say that that tussle ended in a "draw'. After I told him the media house I went there to represent.
It was a media house owned by the one who forced them to form the New Dawn for Africa.
So, from this point, I thought I knew Chikumbutso Mtumodzi. Let me say we, somehow, clicked after that.
I could see him drive the Nissan Twin-cab that was New Dawn for Africa's only 'tangible' property.
I could see him walking, on foot of course, in Blantyre CBD while the sun's rays beat his clean-shaven head without mercy. At least he had some money to pay for shoe-polishing services close to Chayamba Building because, every time one of the shoe-polishers from Chisomo Children's Club polished his pair of shoes, the shoes would be as shiny as Mtumodzi's clean-shaven head. 
I met him so many times. Before he became State House Press Officer.
Then, from nowhere, Mutharika appointed him State House Press Officer.
And things changed.
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi was always (at every opportunity he saw me) accusing me of "reporting bad things" about Mutharika.
The climax came that day in late 2008, at Escom House.
I gave him a "Good afternoon, Sir?" He did not respond.
"Good Afternoon, Sir?" I repeated.
He did not respond. He just looked at me.
I greeted him for the third time: 'Good afternoon (for it was 'Afternoon'), Sir?"
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi did not respond.
I continued on my journey, wondering: 'Does this boy think that he will be State House Press Officer for ever? Isn't this a political office? This boy was walking on foot just three years ago and now he thinks he is up there with the stars. Now he thinks that journalists should not point out the wrongs in government. He wants journalists to praise the government and practice blind loyalty. No, this is not journalism. Journalists should be vigilant all the time. Journalists should, of course, be fair. Journalists should be the watchdogs in society, the watchdogs of society. When powerful people like Chikumbutso Mtumodzi dislike you for what you are doing, professionally; then, you are doing a good job. If public officers praise you, as a journalist, just know that you are doing a bad job. It could be sunshine journalism. It could be bias. Oh, it is good; when people like Chikumbutso Mtumodzi shun you because of the way you report, because of your dedication to the truth...'
This is what I was thinking  when, suddenly, someone touched my arm. It was the (Blantyre City Assembly) parking-fees' collector I knew.
"Chikumbutso Mtumodzi was just telling us that 'I don't want to come anywhere near that boy. He is a bad boy, who hates the government. That's why I did not respond to his greeting'," said the parking fees' collector.
I was dismayed.
I was surprised.
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi is a journalist, I thought.
He should have understood the role of journalists in national development.
The journalist is not a praise-singer.
Unfortunately, Chikumbutso Mtumodzi continued with his habit of 'shunning' me, ostensibly because I was an enemy of the State; someone out to destroy Chikumbutso Mtumodzi's pay-masters' names.
That is why I am wondering today: What will Chikumbutso Mtumodzi do, now that his 'journey' is over. What will Chikumbutso Mtumodzi do, now that the DPP is no longer in power?
What will Chikumbutso Mtumodzi do...now that so many things have changed?
Surely, as we read in Julius Ceasar , the evil that men do lives after them.
Let's hope Chikumbutso Mtumodzi did no 'evil'.
But Chikumbutso Mtumodzi's ordeal must serve as a lesson to People's Party officials.
President Banda will, surely, appoint some of the confused people to influential positions. Those officials should not look down upon other people. Those officials should not dislike others on the basis of those (others') work.
When all this is over, we, like chickens, all go back home to roost.

   

Joyce Banda: Coward or Stateswoman?

Who is Joyce Banda, Malawi's chance President, accountable to?
Definitely not the people of Malawi, who did not elect her as President.
Definitely not Parliament, which only knew her as one who- as Vice-President- walked in the giant, relatively taller shadow of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
In everything, Mutharika was 'taller', including in shadows and realities.
That is why he grew a voice so different from that of African leaders.
Among other 'taller' things, Mutharika told the country-less, economy-less International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that "No to devaluation; you can go to hell if you want".
Mutharika, in his economics wisdom, continued: "I wouldn't devalue the Kwacha to please some Washington chiefs who have had enough beans. If anything, let them tell me about the measures they will put in place to prevent the after-effects of devaluation on the rural masses".
But IMF, as usual, did not come up with alternatives.
It is, thus, so touching that Mutharika went to his final resting place of Mpumulo wa Bata (Rest of Peace) on April 23- two weeks after he succumbed to a heart attack on April 5, 2012- without getting any IMF response on the 'alternatives'.
Common sense dictates that them who are without alternatives to their criticism are without a voice (of common sense). That's what the IMF and World Bank are: Don't don't appreciate the positives; they only see the trouble.
And, to make life so simple, the Breton woods institutions know no solution but to yap 'devaluation'! Life must be serious- so serious it can not be answered by one phraseology!
Mutharika was there, talking.
Then, suddenly, he collapsed while performing state duties at the New State House in Lilongwe that fateful Thursday morning. Official records have it that he bid bye to the IMF and World- most importantly, his people- at around 11:15 am. He was taken to Kamuzu Central Hospital at 11:30am.
He found Kamuzu Central Hospital poorly equipped. His life could not be saved.
He went to South Africa no longer a man. He was dead. Having succumbed to Cardiac arrest within the confines of the maximum-security New State House.
The National Guard did not see it coming.
The well-fed dogs of the New State House did not see it coming.
The Democratic Progressive Party did not see it coming.
And, so, did the Malawi Congress Party, United Democratic Front, New Republican Party, Alliance for Democracy, Chipani cha Pfuko, People's Party, People's Progressive Movement, Congress for Democrats, among others, no see it coming.
But it happened.
And the result is that, just in the nick of time, Joyce Banda ascended to the highest office in the land.
With it came Malawi's new-found cowardice before the country-less, economy-less, currency-less IMF and World Bank.
Malawi is in a crisis of confidence.
Banda, back in Malawi from South Africa and Liberia (it has been three busy days for her), has goofed big time already. She told the South African media that her government will devalue the Malawi Kwacha by, not 10 percent (the way Mutharika did; of course, with complaints) but a whopping 40 percent!
Wait a minute. Here is a woman 'murdering' (economically) her own poverty-stained people to please the big-bellied boys and girls of the IMF.
Of course, there are elderly men and women at the IMF; experts in their area. But, if elderly experts conspire to perpetuate poverty, they are no older and no less expert than boys and girls! That is why the IMF and World Bank bosses are, simply put, boys and girls!
They are so senseless in their execution of duty. So murderous in their intentions. The way they prescribe devaluation and other 'international ills", one would be mad not rule out immorality and short brain-circuit on these folks' part.
All the IMF and World Bank gurus must be sick in some way; sick in an economic way. So sick their sickness widens the scope of the poverty malaise.
It is okay with them; so long as they receive their monthly cheque.
That is what Mutharika hated. And he hated it to his last day.
A president who never cowed before the nation-less, economy-less, currency-less World Bank and IMF duo.
But things have changed. Just in a nick of time.
And Banda is ruling the shots.
And the Kwacha.
Now, she has set her mind at making it lose value.
Not by 11 percent, or 15 percent, or 20 percent. By 40 percent.
She will cushion its effects with her obscene salary as President.
But the people will have nowhere to get the extra-Kwacha to purchase the now-available sugar.
And fuel.
And hope.
People do purchase hope. It takes will to purchase hope.
People purchase hope with will. They will they have to live on, and keep on going.
And Banda- by unilaterally devaluing-is killing that hope.  Stepping over Malawi's hope.
For one, people already harvested in March and early April. They did not anticipate what Banda has so brazenly set out to do.
They will have no money to afford life now.
Why, of all the reasons in this world, she would announce the imminence of such devaluation to the world in a foreign land defeats the purpose of states'womanhood.
Why tell it to the world, before informing her own people.
The answer is simple. It is a game. It is called cowardice.
IMF, World Bank cowardice if you make like.
Malawians should brace up for tough times.
Times created by cowardice.
Call it, IMF, World Bank "nobia'!
This 'nobia'? It is so unpatriotic it stinks!
    

Joyce Banda Goes To Work

Malawi's 'accidental' President, Joyce Banda, has set her feet to the peddle.
Her first task, as it were, was to sack flamboyant Information and Civic Education Minister, Patricia Kaliati. For a woman who prides herself in gender emancipation, Banda set in motion the opposite instinct in her mantle.
Malawians should expect more.
Banda, too unsure about herself and the laws of Malawi, also hastily fired Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Chief Executive Officer, Bright Malopa, and replaced him with the veteran broadcaster Benson Tembo. It is not the first time that Tembo has served in this capacity, having been appointed the first Director General of Television Malawi by former president Bakili Muluzi.
Kaliati, for all intents and purposes, is a Parliamentarian so loved by her people they bring her to Parliament every five years.
Kaliati takes good care of her people.
She is there when they cry.
And celebrate, too.
But people take her for what she said as Information and Civic Education Minister. They don't know the 'real' Kaliati. The real Kaliati is a gentle woman, a caring woman. She is a mother in Nkando and other areas.
As for Malopa, never has a Director General (now Chief Executive Officer) for State-run MBC been so creative as to introduce such massive-appeal programmes as Makiyolobasi.
In Malopa, Malawi has one of her most intelligent and creative sons.
MBC-TV was, really, the creator of possibilities. Not just possibilities; nameless, numberless (unlimited) possibilities.
That era, an era of creativity, is half gone now, simply because of the thinking of one Banda- Malawi's accidental president.
Now, Banda is in Liberia. She left for Liberia via South Africa, where she fulfilled official duties. Official duties? Yes. She went Down South to thank President Jacob Juma for all the goodwill, especially during the time our beloved president, Ngwazi Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika (oh, now we have to add 'the late') left this world.
The South African government bought the casket that took him to his Mpumulo wa Bata final resting place at Ndata Farm in Thyolo.
The South African government took care of the ministers and members of the Funeral Committee that went, and camped, there as Malawians eagerly, but sadly, waited for the return of the remains of their president-no-more.
Today, Banda is in Liberia.
On Monday, she will be in Malawi.
It will be the first time for Banda to go out on a tour of duty, and the first time she will come back home through Kamuzu International Airport and wave at women clad in party colours (Orange, the political colour of her People's Party) dancing for her.
It has been like that for ages. Nothing really changes.
Malawian women will always dance for the President. Be it male or female.
It is a symbol of work. The sign of someone who has gone to work, and is committed to finishing their mile.
On Monday, it will be done because Banda is working on 'Project Malawi'.

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Bingu wa Mutharika: Statesman Misunderstood

By Richard Chirombo
The hopes, fears, bitterness, joys, anguish and national wishes of the past eight years centred upon the heart of this one, mortal Malawian man. The First Citizen, he was called.

It is not just the title ‘His Excellency the State President of the Republic of Malawi’ that Bingu wa Mutharika wore; there was much more to it. With it came the willingness to embrace the lessons drawn from political turmoil, the will to stand firm against the, sometimes selfish, drumming of ruling Democratic Progressive Party  (DPP) cadres, and the wit to maintain composure under the burden of fear and suspense.

Sometimes, may be, the president could be adjudged to have been warding off an unapprehended blow, only because the persona of the President is a piece of clay in contradictory mode. The President would not be human if, every working minute, he did not battle the combined feelings of hope and fear.

It must have been particularly tough during the past three years as Malawi, short on forex, fuel and, possibly, hope, skidded towards the abyss. The president sat at the centre of it all, sometimes becoming the subject of unfair attack. It all settled in his heart; pressuring it, burdening it. Mutharika stood firm and, like the economic engineer he was, went about looking for spanners that could fix the breeding economic wounds.

He was never the one to run away, as he rightly observed in Mangochi as recently as March this year: “Bingu does not run away from responsibility…” The president even added that, other than taking the easy road to resignation, he would walk his Constitutional mile, and finish it at ‘Destination 2014’.

He had the heart to go on.

Many misunderstood him. When, for instance, he said on 5 March 2011 that Civil Society Organisations were planning July 20-like demonstrations, he was merely expressing his fears and hopes aloud: The fear that, looking at the wreckage of the pro-democracy demonstrations- in which millions of kwacha disappeared in routed and gutted property, and 19 lives went towards the way of all the earth- Malawi could find the deep of anarchy her final destination.

Mutharika, who established a make-believe pattern since his ascendancy to the position of Malawi’s Chief Executive Officer in May 2004, stroke a familiar chord that Sunday morning: He had, over the eight years, touted peace-maintenance, characterized by a nation in one frame, as the pre-requisite for national development.

Some quarters of society took issues with the way he bemoaned the involvement of development partners, casting himself in the light of a figure who appreciated their (donors’) faces, eating habits, body movements, childhood names, their children’s names, and the names of the children of their children. Just like that.

But Mutharika knew what he was doing. He had travelled widely, came to know the A-Z of foreign cultures, and knew his lines well. The other reason could be that he was, truly, Malawian. Locally, people point at others- imaginary or real- to array their own fears. It is part of Malawian culture, after all. In fact, Mutharika might have ‘mastered’ this lesson from, not only the cup of political science he drunk from in class, but Malawi’s long-held tradition.

 It is a tactic best-mastered by the Chewa. Mask dancers (Gulewamkulu) , notorious for taking on the uninitiated in the Central Malawi districts of Salima, Dedza, Dowa, Ntchisi, Kasungu, and some parts of Nkhotakota and Ntcheu, have been known to corner the uninitiated by producing the ‘empty’ shout: “Ndakuona, ndakuona, Ndakuona...!” (Waste no time hiding; I have already seen you!!!)

Some people, so clueless to this old bait, rise up from their hiding places, and hand themselves over to the ‘ignorant’ mask-dancer. Likewise, Mutharika established a pattern of someone who knew things that others did not. When, for instance, he went to ‘sorry’ victims of a wild flame at Blantyre Flea Market on the sunny Monday of September 19 last year, Mutharika claimed to know the people behind the attack.

With merchandise worth millions of kwacha incinerated in the wee hours of that fateful Monday, and some vendors yet to recover in both shock and merchandise, the President added to the sombreness of the day with one threat: “Don’t think I don’t know you. I know the people behind this unsavory
attack.”

It was all ‘Ndakuona games’, played by people so knowledgeable about the psyche of the Malawian people. It is not wrong to play these games because it is not wrong to be Malawian. 

For one, the Head of State and Government sees things others may not see. Every face, no matter how soft or well-curved, is blended with conspiracy; that is, when ambition is seen in the same light as ‘conspiracy’. To have ambition is to ‘conspire’ to ride over current circumstances. To frame the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy is to ‘conspire’ against under-development. And, so, are the Millennium Development Goals: a documented piece of conspiracies. That’s how presidents look at things.

With so many development blue-prints (read, conspiracies) lined up in the in-tray of the Head of State, the ordinary individual may not appreciate the amount of work pressed upon that one heart and mind. Inevitably, this development blends a combination of Presidential fear and skepticism, and may instantly produce the alternating reactions of fear, violence, or hope.

Under such circumstances, it is so easy to send signals with conflicting messages. It is all too possible to also fall into the pit of revengeful hate, or produce responses lighted with hope.

Hope? Sure. The president had hope.

“Give me three years to fix the economy. We are putting in place short and long-term plans to solve the challenges currently facing the country. Some problems cannot be solved within a day, or month,” Mutharika spoke hope in Mangochi last month. The hope was there, it was not hidden.

As the one upon whom it had been imposed by a ‘fateful’ majority on May 21, 2004 (a feat repeated, this time resoundingly, in 2009) to govern the country in trust, the President had his fare share of criticism. In this seat, criticism neither be avoided (even from quarters that offer no solutions), nor pushed away as one fights off a nightmare.

It must have been tough for the president, with all the social ostracism from CSOs, financial ostracism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF/IMF) and near banishment. All these banishments came when socio-economic challenges bogged the dismal village that is Malawi in the mud of confusion. This confusion being the man-made pit dug by development partners who deprived the country of financial resources that could help it stand firm against macro and micro-economic instability.

Mutharika- as one fit for exact fiscal policy discussions; clear in seeing the general truths of  devaluation worldwide; active, unresting, and fond of love for his people, and; enquiry (as manifested by his trip to Nigeria the other day)- always wanted the best for his people. But his policy-objectives were restrained by the shrewd policy machinations of the World Bank, IMF, development partners, and an opposition bloc out to make fun out of Malawi’s challenges.

The truth is that the IMF has no economy. The World Bank has no country. It is only Bingu- who had the tenacity of purpose, courage, and an unbending will which never flinched before antagonists- who knew the material constraints of the Malawian people better, and, possibly, how to solve them.

Unfortunately for him, these characteristics were unhappily out of tune with IMF/World Bank intrigues and policy passions of the day. These institutions have the tendency to shoot down what, apparently, works, and Mutharika knew this pretty well. That’s why he stood his ground, and Malawians mistook it for selfishness.

A good case in point is that of farm input subsidies during the 1980s. The IMF said ‘No’, since it was like subsidizing consumption. When governments, including that of Malawi, accepted this, food security became a forgotten past. The African leaders must have been wary. But, more likely, the status quo might have pleased the bosses in Washington.

A successful politician, to the Breton woods institutions, must be a man of the IMF and World Bank, and never a man of his country.

Just that Mutharika had people to rule, people he loved, and was, therefore, ostracized for the same.

Of course, though Mutharika was one of the most ambitious presidents to stand at the helm of this great nation, he had few of the characteristics that, ordinarily, give colour and charm to personality.

But, for his intellect, he served as African Union President, where he introduced the African Food Basket masterpiece as a replication of Malawi’s successful Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme, and; Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, first as secretary general and, until the hour of his death, chairperson, among other positions.

He died, on April 5 this month, undismayed and still refusing to follow that easy, straight
path to national doom through devaluation of the Kwacha. Surely, a rise in commodity prices could not be the best way of serving Malawian citizens well.

It is sad that the ambitious Mutharika died at a time when his detractors made an obscure conglomeration of all the charges that place leaders in negative light, in part designed by some development partners to furnish a common ground for those who propagated lawlessness but were unwilling to directly identify themselves with such issues.

People may mourn that death, coming so unexpectedly, has robbed Malawians of a Statesman. But Mutharika has left two things for posterity: words and works.

The words “Let the works of my hands speak for me” will, forever, reverberate across Malawi; as the works of his hands- the New Parliament Building, Five Star Hotel, the University of Science and Technology, this 2011/12 subsidised inputs (through the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme)- continue to remind Malawians of the man who came in time, but left before his time.

 

Bingu at Sanjika

Lines-
So long it must not be the scramble for fuel,
So winding it can't be of one-people-in-the-wrong,
So visible it must not be sugar packets-
Stretch far and wide along the Presidential Road.

Sanjika:
So fortified,
So closed to reality,
So green in comfort,
Opens to the common eye.

A nation in mourning,
A nation so bathed up in red eyes,
A nation taken unawares by the early sunset
Meanders to say 'Hullo'
As Bingu lies in State.

Two weeks ago,
He was the State,
Curing our deplorable socio-economic state
And this sudden sadness.

We will be there,
To see his ray in the darkness,
Shining on the plate of our days,
As the sun fades to rise again,
And the darkness shines to wave good bye.

MISA stresses need for access to information in Africa

Zimbabwe Communiqué
19 March 2012

 The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) on 15 April 2012 bemoaned the current state of access to information in Africa, citing the negative impact the glaring lack of information is having on the citizenry. This observation was made during the ongoing NGO Forum of the 51st Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples? Rights (ACHPR) in the Gambian capital of Banjul

Referring to the African Platform on Access to Information campaign initiated in 2011, MISA Regional Specialist on Media Policy and Law, Karen Mohan, said access to information is a right that many African citizens were still struggling to realise.

She said this was despite the fact that the right to freedom of information is one that is enshrined in a host of regional and international instruments such as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People?s Rights, and article 4 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa.

Mohan noted that access to information is a fundamental part of freedom of expression and argued that when citizens are ill-informed and unable to access basic public information, it is consequently impossible for them to exercise their right to freedom of expression.

This in turn adversely affects citizens? basic rights to health, employment, education, participation in public discourse, as well as the ability to fight corruption, among other aspects.

Mohan also explained that the African Platform on Access to information was initiated in 2011 as a way of promoting access to information and impressing that it is a right that many African citizens still continue to be deprived of.

She urged members of the NGO Forum to register their support towards the cause by calling for a resolution which will request:

1.      Endorsement of the APAI Declaration by signing it.
2.      Endorsement of a recommendation for the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) to pass a resolution authorising the ACHPR Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa to expand Part IV of the Declaration of Freedom of Expression in Africa to include principles of the APAI Declaration
3.      Endorsement of a recommendation to the ACHPR requesting the African Union Summit to:
a.       Adopt September 28 as International Right to Information Day.
b.      Initiate an experts meeting to develop a continent wide instrument on the right of access to information.

For any questions, queries or  comments, please contact:

Nyasha Nyakunu
Senior Programmes Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
84 McChlery Drive
Eastlea
Harare
Zimbabwe
Telefax: +263 4 776165/746838
Mobile : +263 712 602 448/ 0712 639 682
Email: misa@misazim.co.zw
Website: www.misazim.co.zw

Zambia Communiqué: Government seeks process to finalise the Draft National Information and Media Policy

Zambia Communiqué
19 April 2012


The government of Zambia has commenced the process to finalise the Draft National Information and Media Policy whose purpose is to enhance the effective coordination and dissemination of public information and to facilitate the growth of a free, ethical, socially responsible and sustainable media industry.

The aim of the policy is to facilitate the creation of a well-informed and motivated citizenry, which embraces democratic governance for national development and the creation of an environment that safeguards the right of the people, including the right to know and the freedom of the media.

Some of the objectives of the policy include to facilitate the establishment of a regulatory authority for the electronic media, to ensure adherence to policy provisions in order to promote attainment of a free, socially responsible and sustainable media industry, to develop a countrywide information and communication infrastructure for improved radio and television services and to ensure speedy transmission of news and information across the country by both print and electronic media.

The other objectives are to promote both local and foreign investment in all forms of media in order to enhance growth of the media and to promote the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in information gathering in order to enhance efficiency and to develop countrywide news gathering and distribution networks for the state-controlled Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS).

The policy also seeks to encourage the media to work towards the creation and sustenance of a single media council with jurisdiction over professional and ethical matters.

This policy precedes a 1996 policy that is being revised to take into consideration changes in the media landscape and channels that facilitate information flow.

For more information please contact:
Jane Chirwa, MISA-Zambia Information & Research Officer
Email: janechirwa79@yahoo.com

MISA-Namibia criticizes attempts to turn public media into party megaphones

Namibia Communiqué
19 April 2012

 MISA Namibia has called upon members of the public, including political office bearers, to embrace and promote a free and independent media but also to support the transformation of the state-controlled broadcaster, Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) into a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB).

A public service broadcaster, as commonly understood, is fully independent in all editorial and operational matters and free from any possible interference from external interests, especially political.

It has been reported that state-owned media houses, NBC and New Era newspaper, were severely criticized by several Members of Parliament (MPs) on Friday, April 13, 2012 for alleged ?pathetic? and selective coverage of public figures and public events. This was said during the debate on the budget of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT).

Joël Kaapanda, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology has requested N$305million (about US$39million) for MICT, to be used for five programmes, which include subsidies to the three media houses, NBC, Nampa and New Era.

Parliamentarians from the ruling party, Swapo, are reported to have expressed their annoyance with state-controlled media houses saying, ?Journalists are biased in their reporting, they choose who to introduce at events and leave other MPs unintroduced. We can even decide not to approve this budget. NBC together with all government-funded newspapers should take note.?

?New Era covers negative aspects of government. Why, if both are government funded, why the discrepancy??  an MP queried. ?All journalists must be fired!? stated another MP emphatically.

?New Era and NBC are not advancing and protecting government as they were established to. They must understand we have the power not to support this vote because they always stab us in the back, they must not force Swapo to have a congress and change NBC to a ?Voice of the Nation?,? another MP charged.

MISA-Namibia encourages the public, including political officials, to work together with the media industry in Namibia, for the greater good of the country. Clearly the mandates of state-subsidized media houses state that they have a duty to serve ALL Namibians with a level of transparency, accuracy and responsibility in order to enhance the democratic growth and development of Namibia.

The New Era Publication Corporation Act, 1992 (No. 1 of 1992) and the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation Act, 1991 (no. 9 of 1991) make it clear that these media have a duty not to be subservient to any political interests. Rather, it is the politicians who have the duty to ensure that funding continues to be channeled to both New Era and NBC.

In the same breath, state media have an obligation to uphold the provisions of Articles 9, 10 and 11 of the African Charter On Human and Peoples Rights and Principle XI of the Declaration on Freedom of Expression in Africa.

MISA-Namibia agrees with Principle XII of the Declaration on Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa that states: ?No one should be found liable for true statements, opinions, or statements regarding public figures which is reasonable to make in the circumstances. Public figures shall be required to tolerate a greater degree of criticism. Sanctions should not be so severe as to inhibit the right of expression, including by others.?

There has to be a solid recognition that subsidies received by state-funded entities are resourced by taxpayers and such entities have an even greater duty to disseminate transparent, fair, balanced and accurate information to the public regardless of political affiliation.

For more information, please contact:
Ngamane Karuaihe-Upi, MISA-Namibia
Email: broadcast@misanamibia.org.na