Back home- Malawi's Big Brother The Chase Representative (Housemate) Natasha Tonthola, a.k.a. Mama Africa
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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Natasha Tonthola Meets Zachimalawi!!!
Back home- Malawi's Big Brother The Chase Representative (Housemate) Natasha Tonthola, a.k.a. Mama Africa
Friday, July 19, 2013
Malawi Electoral Commission's Registration Centres During Phase One
NSANJE DISTRICT
1. Nsanje South constituency
a. Nyachilenda ward:
Ndamera (Nyachilenda) School
Makhokwe F.P. School
Thuka Court
Monyo D.P School
Marka F.P. School
Nyamalikombe School
Chitomeni Village
Nansongole School
Mankhokwe Health Centre
b. Matundu Ward:
Lulwe School for the Blind
Nkhande School
Njiza School
Lulwe LEA School
Chinzeti School
Mankhokwe Admarc
Nyambiro School
Chimombo (Matundu) School
Makoka School
Kanjeza Sch (Kamphata HC)
2. Nsanje South West constituency
a. Dinde Ward:
Nsanje F.P. School
Dinde School
Chikunkha/Mbango School
Ndione School
Chididi F.P. School+C5268
Nyamadzere F.P School
Mbang'ombe D.P. School
Kaluwa School
Nyanjiwa F.P.School
Kapalakonje School
Chekelere Ward:
Makoko (Phombwe) School
Bambala F.P. Sch
Mabungwa F.P. Sch
Galafa (Mbale) School
Khulubvi F.P.School
Mwanambweri F.P. School
Mchere F.P. School
Mpanje (Magoma) School
Thunye D.P. School
3. Nsanje Central Constituency
a. Chigumukire Ward:
Mpatsa F.P. School
Mkango (Phanga) School
Chigumukire F.P. School
Mguda F. P. School
Nyamijeti F.P. School
Nthondo (Chiwephe) School
Ndiola School
Mnthawila School
Mpatsa CDSS
Nyankhwali School
b. Misamvu ward:
Mlaka F.P. School
Chilumba F.P. Sch
Mpepe F.P. School
Chitsa (Nyamithuthu) School
Bwangu F.P. School
Kaloga F.P. School
Kawa (Chilikha) School
Leno (Nyamikolongo) School
Mgoza F.P. School
Nandilimbe (Nyanchili) School
Nkadabwako CDSS
Mwendonthengo
4. Nsanje Lalanje Constituency
a. Lalanje Ward:
Lalanje School
Bangula F.P. School
Magoti School
Dande School
Mpisamanja School
Nkhadzi School
Madziabango School
Nyamitalala School
b. Mlonda ward:
Phokera School
Kadamela (Mlonda) School
Kalupsya (Chilimba) School
Khope School
Bangula Admarc
Nsanje North Constituency
Kalulu Ward:
Fatima School
Kalulu F.P.School
Mchacha F.P School
Masenjere F.P. School
Muona /Thangadzi School
Ng'ombe F.P. School
Chinyanje D.P. School
Masombani School
Nantibule School
Fatima CDSS
b. Ruo ward:
Namiyala School
Namilembe School
Makhanga School
Phalamanga D.P. School
Malota (Mpembamoyo) School
Sankhulani F.P.School
Bwanzi School
Osiyana (Chikonje) School
Chikali F. P. School
Mbwazi Admarc
CHIKHWAWA DISTRICT
1. Chikhwawa South Constituency
a. Kawanda Ward:
Chindiole Primary School
Phanda Primary School
Ndalapa Primary School
Mtayamanja Primary School
Rabu Primary School
Mwananjovu Primary School
Konzere Primary School
Mambala Primary School
Thendo Primary School
b. Nyakamba Ward:
Dolo Primary School
Mbiya Primary School
Khokhwa Primary School
Thabwa Primary School
Finish Primary School
Mlambe Primary School
Utumbe Primary School
Mwanamakoko Primary School
Chimpambana Primary School
Nkhwangwa Primary School
Chapomoka Primary School
Gonda Ground
Masanduko Primary School
Chidyamanga Primary School
Khoko Primary School
Nyamizinga Primary School
Chikhwawa Mkombezi constituency
a. Mikalango ward:
Mwala Primary School
Makande Primary School
Changa Primary School
Chituwi Primary School
Nkumaniza Primary School
Mchenga Primary School
Beka Primary School
Msinja Primary School
Chambuluka Primary School
Mwalamba Primary School
b. Alumenda ward:
Goma Primary School
Therere Primary School
Linga Primary School
Ntowe Primary School
Saindi Primary School
Malikopo Primary School
Nsenjere Primary School
Singano Primary School
Jombo Primary School
Kholongo Primary School
Nkavu Primary School
3. Chikhwawa Central Constituency
a. Lengwe ward:
St. Mathews Primary School
Nchalo Primary School
Nyamphota Primary School
Mbewe Court
Mwanza Primary School
Piyasi School
Makanga School
Sekeni Primary School
Shire Club
b. Bwabwali ward:
Mangulenje Primary School
Suweni Primary School
Ndakwera Primary School
Mandrade Primary School
Mwai Primary School
Bereu Primary School
Kalima Primary School
Mlomba Primary School
Phingo Primary School
Mawira Primary School
Namalindi Primary School
Mvivi Primary School
Dyeratu Primary School
Satodwa Primary School
Nantchengwe School
4. Chikhwawa North constituency
a. Mwamphanzi ward:
Nkudzi Primary School
Kawaye Primary School
Thabwani Primary School
Mfera Primary School
Dulansanje Primary School
Gumbwa Primary School
Mikolongo Primary School
Mtawa Primary School
Thabwa School
Namagondwa School
b. Ndalanda ward:
Chikwawa Primary School
Chikonde Primary School
Njereza Primary School
Kandeu Primary School
Pende Primary School
Fombe Admarc
Gaga Primary School
Namitembo Primary School
Phatika Primary School
Zimbiri Primary School
Chikhwawa Prison
Chigumula Primary School
Nkundula School
5. Chikhwawa East constituency
a. Makhwira North ward:
Maperera Primary School
Nkhate Primary School
Ngwengwe HQ
Makhwira Court
Tsapa Primary School
Nyang'ona Ground
Phimbi Primary School
b. Makhwira South ward:
Mitondo Primary School
Bodza Primary School
Mchacha Primary School
Ole-Ole Primary School
Mpama Primary School
Nyangu/Nyakamba School
Mazongoza P. School
Champhanda Village
Pakamwa Village
6. Chikhwawa West constituency
a. Chibisa ward:
Mwanalilenji Primary School
Chibisa Court
Kanyongolo Primary School
Kakoma Primary School
Kanzimbi Primary School
Dzinthenga Primary School
Phwadzi Primary School
Kampomo Primary School
Siyali Village
Mbundu Primary School
Tchande Primary School
b. Chimwanjale Ward:
Kubalalika Primary School
Gunguli Primary School
Gola Primary School
Finiasi Primary School
Chithumba Primary School
Changoima Primary School
Liston Village
Chang'ambika Primary School
Chitungwani Primary School
Kunyondo Primary School
Ngowo Primary School
Ngona Health Centre
Mtemera (Mamine) School
Salumbidwa
Maleme
NENO DISTRICT
1. Neno South Constituency
a. Lisungwi ward:
Lisungwi School
Matope School
Malimba School
Kholombidzo School
Dzundu School
Kasenjere School
Mkavu School
Mwetang"ombe School
Naminjale School
Nkula
Nsawedza School
Mpunga School
Midzemba School
Nchena School
Nkhombe School
Mapanga-Kammwamba School
Tsanjalamwimba School
Somisomi (Thima) School
Luwani
Kandoje U-5 Clinic
Kasupe School
b. Ligowe ward:
Chifunga School
Golden (Chidokowe) School
Chididi School
Ligowe School
Mlindi School
Ntayanyemba School
Chuluchamankhwala School
Mkomaliwilo Primary School
Makali School
Chimbamira School
Chipindu School
2. Neno North constituency
a. Chilimbondo ward:
Mangadzi School
Chitimbe School
Nsambi School
Chawe School
Chilimbondo School
Neno Mission
Nchokadala School
Mchenga School
Thumba School
Thava School
Mwadzi School
Mpimbi Junior Sch
Kamoto School
b. Chikonde ward:
Chikonde School
Chiwambe School
Mlemeka School
Mpakati School
Matandani School
Nsenjere School
Monekera School
Mfunda School
Nanzanga School
Kalitera School
Kaponda School
Mwanza District
Mwanza Central Constituency
a. Khudze ward:
Mphande Primary School
Chidoole Primary School
Mwanza ADMARC
Mwanza Secondary School
Kunenekude Health Centre
Kanjedza Primary School
Namiwawa Primary School
Mwanza Prison
Khudze Primary School
Mphingwi Primary School
b. Mitseche ward:
Futsa Primary School
Michiru Primary School
Mwembezi Primary School
Mphete Primary School
Sanjika Primary School
Kachere Primary School
Galafa Village Clinic
Mwanza West Constituency
a.Thambani Ward:
Tsupe Primary School
Muwale Primary School
Phanda Primary School
Thambani Primary School
Kaponyatola Primary School
Kalanga Primary School
Chisambang'ombe
b.Mpandadzi ward:
Mwanza Primary School
Ching’ombe Primary School
Mtsamika Primary School
Kadoole Primary School
Lipongwe Primary School
Thawale Secondary School
Mpandadzi Primary School
Maye Primary School
Mkantho Primary School
Mpira Primary School
BLANTYRE CITY
1. Blantyre City West constituency
a.Blantyre City Central Ward:
Blantyre Tax office
Chilomoni LEA
Namiwawa School
Nancholi Clinic
b.Chilomoni ward:
Likhubula School
Mulunguzi School
Chilomoni Catholic School
2. Blantyre Kabula Constituency
a. Mbayani ward; malo olembetsera voti ndi awa:
Mbayani Primary School
Chemusa Assemblies Pvt Sch
b. Michiru ward:
Chirimba School
Namatete School
c. South Lunzu ward:
Namilango school
South Lunzu School
South Lunzu CDSS
Monday, July 15, 2013
Malawi: 49 Years, Living the Lie of Independence
July 6, 1964. A young man, less than 24 hours old, abandons his maiden name, Nyasaland, adopts a strange name, Malawi, and departs from his elder guardian’s care into a world he knew nothing about.
And the young man saw that deserting the elder guardian’s care was not enough!
The young man, consequently- having retired from his elder guardian’s care for the unknown bush- shrugged off all the Black Jack’s hooks that clung to his only shirt, opting for the heat emitted by the fragile rays of a rising sun!
Thus, in a village half-known to the world, a new nation was born. Malawi!
Did Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), the legal expert, politician and author realize that this was bound to happen, anyway, when he said, “But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct, are once thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself violently distempered, the people must have some satisfaction to their feelings more solid than sophistical speculation on law and government”?
He might have known.
The road to hope
If not, why did people like Rev. John Chilembwe (1871 – 1915)- who, some historians argue, inflamed the seeds of nationalism when he led the natives of Chiradzulu in rebellion against Thangata system (bonded labour)), hut tax, and other ills on 23 January, 1915- rise up against the British authorities?
Burke argues, in his Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, that “I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the difficulty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the provinces which they must enjoy, or they will not be provinces at all.”
Indeed, it is the shortfalls, and excesses, of the diversified British Empire that begum to inflame and disorient the natives, culminating in the fight for Malawi’s independence- pressure that bore fruit on 6 July 1964.
The British Empire- so outstretched and magnanimous - could no longer cope up with the demands of a ‘vast, disconnected, infinitely diversified empire’, a responsibility that came with the prestige of being the ‘elder guardian’ of many peoples. And, as destiny would have it, that responsibility started to wane when, in the 1950s, agitations for independent rule increased.
What hastened this state of affairs was the colonial rulers’ ill-fated decision to form the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia in 1953, bringing Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Malawi into an unholy alliance that was doomed to fail due to opposition from nationalists.
Proponents of independence had their ranks strengthened when Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who had been studying medicine in the United States of America, returned home on 6 July, 1958. So determined was Banda to break “the stupid federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia” that he accepted to become the leader of the National African Congress [Nac –the modern day Malawi Congress Party (MCP)]. The Nac was a child of the educated Nyasaland elite who wanted more freedoms and expressed their grievances- first through natives’ associations and, then, the Nac- with willful force.
And, for his daring spirit, Banda was arrested and sent to Gwelo Prison in Zimbabwe- only to be released in 1960, so he could attend a constitutional conference in London, United Kingdom. After that, it was journey-started for the MCP, which went on to score an overwhelming victory when elections for a new Legislative Council were held on 15 April 1961.
This victory, and growing calls for self-rule, prompted the British government to offer Nyasaland self-governing status in 1963, a development borne out of November 1962 Constitutional Conference held in London. And, as promised, Banda assumed the position of Prime Minister on 1 February 1963, though he did not become the de facto leader because the British administrators maintained a strong hold on key aspects such as judicial, financial, and security operations.
Chances of Nyasaland finally detaching herself from Britain then grew following the adoption of a new constitution in May 1963, and the subsequent abolition of the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia on 31 December 1963. The implication was that, as the new day dawned on the Land of the Lake, a new nation was born. Within seven months, on 6 July 1964, the former British colony became a member of the Commonwealth.
It had been a long journey; a journey that ended in favour of the British by chance. While the Portuguese reached this part of Africa much earlier, with records stretching their presence as earlier as the 16th Century, it was Scottish missionary Dr. David Livingstone’s 1859 visit to Lake Nyasa that titled the stakes in favour of the British!
And Livingstone’s troubles were rewarded 32 years later when the British government declared Nyasaland a protectorate in 1891.
However, it was until 1966 that the prodigal son (Malawi) adopted a new constitution that paved the way for a one party state. And it was Banda, who had become the symbol of Malawi’s enduring spirit, who became the first President.
But his road, like the colonial one before it, had to reach a point of no-through road. That happened when Malawians voted in favour of multiparty democracy during the Referendum of June 1993.
And, what had, for 30 years, been a single party state stretched into a democracy after the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections of May 1994. The electorate gave the United Democratic front (UDF) the mandate to rule democratic Malawi by electing 82 of its 177 Parliamentary candidates to the National Assembly.
But, in spite of the UDF’s third successive victory in the Presidential elections of 2004, the party was dealt a heavy blow when its winning presidential candidate, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, announced on February 5, 2005 that he had dished the party because its leaders were frowning upon his zero tolerance for corruption crusade.
Thus, just in the nick of time, the UDF became an elections’ winning opposition party! Mutharika later formed the Democratic Progressive Party (MCP), prompting seasoned politicians such as former Speaker of the National Assembly Sam Mpasu to question the logic of forming a political party while in government. His argument was that one “forms a political party in order to get into government, instead of getting into government in order to form a political party”.
It was a puzzle. Really. A puzzle replayed on the DPP following Mutharika’s sudden death on 5 April 2012. His DPP had been a ruling party on this day, only to be pushed to the opposition benches in Parliament when President Joyce Banda was sworn in on April 7. Her Peoples Party moved from being an aspiring ruling party to a ruling party.
Such have been some of the jig-saws strewn along Malawi’s independence path.
Contrasting signs
However, while the country has made strides in improving the living standards of its people, the path has been thorny for a large part. In their Democracy Report for Malawi, for example, Dr. Wiseman Chirwa et al aptly observe: “The 1990s witnessed a remarkable surge in civil society in unmistakable stages of development, but which in the end failed to act in concert with the state to pursue a socio-economic programme.
“The population labours heroically to make a living by scarce means; adult literacy is 57 percent (42 percent for women), infant mortality is high, and nutritional indicators are subject to the harvest and vagaries of household income”.
As a result, “Malawi is among the poorest and most foreign-indebted countries in the world, nine-tenths of all people making a living from low-productivity agriculture…Less than half of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) comes from agriculture, though the high-value segment of the sector provides 90 percent of exports. Industry accounts for 12 percent of GDP; a third is agro-based for export.
“In the decades since Independence, Malawi has partaken of the continent's sharp fluctuations in growth. In the manner of other sub-Saharan countries, it has had to reform its economy without much improvement of its meagre productive base. Acute inflation and stagnant peasant agriculture characterise the economy. Creating jobs, guaranteeing food, strengthening infrastructure for production, correcting mal-distribution, and reining in prices are priority socio-economic tasks in this young democracy.”
Until that is done, however, the living conditions among ordinary citizens will continue to be dire.
However, other researchers have been more sympathetic to Malawi’s situation. In his article, Economic developments in Malawi Since Independence, published in the Journal of Southern African Studies (Vol. 2, No. 1), Simon Thomas observes that, “ideally, the actual performance of the economy should be compared with its potential, but, given the possibility of different objectives by policy makers, this potential has no uniquely defined meaning.”
Adds Thomas: “To compare the situation before and after independence is likely to be meaningless if either the objectives of policy or external economic environment have radically altered. An alternative approach might be to compare Malawi’s economic policies and performance with that of a country with similar resources and objectives, but no similar country exists for such a comparison to be made.”
This notwithstanding, documents from the Ministry of Finance indicate that the country’s economy continues to perform relatively well against its own history, as seen when Malawi maintained single-digit inflation during the later part of Mutharika’s regime.
The domestic debt got sliced as well, from 25 percent of GDP in 2004 to 11.6 percent of GDP in the 2010/2011 fiscal year; with the budget deficit being reduced from 7.8 percent of GDP in 2003/2004 financial year to 1.5 percent of GDP in 2010/2011 financial year.
While economic, political and social commentators may continue to debate the pros and cons of judging Malawi’s performance, what is clear is that the pillar of independence is now of 49 years’ standing.
The road to nowhere
Even though Malawians purchased their freedom after a long struggle, and constructed their pillar of independence using the moisture in their blood, there is little to show for their pain- at least in some social and economic respects.
For the ordinary citizen, the road to sustainable development has had various windings, raising doubts that citizens’ aspirations were about to be met. It is like the nation has abandoned the right path.
After all, didn’t Voltaire (1694 – 1778) not warn “That a right line, which is a right line so long as it is finite, by changing infinitely little its direction, becomes an infinite curve; and that a curve may become infinitely less than another curve”?
Supposing the ‘right line’ to be development, can we say that we have stayed the course when public projects whose funding has been approved by Parliament go unimplemented?
The Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) sums this well when, in its Policy Brief No. 1: The Paradox of Continuous Foreign Borrowing in a Rash of Stalled debt Sponsored Projects, it observes that a number of health care service and road construction projects have been abandoned after due Parliamentary approval.
Mathias Burton Kafunda of CfSC’s Economic Governance Programme observes that the government should take the flak for this. “The reasons for the rash of stalled or abandoned debt sponsored infrastructural and other projects across the country are often not too far to seek. For one, there is the poor performance by the government itself. For decades Malawi’s reform efforts to make an impact with foreign borrowed money have been Tango 1-2-3 movements: One step forwards, two sideways and three backward.
“There is no penalty within government for bad borrowing decisions or poor project implementation. And in respect of improving delivery of ‘pro-poor’ services, the mindset of the Political/bureaucratic elite is similar to Rhet Butler’s famous last words in Gone with the Wind:Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’. The accountability of government officials to the citizens is far more attenuated; in effect, it is utterly non-existent.”
This lack of accountability and neglect manifests itself in Neno district, probably the only fully-fledged district without a tarred road in Malawi. Save for the modern health facilities erected by the Clinton/Hunter Foundation, the district would have been the cold spot on the Warm Heart of Africa.
Another district that has borne the brunt of neglect is Phalombe. Although Parliament approved a US$7 million (approximately K2.3 billion) debt from Badea (a grouping of Arabic governments), the people of Phalombe continue to depend on private hospitals. Apart from the living, the dead also suffer- as their lifeless bodies are often ambulanced to Mulanje District Hospital or Zomba Central Hospital for storage.
But one other feature that betrays the term independence is the lack of lights (neon or otherwise) on bill boards announcing one’s arrival to a city, district, or town assembly. When local or foreign tourists drive into a different administrative area, they are more likely to miss the message ‘Welcome to Chikhwawa/Salima/or Nkhotakota’ at night because of the lack of lights.
No wonder that one foreign tourist, British citizen Michael Robinson, once asked me after we had driven past Chia Lagoon on our way from Salima to Nkhotakota Zero-Point (Central Business District): “So, where is the demarcation between Salima District and Nkhotakota?”
I told him it was the bill board we had driven past some five minutes, or so, before. He could not contain his laughter (read, mockery). He has missed the ‘Welcome to Nkhotakota message’ because it was dark outside. Robinson then schooled me on the meaning of lights, saying they symbolized the presence of people.
“If there are no lights, the way it is in most parts of Malawi, it means that the people there are dead,” Robinson said, to my chagrin.
The only time these light-less welcoming billboards are visible at night is when light from the headlights of an on-coming vehicle reflects against the billboards, revealing the ‘Welcome to…’ words. In which case, the headlights represent foreign influence because, without them, the message on the billboard remains invisible and thus dead.
Which raises the question: Can the dead claim to be independent?
Indeed, what is the meaning of independence when the aid budget in Malawi contributes up to 38 percent of GDP , which goes further to reveal our degree of dependence? What is the value of independence when the influence of bilateral and multilateral donors remains enormous? Is it Malawi that introduced Structural Adjustment Programmes against its own will, for example?
To say the truth, the country is indebted to foreign governments and donors. In the 2012/13 fiscal year- to quote Budget Document Number 5’s Draft Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital Budget for the Financial Year 2013/14- year-on-year interest on foreign debt amounted to K3.9 billion, and will hit K5.2 billion in the 2013/14 national budget.
It is estimated that the figure will inflate during the 2014/15 fiscal year, hitting K8.4 billion.
The fact that interest on domestic debt in the 2012/13 fiscal year hit K28.9 billion- and is expected to hit K30.3 billion in the 2013/14 budget, and K35.0 billion in the 2014/15 fiscal year- only buttresses the point that the citizens of independent Malawi are forever dependent on others!
Consumer rights activist, John Kapito, says that poverty and the heavy yoke of debt may forever weigh down Malawi’s fragile back because of greed among politicians.
“Politicians think only of themselves. They get into the government poorer than a church mouse, and get out extravagantly richer. Our leaders think not of people but themselves. They are guided by greed,” Kapito says.
Untying the tentacles of greed
Did Kapito say greed?
The great philosopher, Aristotle, in the Fifth Book of his Nicomachean Ethics, observes, in a get-over-the-hill-the-way-you-like way, that greed is the “extreme opposite of justice”.
To which the great Italian poet and politician, Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), adds: “Greed ignores man himself and seeks other things, but charity ignores all other things and seeks God and man, and consequently man’s good.”
Freedom, adds Dante, consists of being ruled by reason and in living for the goal of mankind.
“We must realise that the basic principle of our freedom is freedom to choose, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds. For they go only so far as to say freedom of choice is freedom of will in judging. This is true, but they do not understand its import. They talk as our logicians do, who for their exercises in logic constantly use certain propositions, such as ‘A triangle has three angles equal to two right angles’ (they just confuse people).”
The implication of this observation is that, even after collectively toppling the colonial regimes that presided over the affairs of Africa after the Partition of Africa (set rolling after the Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885), post-independence leaders rule simply because they want to unify their people, other than bringing real development to them. And, soon, excitement turns into murkiness as citizens’ hopes falter.
Which brings us to the conclusion made by one author, long before Malawi came into existence.
“But”, observed Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778), author of books such as Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755) and The Social Contract (1762), “in truth, what else was to be expected? Every community without laws and without rulers, every union formed and maintained by nothing better than chance, must inevitably fall into quarrels and dissensions at the fist change that comes about.”
May be this change- after colonialism and one party rule- was the democratic government that came into force in 1994. But, like those before it, the citizens have not, really, benefited, and all the democratic regimes are bound to fall ‘at the first change that comes about’.
May be this state of affairs could be blamed on the governance systems adopted by the leaders. Emmanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), in his tell-it-as-it-is book Perpetual Peace (written in 1795 when he was 71 years old) observes that there are some three notable maxims that leaders who are bound to fall follow, namely: Fac et excusa (First do and then excuse); Si fecisti nega (Deny whatever you have committed); Divide et impera (divide and govern).
According to Kant, leaders who adopt the Fac et Excusa concept “seize every favourable opportunity of usurping a right over their own state, or a neighbouring state. After the action, its justification may be made with greater ease and elegance…”
The Si fecisti nega type, however, deny whatever they have committed. “For instance, if you have reduced your people to despair, and thus to rebellion, do not confess it was through your fault. Place all (blame) to the account of the stubbornness of your subjects. If you have taken possession of a neighbouring state, maintain that the fault lies in the nature of man, who, if he is not anticipating, will certainly seize upon the fortunes of another.”
But it is the Divide et impera type that behaves in a funny way. “If there exists among a people certain privileged chiefs who have conferred upon you sovereign power (primus inter pares), set them at variance with each other, embroil them with the people. Favour the latter and promise them more liberty, and all will soon depend on thy will. Or if your views extend to foreign states, excite discord among them; and, under pretense of always assisting the weaker, you will soon subject them all, one after the other.”
It is these leadership qualities, may be, that have turned independence into nothing more than a fallacy.
Independence doesn’t exist
When everything is said and done, is there any such a thing as independence?
Dante said independence, or put the other way, sovereignty, doesn’t exist.
Said Dante: “Furthermore, human society is a totality in relation to its parts, but is itself a part of another totality. For it is the totality of particular states and peoples, as we have seen, but it is obviously a mere part of the whole universe. Therefore, as through it the lower parts of human society are well ordered, so it, too, should fit into the order of the universe as a whole.
“But its parts are well ordered only on the basis of a single principle, and hence it too must be well ordered on the basis of a single principle, namely through its governor, God, who is the absolute world government. Hence we conclude that a single world government is necessary for the well-being of the world.”
On the other hand, it could be that independence really exists, but, like a ‘tender stem of a reed’, it has been overstretched by the machinations of post-independent leaders, making it lose one of freedom’s essential ingredients, namely: The Common Good!
After all, didn’t the poet Bouterweck warn against stretching the reed so much when he recited, before Malawi was born, thus:
Bend the tender stem of a reed;
Bend it too much and it breaks.
He who attempts too much attempts nothing.
And the young man saw that deserting the elder guardian’s care was not enough!
The young man, consequently- having retired from his elder guardian’s care for the unknown bush- shrugged off all the Black Jack’s hooks that clung to his only shirt, opting for the heat emitted by the fragile rays of a rising sun!
Thus, in a village half-known to the world, a new nation was born. Malawi!
Did Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), the legal expert, politician and author realize that this was bound to happen, anyway, when he said, “But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct, are once thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself violently distempered, the people must have some satisfaction to their feelings more solid than sophistical speculation on law and government”?
He might have known.
The road to hope
If not, why did people like Rev. John Chilembwe (1871 – 1915)- who, some historians argue, inflamed the seeds of nationalism when he led the natives of Chiradzulu in rebellion against Thangata system (bonded labour)), hut tax, and other ills on 23 January, 1915- rise up against the British authorities?
Burke argues, in his Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, that “I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the difficulty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the provinces which they must enjoy, or they will not be provinces at all.”
Indeed, it is the shortfalls, and excesses, of the diversified British Empire that begum to inflame and disorient the natives, culminating in the fight for Malawi’s independence- pressure that bore fruit on 6 July 1964.
The British Empire- so outstretched and magnanimous - could no longer cope up with the demands of a ‘vast, disconnected, infinitely diversified empire’, a responsibility that came with the prestige of being the ‘elder guardian’ of many peoples. And, as destiny would have it, that responsibility started to wane when, in the 1950s, agitations for independent rule increased.
What hastened this state of affairs was the colonial rulers’ ill-fated decision to form the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia in 1953, bringing Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Malawi into an unholy alliance that was doomed to fail due to opposition from nationalists.
Proponents of independence had their ranks strengthened when Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who had been studying medicine in the United States of America, returned home on 6 July, 1958. So determined was Banda to break “the stupid federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia” that he accepted to become the leader of the National African Congress [Nac –the modern day Malawi Congress Party (MCP)]. The Nac was a child of the educated Nyasaland elite who wanted more freedoms and expressed their grievances- first through natives’ associations and, then, the Nac- with willful force.
And, for his daring spirit, Banda was arrested and sent to Gwelo Prison in Zimbabwe- only to be released in 1960, so he could attend a constitutional conference in London, United Kingdom. After that, it was journey-started for the MCP, which went on to score an overwhelming victory when elections for a new Legislative Council were held on 15 April 1961.
This victory, and growing calls for self-rule, prompted the British government to offer Nyasaland self-governing status in 1963, a development borne out of November 1962 Constitutional Conference held in London. And, as promised, Banda assumed the position of Prime Minister on 1 February 1963, though he did not become the de facto leader because the British administrators maintained a strong hold on key aspects such as judicial, financial, and security operations.
Chances of Nyasaland finally detaching herself from Britain then grew following the adoption of a new constitution in May 1963, and the subsequent abolition of the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia on 31 December 1963. The implication was that, as the new day dawned on the Land of the Lake, a new nation was born. Within seven months, on 6 July 1964, the former British colony became a member of the Commonwealth.
It had been a long journey; a journey that ended in favour of the British by chance. While the Portuguese reached this part of Africa much earlier, with records stretching their presence as earlier as the 16th Century, it was Scottish missionary Dr. David Livingstone’s 1859 visit to Lake Nyasa that titled the stakes in favour of the British!
And Livingstone’s troubles were rewarded 32 years later when the British government declared Nyasaland a protectorate in 1891.
However, it was until 1966 that the prodigal son (Malawi) adopted a new constitution that paved the way for a one party state. And it was Banda, who had become the symbol of Malawi’s enduring spirit, who became the first President.
But his road, like the colonial one before it, had to reach a point of no-through road. That happened when Malawians voted in favour of multiparty democracy during the Referendum of June 1993.
And, what had, for 30 years, been a single party state stretched into a democracy after the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections of May 1994. The electorate gave the United Democratic front (UDF) the mandate to rule democratic Malawi by electing 82 of its 177 Parliamentary candidates to the National Assembly.
But, in spite of the UDF’s third successive victory in the Presidential elections of 2004, the party was dealt a heavy blow when its winning presidential candidate, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, announced on February 5, 2005 that he had dished the party because its leaders were frowning upon his zero tolerance for corruption crusade.
Thus, just in the nick of time, the UDF became an elections’ winning opposition party! Mutharika later formed the Democratic Progressive Party (MCP), prompting seasoned politicians such as former Speaker of the National Assembly Sam Mpasu to question the logic of forming a political party while in government. His argument was that one “forms a political party in order to get into government, instead of getting into government in order to form a political party”.
It was a puzzle. Really. A puzzle replayed on the DPP following Mutharika’s sudden death on 5 April 2012. His DPP had been a ruling party on this day, only to be pushed to the opposition benches in Parliament when President Joyce Banda was sworn in on April 7. Her Peoples Party moved from being an aspiring ruling party to a ruling party.
Such have been some of the jig-saws strewn along Malawi’s independence path.
Contrasting signs
However, while the country has made strides in improving the living standards of its people, the path has been thorny for a large part. In their Democracy Report for Malawi, for example, Dr. Wiseman Chirwa et al aptly observe: “The 1990s witnessed a remarkable surge in civil society in unmistakable stages of development, but which in the end failed to act in concert with the state to pursue a socio-economic programme.
“The population labours heroically to make a living by scarce means; adult literacy is 57 percent (42 percent for women), infant mortality is high, and nutritional indicators are subject to the harvest and vagaries of household income”.
As a result, “Malawi is among the poorest and most foreign-indebted countries in the world, nine-tenths of all people making a living from low-productivity agriculture…Less than half of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) comes from agriculture, though the high-value segment of the sector provides 90 percent of exports. Industry accounts for 12 percent of GDP; a third is agro-based for export.
“In the decades since Independence, Malawi has partaken of the continent's sharp fluctuations in growth. In the manner of other sub-Saharan countries, it has had to reform its economy without much improvement of its meagre productive base. Acute inflation and stagnant peasant agriculture characterise the economy. Creating jobs, guaranteeing food, strengthening infrastructure for production, correcting mal-distribution, and reining in prices are priority socio-economic tasks in this young democracy.”
Until that is done, however, the living conditions among ordinary citizens will continue to be dire.
However, other researchers have been more sympathetic to Malawi’s situation. In his article, Economic developments in Malawi Since Independence, published in the Journal of Southern African Studies (Vol. 2, No. 1), Simon Thomas observes that, “ideally, the actual performance of the economy should be compared with its potential, but, given the possibility of different objectives by policy makers, this potential has no uniquely defined meaning.”
Adds Thomas: “To compare the situation before and after independence is likely to be meaningless if either the objectives of policy or external economic environment have radically altered. An alternative approach might be to compare Malawi’s economic policies and performance with that of a country with similar resources and objectives, but no similar country exists for such a comparison to be made.”
This notwithstanding, documents from the Ministry of Finance indicate that the country’s economy continues to perform relatively well against its own history, as seen when Malawi maintained single-digit inflation during the later part of Mutharika’s regime.
The domestic debt got sliced as well, from 25 percent of GDP in 2004 to 11.6 percent of GDP in the 2010/2011 fiscal year; with the budget deficit being reduced from 7.8 percent of GDP in 2003/2004 financial year to 1.5 percent of GDP in 2010/2011 financial year.
While economic, political and social commentators may continue to debate the pros and cons of judging Malawi’s performance, what is clear is that the pillar of independence is now of 49 years’ standing.
The road to nowhere
Even though Malawians purchased their freedom after a long struggle, and constructed their pillar of independence using the moisture in their blood, there is little to show for their pain- at least in some social and economic respects.
For the ordinary citizen, the road to sustainable development has had various windings, raising doubts that citizens’ aspirations were about to be met. It is like the nation has abandoned the right path.
After all, didn’t Voltaire (1694 – 1778) not warn “That a right line, which is a right line so long as it is finite, by changing infinitely little its direction, becomes an infinite curve; and that a curve may become infinitely less than another curve”?
Supposing the ‘right line’ to be development, can we say that we have stayed the course when public projects whose funding has been approved by Parliament go unimplemented?
The Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) sums this well when, in its Policy Brief No. 1: The Paradox of Continuous Foreign Borrowing in a Rash of Stalled debt Sponsored Projects, it observes that a number of health care service and road construction projects have been abandoned after due Parliamentary approval.
Mathias Burton Kafunda of CfSC’s Economic Governance Programme observes that the government should take the flak for this. “The reasons for the rash of stalled or abandoned debt sponsored infrastructural and other projects across the country are often not too far to seek. For one, there is the poor performance by the government itself. For decades Malawi’s reform efforts to make an impact with foreign borrowed money have been Tango 1-2-3 movements: One step forwards, two sideways and three backward.
“There is no penalty within government for bad borrowing decisions or poor project implementation. And in respect of improving delivery of ‘pro-poor’ services, the mindset of the Political/bureaucratic elite is similar to Rhet Butler’s famous last words in Gone with the Wind:Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’. The accountability of government officials to the citizens is far more attenuated; in effect, it is utterly non-existent.”
This lack of accountability and neglect manifests itself in Neno district, probably the only fully-fledged district without a tarred road in Malawi. Save for the modern health facilities erected by the Clinton/Hunter Foundation, the district would have been the cold spot on the Warm Heart of Africa.
Another district that has borne the brunt of neglect is Phalombe. Although Parliament approved a US$7 million (approximately K2.3 billion) debt from Badea (a grouping of Arabic governments), the people of Phalombe continue to depend on private hospitals. Apart from the living, the dead also suffer- as their lifeless bodies are often ambulanced to Mulanje District Hospital or Zomba Central Hospital for storage.
But one other feature that betrays the term independence is the lack of lights (neon or otherwise) on bill boards announcing one’s arrival to a city, district, or town assembly. When local or foreign tourists drive into a different administrative area, they are more likely to miss the message ‘Welcome to Chikhwawa/Salima/or Nkhotakota’ at night because of the lack of lights.
No wonder that one foreign tourist, British citizen Michael Robinson, once asked me after we had driven past Chia Lagoon on our way from Salima to Nkhotakota Zero-Point (Central Business District): “So, where is the demarcation between Salima District and Nkhotakota?”
I told him it was the bill board we had driven past some five minutes, or so, before. He could not contain his laughter (read, mockery). He has missed the ‘Welcome to Nkhotakota message’ because it was dark outside. Robinson then schooled me on the meaning of lights, saying they symbolized the presence of people.
“If there are no lights, the way it is in most parts of Malawi, it means that the people there are dead,” Robinson said, to my chagrin.
The only time these light-less welcoming billboards are visible at night is when light from the headlights of an on-coming vehicle reflects against the billboards, revealing the ‘Welcome to…’ words. In which case, the headlights represent foreign influence because, without them, the message on the billboard remains invisible and thus dead.
Which raises the question: Can the dead claim to be independent?
Indeed, what is the meaning of independence when the aid budget in Malawi contributes up to 38 percent of GDP , which goes further to reveal our degree of dependence? What is the value of independence when the influence of bilateral and multilateral donors remains enormous? Is it Malawi that introduced Structural Adjustment Programmes against its own will, for example?
To say the truth, the country is indebted to foreign governments and donors. In the 2012/13 fiscal year- to quote Budget Document Number 5’s Draft Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital Budget for the Financial Year 2013/14- year-on-year interest on foreign debt amounted to K3.9 billion, and will hit K5.2 billion in the 2013/14 national budget.
It is estimated that the figure will inflate during the 2014/15 fiscal year, hitting K8.4 billion.
The fact that interest on domestic debt in the 2012/13 fiscal year hit K28.9 billion- and is expected to hit K30.3 billion in the 2013/14 budget, and K35.0 billion in the 2014/15 fiscal year- only buttresses the point that the citizens of independent Malawi are forever dependent on others!
Consumer rights activist, John Kapito, says that poverty and the heavy yoke of debt may forever weigh down Malawi’s fragile back because of greed among politicians.
“Politicians think only of themselves. They get into the government poorer than a church mouse, and get out extravagantly richer. Our leaders think not of people but themselves. They are guided by greed,” Kapito says.
Untying the tentacles of greed
Did Kapito say greed?
The great philosopher, Aristotle, in the Fifth Book of his Nicomachean Ethics, observes, in a get-over-the-hill-the-way-you-like way, that greed is the “extreme opposite of justice”.
To which the great Italian poet and politician, Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), adds: “Greed ignores man himself and seeks other things, but charity ignores all other things and seeks God and man, and consequently man’s good.”
Freedom, adds Dante, consists of being ruled by reason and in living for the goal of mankind.
“We must realise that the basic principle of our freedom is freedom to choose, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds. For they go only so far as to say freedom of choice is freedom of will in judging. This is true, but they do not understand its import. They talk as our logicians do, who for their exercises in logic constantly use certain propositions, such as ‘A triangle has three angles equal to two right angles’ (they just confuse people).”
The implication of this observation is that, even after collectively toppling the colonial regimes that presided over the affairs of Africa after the Partition of Africa (set rolling after the Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885), post-independence leaders rule simply because they want to unify their people, other than bringing real development to them. And, soon, excitement turns into murkiness as citizens’ hopes falter.
Which brings us to the conclusion made by one author, long before Malawi came into existence.
“But”, observed Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778), author of books such as Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755) and The Social Contract (1762), “in truth, what else was to be expected? Every community without laws and without rulers, every union formed and maintained by nothing better than chance, must inevitably fall into quarrels and dissensions at the fist change that comes about.”
May be this change- after colonialism and one party rule- was the democratic government that came into force in 1994. But, like those before it, the citizens have not, really, benefited, and all the democratic regimes are bound to fall ‘at the first change that comes about’.
May be this state of affairs could be blamed on the governance systems adopted by the leaders. Emmanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), in his tell-it-as-it-is book Perpetual Peace (written in 1795 when he was 71 years old) observes that there are some three notable maxims that leaders who are bound to fall follow, namely: Fac et excusa (First do and then excuse); Si fecisti nega (Deny whatever you have committed); Divide et impera (divide and govern).
According to Kant, leaders who adopt the Fac et Excusa concept “seize every favourable opportunity of usurping a right over their own state, or a neighbouring state. After the action, its justification may be made with greater ease and elegance…”
The Si fecisti nega type, however, deny whatever they have committed. “For instance, if you have reduced your people to despair, and thus to rebellion, do not confess it was through your fault. Place all (blame) to the account of the stubbornness of your subjects. If you have taken possession of a neighbouring state, maintain that the fault lies in the nature of man, who, if he is not anticipating, will certainly seize upon the fortunes of another.”
But it is the Divide et impera type that behaves in a funny way. “If there exists among a people certain privileged chiefs who have conferred upon you sovereign power (primus inter pares), set them at variance with each other, embroil them with the people. Favour the latter and promise them more liberty, and all will soon depend on thy will. Or if your views extend to foreign states, excite discord among them; and, under pretense of always assisting the weaker, you will soon subject them all, one after the other.”
It is these leadership qualities, may be, that have turned independence into nothing more than a fallacy.
Independence doesn’t exist
When everything is said and done, is there any such a thing as independence?
Dante said independence, or put the other way, sovereignty, doesn’t exist.
Said Dante: “Furthermore, human society is a totality in relation to its parts, but is itself a part of another totality. For it is the totality of particular states and peoples, as we have seen, but it is obviously a mere part of the whole universe. Therefore, as through it the lower parts of human society are well ordered, so it, too, should fit into the order of the universe as a whole.
“But its parts are well ordered only on the basis of a single principle, and hence it too must be well ordered on the basis of a single principle, namely through its governor, God, who is the absolute world government. Hence we conclude that a single world government is necessary for the well-being of the world.”
On the other hand, it could be that independence really exists, but, like a ‘tender stem of a reed’, it has been overstretched by the machinations of post-independent leaders, making it lose one of freedom’s essential ingredients, namely: The Common Good!
After all, didn’t the poet Bouterweck warn against stretching the reed so much when he recited, before Malawi was born, thus:
Bend the tender stem of a reed;
Bend it too much and it breaks.
He who attempts too much attempts nothing.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Witchcraft: Malawi's Dogmatic Monster!
Forty-two year old Jonathan Mbulaje from Kanjuli village in the area of Traditional Authority Kamenyagwaza, Dedza, once sacrificed the outer part of his left ear to rumour; now, he struggles to live up to the haunting reality he will never have it back.
It all started as a simple matter one September day in 1999 when, after establishing a flourishing maize mill enterprise that helped save people from the hassles of traveling a sweat-filled seven kilometers to either Bembeke Trading Centre or (Bembeke) Turn-off, he was accused of ‘magically’ killing people and placing them inside his mill. The locals generally believe that, when that happens, the business thrives, generating quick returns.
“The next thing...I was awakened around mid-night by the thunderous roll of people who, first, smashed the window panes of my house and then broke my door. Some of them bit me up and...I don’t really remember what actually happened next but I just felt blood oozing from my left ear;(and) when I touched it, the left part was not there. Where it went, who took it, and for what reason, I will never know," says Mbulaje, adding:
“But that experience shuttered and devastated me, mainly because what they said was not true. In fact, I have never believed that there is witchcraft, that these things are real. I feel the whole belief is merely opium smoke from exhausted brains. We can never develop with this attitude and that’s the reason I left the area a long time ago and am now into cross-border trade, buying things like brankets and shit-beds in South Africa for sale back home,” says Mbulaje.
The father of six adds that when the mob realised that he had lost an ear, they became scared, knowing it would now be a Police case, and disappeared quieter than they came. Some of them were fellow villagers, he says.
Mbulaje must have been fortunate to have escaped with his life as others, like 82-year old Patani Phiri from Nkhota-kota, lost their lives under similar circumstances.
Worse still, there are scores that have been chased from their respective communities- the only people and places they probably ever knew in this life turning their backs on them, as Civil Liberties Committee Executive Director Emmie Chanika observes. Over the years, her organisation has been over-whelmed with requests for shelter and legal aid from individuals suspected by their communities to be practicing witchcraft.
“It’s really becoming nasty and worrisome. Innocent people are being victimized, maimed, even killed –all this for something as nonsense as witchcraft,” says Chanika.
“But, somehow, we still have to do something. Government should stop burying its head in the sand like an ostrich. The thing is, our laws should now recognise the existence of witchcraft, realising that colonialists included a clause in the Witchcraft Act stipulating that anyone who accused another of practicing it was committing a criminal offence simply because it suited their interests. They never wanted mob justice in villages; they never wanted to see people being forced to drink Mchape, as used to happen with our early traditions and, really, it worked.”
According to the human rights activist, her organisation is currently working on a case where a civil servant in Chikwawa (name withheld) is being chased from an area on accusations of practicing witchcraft. Several children have complained that they were being taught witchcraft by the same- accusations the 'accused' denies.
As if to stamp the issues with his authority, the village headman jurisdicting over the area summoned the individual and ruled in his absence that she lives the area. But the suspect never appeared before the village court on grounds that, as a civil servant, she is not under the jurisdiction of the headman, an argument Cilic supports.
“In fact, we have told her not to move out, and we will make sure we get to the dead-end of this issue. Why it is that only women are accused of teaching children witchcraft? Where are the men in all this? I feel it is because, culturally and traditionally, women are looked down upon; they are the easy scape-goat.”
Pastor Willie Chaponda of Mustard Seed Ministries supports the idea of amending the Witchcraft Act, saying, as a church leader, he has received several complaints from people, lamenting about the practice. Witchcraft has reached a crescendo, he says.
Chaponda explains that he has, to date, received over a hundred people asking him to pray for either them or their children because they are “active witches. So,he says, witchcraft is really there and needs to be recognized as such. There must also be clearly-stipulated punishments for those practicing it to bring back sanity in our communities.
He describes as a fallacy assertions to the effect that only those who accept practicing, “rather, the constitution says ‘pretending' to practice”, should be punished because we know it (witchcraft) is there but not everybody can just come forward and say ‘I practice it’”.
He has ‘proof’: “I once went to minister at a funeral in Chiradzulu and was bewildered that, upon my arrival, children who had been there since morning started to disperse one by one. When I enquired as to what the matter was, I was told that the children had heard that I exorcise people of witchcraft through prayer, and were afraid that I would do the same to them. Here, we see children who practiced witchcraft running away on their own, showing that the practice is there.”
Chaponda even adds that witchcraft varies with the extent of years in practice, it has degrees. It is difficult to pray for someone who has practiced for a long time, and it takes time to exorcise them completely. To some extent, people even vomit such things as snakes, frogs and centipedes, he reveals.
Elizabeth Divala, Blantyre Police Spokesperson- while acknowledging that her office has received as many as 20 cases of witchcraft, with six convictions of self-confessed practitioners (the law says pretenders)- argues that the issue is made complicated by lack of enabling legislation, as the current Act does not recognize witchcraft.
She says the Victim Support Unit (VSU) refers cases of witchcraft back to traditional leaders or the clergy, and that there have been some cases of success in that area, especially with people who are willing to be helped and thus confess.
“These are more-less like spiritual issues because they are mainly perceptions to do with the mind; we are talking about something people say is there but cannot point out (its) form. The only time it works with us is when individuals confess, and we open a file under the charges of pretending to practice witchcraft. Apart from that, we seek the help of religious leaders who seem to be helping us a lot,” says Divala.
Grant Chipangula, Traditional Healers Association of Malawi president, adds his voice to the hot-potato issue. He says any legislation dealing with witchcraft should first be handled by traditional doctors because they are the only ‘experts’ on the issue and, to that effect, more likely to find a remedy over the witchcraft jig-saw.
“Only us,traditional doctors and healers, can providing a lasting solution to this. The problem is that policy makers tend to over-look us, thinking we are less educated to grasp issues they treat as technical. But in our area, and the issue of witchcraft is a very good example, we are our own experts," says Chipangula.
His words could be sober and worth considering, it seems. What with African Network for the Protection and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN)-Malawi Chapter Executive Director, Ken Williams Mhango, claiming there is even a school drilling children in the practice in Salima district.
The organisation conducted a survey between January and February this year in Machinga. Among other findings, children who confessed to practing the same complained that those who refused t learn the 'trade' from parents or relatives suffered various kinds of abuse.
"Around 60 of the children we interviewed complained that they were subjected to physical assaults as well as food deprivation, so you can see that there is a relationship between child abuse and witchcraft. In fact, the issue also touches on other areas of development such as education, as most children end up sleeping in class instead of being attentive simply because they had been busy all night," says Mhango.
And in Salima, he adds, they established that there was a school training children in witchcraft. 'Around 1000 children are said to be in attendance, and 50 graduate every month".
"These things are real; let us look back into the law. A law that betrays the wishes of the people is not a law, it is a flaw."
Inside the law
Studies conducted by the Association for Secular Humanism indicate that up to 87 percent of Malawians believe in witchcraft.
This is despite he existence of a Witchcraft Act that renders it an offence (Section 4) to accuse any person of practicing witchcraft or being a witch. Those who perpetuate such an offence attract a fine of K25, 000 and up to a prison sentence of five years with hard labour.
That is not all, though. Section 5 makes it an offence to employ a sing’anga, sangoma (witchdoctor) to name-call or identify witches in a community. In that case, the personage is liable to a fine of K 25,000 and to imprisonment for five years if found guilty by the court.
And, as if taking cognisance of the fact that traditional leaders are sometimes in the lead, when it comes to accusing some of their subjects of practicing witchcraft, Section 7 stops chiefs from allowing witch-hunting in their communities.
‘Disobedient’ chiefs pay heavily- by local standards- for their role, as they are liable to a fine of K 25,000 and to imprisonment for five years.
Section 8 of the Witchcraft Act then caps it all by implicitly declaring that the calling of witch- finders or witchdoctors is illegal and that every person pretending to exercise such calling commits a crime and is liable to imprisonment for life.
Lastly, Section 3 stipulates that those who avail themselves, or participate in witch-hunting practices shall be liable to a fine of K5, 000 and serve one year in prison.
It all started as a simple matter one September day in 1999 when, after establishing a flourishing maize mill enterprise that helped save people from the hassles of traveling a sweat-filled seven kilometers to either Bembeke Trading Centre or (Bembeke) Turn-off, he was accused of ‘magically’ killing people and placing them inside his mill. The locals generally believe that, when that happens, the business thrives, generating quick returns.
“The next thing...I was awakened around mid-night by the thunderous roll of people who, first, smashed the window panes of my house and then broke my door. Some of them bit me up and...I don’t really remember what actually happened next but I just felt blood oozing from my left ear;(and) when I touched it, the left part was not there. Where it went, who took it, and for what reason, I will never know," says Mbulaje, adding:
“But that experience shuttered and devastated me, mainly because what they said was not true. In fact, I have never believed that there is witchcraft, that these things are real. I feel the whole belief is merely opium smoke from exhausted brains. We can never develop with this attitude and that’s the reason I left the area a long time ago and am now into cross-border trade, buying things like brankets and shit-beds in South Africa for sale back home,” says Mbulaje.
The father of six adds that when the mob realised that he had lost an ear, they became scared, knowing it would now be a Police case, and disappeared quieter than they came. Some of them were fellow villagers, he says.
Mbulaje must have been fortunate to have escaped with his life as others, like 82-year old Patani Phiri from Nkhota-kota, lost their lives under similar circumstances.
Worse still, there are scores that have been chased from their respective communities- the only people and places they probably ever knew in this life turning their backs on them, as Civil Liberties Committee Executive Director Emmie Chanika observes. Over the years, her organisation has been over-whelmed with requests for shelter and legal aid from individuals suspected by their communities to be practicing witchcraft.
“It’s really becoming nasty and worrisome. Innocent people are being victimized, maimed, even killed –all this for something as nonsense as witchcraft,” says Chanika.
“But, somehow, we still have to do something. Government should stop burying its head in the sand like an ostrich. The thing is, our laws should now recognise the existence of witchcraft, realising that colonialists included a clause in the Witchcraft Act stipulating that anyone who accused another of practicing it was committing a criminal offence simply because it suited their interests. They never wanted mob justice in villages; they never wanted to see people being forced to drink Mchape, as used to happen with our early traditions and, really, it worked.”
According to the human rights activist, her organisation is currently working on a case where a civil servant in Chikwawa (name withheld) is being chased from an area on accusations of practicing witchcraft. Several children have complained that they were being taught witchcraft by the same- accusations the 'accused' denies.
As if to stamp the issues with his authority, the village headman jurisdicting over the area summoned the individual and ruled in his absence that she lives the area. But the suspect never appeared before the village court on grounds that, as a civil servant, she is not under the jurisdiction of the headman, an argument Cilic supports.
“In fact, we have told her not to move out, and we will make sure we get to the dead-end of this issue. Why it is that only women are accused of teaching children witchcraft? Where are the men in all this? I feel it is because, culturally and traditionally, women are looked down upon; they are the easy scape-goat.”
Pastor Willie Chaponda of Mustard Seed Ministries supports the idea of amending the Witchcraft Act, saying, as a church leader, he has received several complaints from people, lamenting about the practice. Witchcraft has reached a crescendo, he says.
Chaponda explains that he has, to date, received over a hundred people asking him to pray for either them or their children because they are “active witches. So,he says, witchcraft is really there and needs to be recognized as such. There must also be clearly-stipulated punishments for those practicing it to bring back sanity in our communities.
He describes as a fallacy assertions to the effect that only those who accept practicing, “rather, the constitution says ‘pretending' to practice”, should be punished because we know it (witchcraft) is there but not everybody can just come forward and say ‘I practice it’”.
He has ‘proof’: “I once went to minister at a funeral in Chiradzulu and was bewildered that, upon my arrival, children who had been there since morning started to disperse one by one. When I enquired as to what the matter was, I was told that the children had heard that I exorcise people of witchcraft through prayer, and were afraid that I would do the same to them. Here, we see children who practiced witchcraft running away on their own, showing that the practice is there.”
Chaponda even adds that witchcraft varies with the extent of years in practice, it has degrees. It is difficult to pray for someone who has practiced for a long time, and it takes time to exorcise them completely. To some extent, people even vomit such things as snakes, frogs and centipedes, he reveals.
Elizabeth Divala, Blantyre Police Spokesperson- while acknowledging that her office has received as many as 20 cases of witchcraft, with six convictions of self-confessed practitioners (the law says pretenders)- argues that the issue is made complicated by lack of enabling legislation, as the current Act does not recognize witchcraft.
She says the Victim Support Unit (VSU) refers cases of witchcraft back to traditional leaders or the clergy, and that there have been some cases of success in that area, especially with people who are willing to be helped and thus confess.
“These are more-less like spiritual issues because they are mainly perceptions to do with the mind; we are talking about something people say is there but cannot point out (its) form. The only time it works with us is when individuals confess, and we open a file under the charges of pretending to practice witchcraft. Apart from that, we seek the help of religious leaders who seem to be helping us a lot,” says Divala.
Grant Chipangula, Traditional Healers Association of Malawi president, adds his voice to the hot-potato issue. He says any legislation dealing with witchcraft should first be handled by traditional doctors because they are the only ‘experts’ on the issue and, to that effect, more likely to find a remedy over the witchcraft jig-saw.
“Only us,traditional doctors and healers, can providing a lasting solution to this. The problem is that policy makers tend to over-look us, thinking we are less educated to grasp issues they treat as technical. But in our area, and the issue of witchcraft is a very good example, we are our own experts," says Chipangula.
His words could be sober and worth considering, it seems. What with African Network for the Protection and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN)-Malawi Chapter Executive Director, Ken Williams Mhango, claiming there is even a school drilling children in the practice in Salima district.
The organisation conducted a survey between January and February this year in Machinga. Among other findings, children who confessed to practing the same complained that those who refused t learn the 'trade' from parents or relatives suffered various kinds of abuse.
"Around 60 of the children we interviewed complained that they were subjected to physical assaults as well as food deprivation, so you can see that there is a relationship between child abuse and witchcraft. In fact, the issue also touches on other areas of development such as education, as most children end up sleeping in class instead of being attentive simply because they had been busy all night," says Mhango.
And in Salima, he adds, they established that there was a school training children in witchcraft. 'Around 1000 children are said to be in attendance, and 50 graduate every month".
"These things are real; let us look back into the law. A law that betrays the wishes of the people is not a law, it is a flaw."
Inside the law
Studies conducted by the Association for Secular Humanism indicate that up to 87 percent of Malawians believe in witchcraft.
This is despite he existence of a Witchcraft Act that renders it an offence (Section 4) to accuse any person of practicing witchcraft or being a witch. Those who perpetuate such an offence attract a fine of K25, 000 and up to a prison sentence of five years with hard labour.
That is not all, though. Section 5 makes it an offence to employ a sing’anga, sangoma (witchdoctor) to name-call or identify witches in a community. In that case, the personage is liable to a fine of K 25,000 and to imprisonment for five years if found guilty by the court.
And, as if taking cognisance of the fact that traditional leaders are sometimes in the lead, when it comes to accusing some of their subjects of practicing witchcraft, Section 7 stops chiefs from allowing witch-hunting in their communities.
‘Disobedient’ chiefs pay heavily- by local standards- for their role, as they are liable to a fine of K 25,000 and to imprisonment for five years.
Section 8 of the Witchcraft Act then caps it all by implicitly declaring that the calling of witch- finders or witchdoctors is illegal and that every person pretending to exercise such calling commits a crime and is liable to imprisonment for life.
Lastly, Section 3 stipulates that those who avail themselves, or participate in witch-hunting practices shall be liable to a fine of K5, 000 and serve one year in prison.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
GOVERNANCE PLATFORM CALL FOR CREDIBLE AND CONSCIOUS DELIBERATION AND PASSING OF THE BUDGET: PARLIAMENT’S ROLE IN BUDGET REVIEW IS IRREPLACEABLE
PRESS RELEASE
Issued on Thursday, 20thJune 2013
INTRODUCTION
The Governance Platform (GP) is a grouping of civil society organizations that are currently implementing programmes that advance good governance in Malawi. As a loose grouping with a clear mandate to stir responsive transparency and
accountability and citizen voice, the GP was formed during the DPP-led administration as a mechanism for collective and proactive engagement with government, adding value and complementing to the work of like-minded CSOs.
Through this, the Governance Platform seeks to consolidate the efforts of CSOs in sustaining citizens’ voices on emerging socio-economic and political governance issues.
The GP has closely followed the tabling of the 2013/14 national budget statement by the Minister of Finance and continues to follow the mood, context of the subsequent plenary proceedings in Parliament. As a platform interested in budget credibility, including the much needed independence and increased role of Parliament in the budgetary processes; we, the undersigned, wish to raise a few observations that are CFSC critical in bringing the budget close and responsive to the citizenry issues of concern.
The GP is further mindful of the earlier comments and observations raised by different actors, and is therefore driven by its commitment to stewardship, service for mankind, trust, transparency, accountability and mutual respect.
BUDGET OVERVIEW
According to the Budget Statement for the 2013/14 fiscal year, the national budget is still being anchored around "No Net Domestic Financing". This fiscal anchor is reported to be premised at reducing the domestic debt stock to allow the private sector space to borrow at reasonable rates for productive investment.
Total revenues and grants for the 2013/14 financial year are expected to amount to K603.4 billion from K460.9 billion in 2012/13 FY. Domestic revenues are projected at K363.1 billion, representing 60.0 percent of total revenue and grants, while K240.3 billion are donor grants, representing 40.0 percent of total revenue and grants. Of the
total domestic revenues, tax revenues are projected at K328.1 billion while the non-tax revenues are estimated at K35.0 billion.
Grants, on the other hand are expected to increase by 36 percent from K177. 4 billion estimated for 2012/13 financial year to K240.3 billion.
The overall fiscal deficit for the 2013/14 FY is thus projected at K34.8 billion.
This deficit will be wholly financed by foreign borrowing amounting to K42.0 billion. Part of foreign borrowing will also finance domestic debt repayment of K7.2 billion which in turn will reduce the domestic debt stock from K170.6 billion at the end of 2012/13 financial year to K163.4 billion at the end of the 2013/14 financial year.
OUR OBSERVATIONS
• The Governance Platform partners are concerned that Government is not doing much to reduce the level of borrowing.
We note that while efforts are being made to stop domestic borrowing and repay domestic debt stock of about
MK170.8 billion, it appears that Government’s shift to foreign borrowing currently estimated at K42 billion puts to question its commitment to long term fiscal sustainability.
This is particularly important looking at the amount of loans Government is intending to borrow coupled with some of the seemingly unplanned project related loans that are not premised on viable returns.
• The Governance Platform is also worried with incorporation of some initiatives in the budget that are a duplication of existing Government’s efforts, and remain a drain of taxpayers through either direct financing or repayment of loans. One such effort is the new Mudzi Transformative Trust which in essence is a duplication of the Local Development Fund (LDF) and COMSIP projects.
As a platform we believe that any serious Government needs to be sensitive in avoiding efforts that are rather a burden to taxpayers, as this may be construed to be politically motivated ahead of the 2014 polls. It is our
considered view that any new initiative should be based on wide consultation and empirical evidence to justify its relevance and the prospects gains and returns on investments.
• While commending development partners for financing the budget to the tune of 41 percent of total expenditure, we therefore also wish to reiterate that Government needs to always strive to be cautious with donor aid as any lack of
concrete commitment from donors may render the national budget extremely difficult to execute. This is in line with other suggestions that Malawi should reflect and move with speed to reduce donor support through good, consistent
and sustainable monetary and fiscal policies. Unfortunately, it appears the Budget Statement remains blank and rather just ‘politically correct’ on strategies to reduce donor dependence but instead appeals for more support.
As a platform we believe this is attainable if Government is able to display total commitment in pronouncements and action reducing corruption and other forms of economic wastage.
• While the Budget Statement also makes emphasis on the development of the mining sector as a potential sector for economic growth in line with the Economic Recovery Programme, it is worrying that the statement lacks details
on the current performance of the sector to warrant this optimism for more tax incentives for recovery.
The Governance Platform is not in any way against provision of targeted incentives which are based on concrete economic prospect and a clear corporate social responsibility strategy for private investors; rather it remains worried that, unfortunately, to date, no one seems to know how much mining exploits such as Kayelekera and other operational ones are contributing in taxes or corporate social responsibility to serve as a basis for more such incentives.
It is even more worrisome that efforts by the August House to demand this information have always not been supported to facilitate the rich debate of the sector that should yield us the answers long awaited; thereby leaving room for perceived speculations about Government led corruption in the sector.
We cannot sing the song of the booming extractive industry in Malawi when there is no information made public as to how much Malawians are benefiting through taxes and other royalties. We are still not clearly told of development initiatives by government financed through the budget from proceeds from mining revenues thus far, for instance.
• The Governance Platform further notes that many changes have been effected to the current national budget in attempt to improve the budget classification and information. While some developments such as simplification of the budget documents are welcome, we are however concerned with the missing allocations in the name of reclassification.
While there have been verbal pronouncements by the Minister of Finance in explaining where certain votes have been allocated, it is rather doubtful if such information is worthy trusting in the absence of written information as it could be easy for Government to just make such verbal claims for purposes of passing the budget.
Similarly, the budget votes that many stakeholders have raised their concerns on need to be procedurally and accordingly adjusted without and not through verbal assurances only from the Minister of Finance.
• The Governance Platform still remains worried with the manner in which the State Residences vote was handled by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
This is made against the understanding that there was a strong contrary opinion demanding further explanation on this particular vote in the House and that amidst this, the “No Passing Vote” was more than the “Yes Passing Vote”, and contrary to this, the Deputy Speaker still declared the Vote passed.
While the intention of every Malawian is to have the budget passed, we are aware that passing the budget without accountability and scrutiny is not only counter-productive but also a recipe for laxity in the performance of the budget.
It is for this reason that we find the Deputy Speaker’s remarks urging Members of Parliament to pass the budget running contrary to their mandate. This, in a way, rather puts to question the neutrality of the Office of the Speaker in moderating the enactment of the national budget.
• The Platform finally observes a huge imbalance towards consumption without supportive focus to the productive sectors in line with the export-led growth through operationalisation of the National Export Strategy. A case in point is the FISP budget of MK60.1 billion in the MK118 billion budget for Ministry of Agriculture, which remains highly contentious with the gross in-efficiencies that are not giving us the returns on investments.
Perhaps it is high time that Government should rationalize such an allocation by for instance taking off say
MK20 billion (as championed by the Farmers Union of Malawi) towards the commercial oriented production for exports and forex generation.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Governance Platform is cognizance of the complexity of the budget design and the need to promote a fair balance between efforts for private investment and the call for duty to public service delivery.
The Platform agrees with Government that there is need to continue with a tight fiscal and monetary policy stance, to ensure that Government operations do not contribute to soaring inflation as well as interest rates; and the crowding out of the private sector.
However, as the Minister of Finance is calling for every citizen to continue to strive to live within our means, Government must also demonstrate by act and deeds that they are equally taking full responsibility in spending within their means without compromising on public service delivery.
Specifically, the Governance Platform wishes to make the following recommendations:
1. Parliament is encouraged to give the national budget due justice by ensuring that every vote is scrutinized and passed with clear understanding.
This is cognizance of the importance of the supply committee of the budget for which the Office of the Speaker needs to facilitate such rich critique rather than bulldoze the passing of the budget that lacks its people-centred and long term aspirations of Malawians.
It would be in the interest of Malawians to see unjustified allocations recommended for review or reduced or indeed
completely rejected such as the OPC, Minister’s Office, State Residence, FSIP and internal travels.
2. While the deficit in the budget has to be filled through borrowing from external sources or more revenue collection, we urge Government to be cautious with level of borrowing to avoid accumulating borrowing debt stock. It is for this reason that we find the shift from domestic borrowing to foreign borrowing as insignificant effort to the call to live within our means.
3. The Minister of Finance is duty bound to avail written evidence of explanations made on any missing budget allocations or those that have been reclassified as he is responding to concerns by the August House. We therefore caution Members of Parliaments from accepting verbal claims as there is a risk of passing a budget that looks different in the House yet executed in the same away as presented in the initial detailed draft budget estimates.
4. On one hand, we urge the donor community to fulfill its resource commitments for 2013 and beyond in order to support faster stability of the exchange rate and moderation of inflation.
On the other hand, we urge and insist that Parliament and Government should find concrete strategies to reduce donor
dependency both in the medium and long terms.
5. The Governance Platform reiterates the call for the establishment of the National Planning Commission. This will help to bring order in the borrowing of loans as currently there are some initiatives (such as Mudzi Transformative
Trust and one family one cow) that are not only suspicious but also not pressing priorities worthy investing on though politically popular.
We need choices and decisions that transcend political considerations.
6. In the work of self-reliance and economic recovery, we agree with Government that the people of Malawi have no wish to turn into a nation of subsidies.
By extension, we wish to bring to the attention of Government and Parliament that the people of Malawi are active and apt citizens to determine which subsidies are appropriate.
Henceforth, we urge politicians to desist from initiating more subsidies in the name of the poor for political mileage as doing so will trap Malawians in a cobweb of ‘dependency’ for life.
7. Above all, we urge Government to put in place concrete strategies to promote fiscal discipline and improved public service performance in view of the low absorption capacity as stated by the Minister of Finance. Government must therefore be on track to minimize wastage, and foster prudence in the management of public finance by among others strengthen systems and procedures, and a clear performance based awarding system for public servants.
We further reiterate our earlier appeal to Government to lead by example by ensuring that it avoids unnecessary expenditures in the budget which has the potential to undermine the burden that Malawians in general are bearing.
Endorsed by
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (national)
Centre for Social Concern (CFSC)
Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC)
Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN)
Malawi Justice Economic Network (MEJN)
Monday, June 10, 2013
LAUNCH OF THE 2014 TRIPARTITE ELECTIONS AND 2013-2017 STRATEGIC PLAN
09/06/13
The Malawi Electoral Commission is informing the general public that it will launch the 2014 Tripartite Elections, the Civic and Voter Education Strategy and the 2013 to 2017 Strategic Plan at Hotel Victoria in Blantyre on Friday, June 14, 2013 starting from 8.am.
Delegates to the launch will include Presidents and Secretaries General of all political parties registered in Malawi, government officials, civil society organizations, the academia, development partners, the media, members of the diplomatic corps and other electoral stakeholders. All these have been sent invitations.
During the function, the Commission will among other things present the long-awaited electoral calendar which will outline all electoral activities and their dates and attendant responsibilities for stakeholders.
The Commission will also present the delegates with the Civic and Voter Education Strategy which will be the blueprint and guide for the conduct of civic and voter education for the Tripartite Elections.
The five-year Strategic Plan presents an ambitious plan by the Commission to transform its functions and presents a roadmap for making MEC a centre of excellence in elections management in Malawi and beyond.
Both the Strategic Plan and the Civic and Voter Education Strategy have been developed with support from the European Union under the Democratic Governance Programme.
Willie Kalonga,
Chief Elections Officer
The Malawi Electoral Commission is informing the general public that it will launch the 2014 Tripartite Elections, the Civic and Voter Education Strategy and the 2013 to 2017 Strategic Plan at Hotel Victoria in Blantyre on Friday, June 14, 2013 starting from 8.am.
Delegates to the launch will include Presidents and Secretaries General of all political parties registered in Malawi, government officials, civil society organizations, the academia, development partners, the media, members of the diplomatic corps and other electoral stakeholders. All these have been sent invitations.
During the function, the Commission will among other things present the long-awaited electoral calendar which will outline all electoral activities and their dates and attendant responsibilities for stakeholders.
The Commission will also present the delegates with the Civic and Voter Education Strategy which will be the blueprint and guide for the conduct of civic and voter education for the Tripartite Elections.
The five-year Strategic Plan presents an ambitious plan by the Commission to transform its functions and presents a roadmap for making MEC a centre of excellence in elections management in Malawi and beyond.
Both the Strategic Plan and the Civic and Voter Education Strategy have been developed with support from the European Union under the Democratic Governance Programme.
Willie Kalonga,
Chief Elections Officer
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Pathological Point as Malawi's Flames Meet Namibia
This time next day, Malawians will have forgotten their pathological rivalry (when it comes to supporting local football clubs) buried it under the hut of sentimentality, and recovered their less pathological stance again - thanks to one-and-a-half hour of a common global war fought with leather 'bullets'!
What occasion is this, bring people of different temperaments and heights together? It's the Flames, of course- the Malawi National Football Team. The senior team.
The Flames face Namibia in a World Cup qualifier this Wednesday, a day when, to Malawians of all ages, all motifs will weave into one word: Flames!
Flames coach, Edington Ng'onamo, told Zachimalawi that his charges will be up to the task.
"We have done our home work. We are ready for battle. What we need is the support of our fans. We know it is a Wednesday, and Malawians are not used to this. Still, they should come in their numbers," Ng'onamo said.
When the Flames faced Namibia in Windhoek earlier this year, they came back victorious- without nursing the scars of a bad memory. Indeed, they overwhelmed their luggage with stories packed in humorous knots.
What occasion is this, bring people of different temperaments and heights together? It's the Flames, of course- the Malawi National Football Team. The senior team.
The Flames face Namibia in a World Cup qualifier this Wednesday, a day when, to Malawians of all ages, all motifs will weave into one word: Flames!
Flames coach, Edington Ng'onamo, told Zachimalawi that his charges will be up to the task.
"We have done our home work. We are ready for battle. What we need is the support of our fans. We know it is a Wednesday, and Malawians are not used to this. Still, they should come in their numbers," Ng'onamo said.
When the Flames faced Namibia in Windhoek earlier this year, they came back victorious- without nursing the scars of a bad memory. Indeed, they overwhelmed their luggage with stories packed in humorous knots.
Monday, June 3, 2013
South Korea Jobs: Government Says Dealing with Private Agencies
Moon Sung Hwan,Director at the Africa Division of South Korea's Foreign Ministry, was right, after all.
The sting in Hwan's words that “Our government has not received any official request from Malawi that they want to send their workers to our country” has evolved, within 60 hours, into a soft caress.
Malawi's Youth and Sports Minister, Enock Chihana, has acknowledged that the Malawi Government has not been dealing with the government of South Korea, putting its trust in private agencies, instead.
"We are working with private agencies. There is nothing strange with this. It is normal, in some cases, to deal with agencies," Chihana told Zachimalawi on Monday.
Chihana said, however, that this did not mean that the deal was risky, maintaining that the Malawi Government would do everything possible to safeguard the rights of its citizens.
"We are following all the necessary processes. Visas are being processed. We don't think that the government there (South Korea) can deny our youths visas simply because we are dealing with private agencies. We are following all the normal procedures," Chihana said.
He said the government of Malawi wanted to create employment opportunities for its youth, a development he said would help "develop the nation as a whole, and our economy in particular".
"This is a caring government. President Dr. Joyce Banda has the interest of Malawians at heart," Chihana said.
The sting in Hwan's words that “Our government has not received any official request from Malawi that they want to send their workers to our country” has evolved, within 60 hours, into a soft caress.
Malawi's Youth and Sports Minister, Enock Chihana, has acknowledged that the Malawi Government has not been dealing with the government of South Korea, putting its trust in private agencies, instead.
"We are working with private agencies. There is nothing strange with this. It is normal, in some cases, to deal with agencies," Chihana told Zachimalawi on Monday.
Chihana said, however, that this did not mean that the deal was risky, maintaining that the Malawi Government would do everything possible to safeguard the rights of its citizens.
"We are following all the necessary processes. Visas are being processed. We don't think that the government there (South Korea) can deny our youths visas simply because we are dealing with private agencies. We are following all the normal procedures," Chihana said.
He said the government of Malawi wanted to create employment opportunities for its youth, a development he said would help "develop the nation as a whole, and our economy in particular".
"This is a caring government. President Dr. Joyce Banda has the interest of Malawians at heart," Chihana said.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
South Korea Jobs: The Malawi Government Says Exported Labourers Will Be Safe
The Government of Malawi has vowed to go ahead with its plans to export human labour to South Korea, dismissing reports that Moon Sung Hwan, director at the Africa Division of South Korea's foreign ministry, told international media that there is no formal agreement.
The Malawi Government is in the process of sending 100, 000 youths agead between 18 - 25 to South Korea, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates as part of a strategy to create employment opportunities for its productive youth population and prop up its national kitty.
President Joyce Banda told the nation on her return from South Korea in February this year that she had struck an agreement with Seoul to export human labour.
The international media quoted Hwan on May 31 as saying: “Our government has not received any official request from
Malawi that they want to send their workers to our country.”
Ministry of Labour spokesperson, Linda Kawamba, told Zachimalawi that the government would go ahead with the plan to export humna labour to South Korea, a country with one of the world’s fastest-aging populations. The development has prompted the country to increase sevenfold the number of visas it offers to immigrants.
"We will go ahead with the programme, and everything is going according to plan because visas are being processed from youths who emerged successful during interviews conducted in all parts of the country. In fact, exporting labour to South Korea will help address the challenge of unemployment in the country," Kawamba said.
She said the government had hired people who will be monitoring the situation among the youth who will make it to South Korea, adding that the government would not hesitate to repatriate its citizens in the case of reports that that were being illtreated in South Korea.
"We will be free to withdraw our youth the moment we receive reports of inhuman treatment. Otherwise, we would like to assure Malawians that there is nothing to fear. South Korea is a nice country. All we want to do is to make sure that our youths are legally employed, as apposed to those (youths) who go and work in other countries illegally," Kawamba said.
Malawi is not on the list of 15 countries that provide human labour exports to South Korea.
The Malawi Government is in the process of sending 100, 000 youths agead between 18 - 25 to South Korea, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates as part of a strategy to create employment opportunities for its productive youth population and prop up its national kitty.
President Joyce Banda told the nation on her return from South Korea in February this year that she had struck an agreement with Seoul to export human labour.
The international media quoted Hwan on May 31 as saying: “Our government has not received any official request from
Malawi that they want to send their workers to our country.”
Ministry of Labour spokesperson, Linda Kawamba, told Zachimalawi that the government would go ahead with the plan to export humna labour to South Korea, a country with one of the world’s fastest-aging populations. The development has prompted the country to increase sevenfold the number of visas it offers to immigrants.
"We will go ahead with the programme, and everything is going according to plan because visas are being processed from youths who emerged successful during interviews conducted in all parts of the country. In fact, exporting labour to South Korea will help address the challenge of unemployment in the country," Kawamba said.
She said the government had hired people who will be monitoring the situation among the youth who will make it to South Korea, adding that the government would not hesitate to repatriate its citizens in the case of reports that that were being illtreated in South Korea.
"We will be free to withdraw our youth the moment we receive reports of inhuman treatment. Otherwise, we would like to assure Malawians that there is nothing to fear. South Korea is a nice country. All we want to do is to make sure that our youths are legally employed, as apposed to those (youths) who go and work in other countries illegally," Kawamba said.
Malawi is not on the list of 15 countries that provide human labour exports to South Korea.
Poem: Abundant Nothings
A Giraffe
Cross-pathed at the zoo,
And lonely among a thousand tortoises:
Struggles in the plentiful woods-
Fostering a craving that bears hills and mountains.
Ah, these unattainable presences and dreams;
A thousand dreams,
A thousand presences!
Cross-pathed at the zoo,
And lonely among a thousand tortoises:
Struggles in the plentiful woods-
Fostering a craving that bears hills and mountains.
Ah, these unattainable presences and dreams;
A thousand dreams,
A thousand presences!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
MISA Malawi calls for immediate arrest, suspension of Parliamentary Chief Security Officer
May 31st 2013- The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi Chapter is calling
upon the National Assembly and the Police to act on Parliamentary Chief
Security Officer Youngson Chilinda for assaulting Photojournalist Thoko
Chikondi.
Chilinda allegedly assaulted Chikondi, a photojournalist from one of the
country’s major publishing giants Nation Publications Limited (NPL) on
Thursday, May 30, while covering presentation of a petition to Parliament
by the Consumers Association of Malawi, (CAMA).
MISA Malawi condemns such barbaric and retrogressive behaviour in the
strongest manner possible and would like the National Assembly to take
serious disciplinary measures on Chilinda. MISA Malawi would also like the
police to arrest and prosecute Chilinda for beating up the
photojournalist.
MISA Malawi believes that the media have a right to gather and report
freely within Malawi and abroad and to be accorded the fullest possible
facilities for access to information as enshrined under section 36 of the
Republican Constitution. Taking photographs is part and parcel of a
journalists work to gather and report matters of public interest and
Chilinda’s actions clearly violates this provision.
Apart from violating this provision, Chilinda also assaulted and injured
Chikondi who had to be treated for bruises and soft tissue injury at
Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH).
This act is not only barbaric and retrogressive but also a sad reminder of
the dark days every Malawian is trying to forget.
MISA Malawi therefore requests the National Assembly and the Police to
take immediate action on Chilinda. The National Assembly should suspend
Chilinda for his barbaric actions and the police should charge and
prosecute him for assault.
MISA Malawi is monitoring the situation and will continue doing so until
the matter is dealt with to our satisfaction.
Signed
MISA Malawi Chairperson
Sunday, May 26, 2013
2013/14 BUDGET STATEMENT DELIVERED IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI BY THE MINISTER OF FINANCE THE HON. DR. KEN LIPENGA,M.P.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0. MOTION
2.0. INTRODUCTION
3.0. ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE ECONOMY IN 2012/13 FISCAL YEAR
4.0. 2012/13 BUDGET PERFORMANCE
5.0. MGDSII AND THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAM (ERP)
6.0. ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE 2013/14 BUDGET
6.1. Global Economic Outlook
6.2. Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa Region
6.3. The Malawi Economy
7.0. MAIN FEATURES OF THE 2013/14 BUDGET
7.1. Transitional and Recovery Based Budget
7.2. Fiscal Policy Anchor: No Net Domestic Financing
7.3. Monetary Policy and Financial Sector Development
8.0. THE 2013/14 BUDGET FRAMEWORK
8.1. Resource Envelope
8.2. Total Expenditure and Net Lending
8.3. Overall Balance and Financing
9.0. THE BUDGET STRUCTURE
10.0. KEY ALLOCATIONS IN THE 2013/14 BUDGET
10.1. Agriculture and Food Security
10.2. Public Works Programme
10.3. School Feeding Program
10.4. Public Financial and Economic Management Reforms
10.5. Education, Science and Technology
10.6. Public Health, Sanitation, and HIV/AIDS Management
10.7. Transport and Public Works
11.0. REVENUE POLICY MEASURES FOR THE 2013/14 BUDGET
11.1 Preamble
11.2. Tax and Non-Tax Policy
11.3. Non Tax Measures
11.4. Tax Measures
11.5. Customs and Excise Tax Measures
11.6. Income Tax Measures
11.7. Excise Tax Measures
2013/14 Budget Statement
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTINUED
11.8. Value Added Tax Measures
11.9. Administrative Measures
11.10.International and Regional Trade Agreements
2013/14 Budget Statement
MOTION
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the Estimates on Recurrent and Development Accounts for the 2013/14 Budget be referred to the Committee of the Whole House, be considered Vote by Vote, and that thereafter, be adopted.
2.0. INTRODUCTION
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am honored to stand here and deliver to this August House the second Budget Statement of the People's Party (PP) Administration led by Her Excellency, Dr. Joyce Banda.
Before I proceed with my statement, allow me to once again express my most profound gratitude to the President for
entrusting me with the responsibility of leading her economic team in these trying times. I also wish to offer my deepest appreciation of her leadership and guidance.
It is because of Her Excellency's guidance that we all can see the light at the end of the tunnel and have hope for an improved economy.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, as we have always done, I led the Ministry of Finance in consultations with a wide range of
stakeholders across the country in April and May this year, to get an understanding of what Malawians want to see in this budget.
This budget that I am presenting has benefited greatly from these consultations. Of course, it was not possible to take on board all the good ideas due to limitations of resources. I would, therefore, like to thank most sincerely all those who came forward with ideas on how to move the economy forward and make the budget reflective of the aspirations of our people.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the honorable House is well aware of the economic challenges that we faced in this country at the time I presented last year's statement. We introduced and have been implementing a series of tough economic reform measures that were designed to restore macro-economic balance and a market based economy that would help provide a solid foundation for sustainable economic growth.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, you will recall that in trying to correct a severe external imbalance, we undertook a number of measures in the foreign exchange market, including an initial devaluation and subsequent floatation of the Kwacha, removal of restrictions on foreign exchange transactions by banks and bureaus, relaxation of surrender requirements on export proceeds, and removal of pre-screening requirements for foreign payments in excess of USD 50,000.
Just recently, further measures were also announced by the Reserve Bank of Malawi in order to remove restrictions with respect to current account transactions.
You will agree with me, Mr. Speaker, Sir, that at the beginning, the reforms that we instituted were not universally accepted.
Skeptics pointed to an exchange rate that had overshot and inflation that had surged as reasons for abandoning our tough reforms. However, convinced that the path we proposed was necessary under the circumstances we faced, we marched on, sometimes amidst some resistance and criticism.
I am pleased to inform the august House that there are now signs that the great patience and resilience of the people
of Malawi, for which we are profoundly grateful, is beginning to be rewarded. There is evidence that the economy is now starting to recover.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in January when I presented the mid-term budget review, we celebrated the availability of fuel.
People were no longer sleeping in queues at filling stations or chasing fuel tankers, often empty ones. I also spoke of the availability of foreign exchange.
Thanks to measures that this House approved, we have now been able as a country to clear foreign exchange arrears and re-establish lines of credit for most of our industries.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the availability of fuel and foreign exchange enabled our companies to resuscitate production.
The latest business survey undertaken shows that capacity utilization, which had gone down to an average of 30 percent, had increased to an average of more than 60 percent and a significant number of companies had started to expand.
I also invite the House to join me in welcoming the stabilization of the exchange rate, which has even shown some
signs of appreciation. This has led to the much awaited reduction in the price of fuel. It is the hope of all of us in this House that we will soon see the benefits of competition in bringing down prices in other markets.
As a result of our policies, along with good weather in some parts of the country which has ensured adequate
availability of maize, we have noticed a decline in inflation since February. It is only fair that all of us play our part in ensuring that the economy moves forward.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the 2012/13 budget was implemented within a framework designed to deal with the challenges faced, and in so doing, we were able to restore the confidence of our international partners, including the IMF, who noticed our determination to deal with our own problems.
The successful resumption of the programme with the IMF, in turn, allowed us to unlock budget support from the Common Approach to Budget Support development partners (the European Union, the United Kingdom, the World Bank, Norway, Germany, African Development Bank, and Irish Aid).
The unlocking of budget support and increased support from all our development partners was an essential component
of the economic recovery process. The first and second reviews of the programme were successfully completed. As a
consequence, SDR39.1 million an equivalent of US$58.7 million has been disbursed under the programme.
The third review will be conducted in June 2013 when the IMF mission returns to Malawi. We are confident that this review will also be successful and we will remain on track.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the 2013/14 financial year budget seeks to build on the successes of the 2012/13 financial year budget and consolidate the gains from the economic reforms undertaken. We intend to continue with a tight fiscal and monetary policy stance to ensure that government operations do not contribute to inflation and crowding out of the private sector.
In short, Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should continue to strive to live within our means.
Within the context of a tight budget, government remains committed to strict expenditure controls and substantive
reforms in order to strengthen and promote a culture of enhanced transparency and accountability in the management
and reporting of public finances to avoid over-expenditure.
I can assure the honorable Members of this House that we remain committed to using public resources efficiently and
effectively, ensuring value for money and focusing our efforts on achieving sustainable delivery of services.
3.0. ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE ECONOMY IN 2012/13 FISCAL YEAR
Mr. Speaker, Sir, owing to the myriad of economic challenges our country was facing at the beginning of 2012,
growth in economic activity was subdued.
Gross Domestic Product as a measure of economic activity only grew by 1.8 percent in 2012, a slowdown from 3.8 percent registered in 2011.
This was mainly on account of substantial reductions in growth of agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail
trade. This dismal performance in GDP growth meant that companies were downsizing or closing, unemployment was
rising and income per person was falling.
However, Mr. Speaker, Sir, our business survey towards the end of 2012 indicated that the initial measures undertaken were beginning to bear fruit. Although some challenges still persist, overall performance of companies has improved and confidence in the economy is growing.
These developments in the real sector, coupled with improvements in foreign exchange and fuel availability, are expected to anchor growth in economic activity in 2013 and beyond.
Although, the country's inflation peaked at a high of 37.9 percent in February 2013, the good news, Mr. Speaker, Sir, is that inflation has started declining. Already by April 2013, headline inflation had started responding to our measures and eased to 35.8 percent, due to a tight fiscal and monetary stance implemented by the Government and new food harvests which had began to reach the markets.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, concerning the external sector, the alignment of the exchange rate to its market value and
liberalization of the foreign exchange market are key to a sustainable current account. Our estimates indicate that, in nominal dollar terms, imports decreased by 2.2 percent in 2012, while exports decreased by 3.4 percent in the same year.
However, in 2013 exports are expected to grow by 0.7 percent, while imports are expected to decrease by 5percent. With this, we anticipate to achieve our objective of a stable exchange rate while maintaining current account sustainability.
It is our sincere hope that the US$/Malawi Kwacha Exchange Rate can stabilize at a reasonable rate but of course the actual situation will be determined by market conditions.
4.0. 2012/13 BUDGET PERFORMANCE
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in spite of the many challenges facing the Government, the fiscal performance for the 2012/13 financial year is on track.
Overall, domestic revenues are expected to amount to K283.5 billion, surpassing the Mid-Year revised target of 278.9 billion by K4.6 billion, largely on account of tax revenues, which are projected to amount to K253.6 billion against a Mid-Year revised target of K243.8 billion.
Grants underperformed marginally from the revised amount at mid-term. The revised target at mid-term is K179 billion, but we now expect that K175 billion would have been disbursed by the end of the financial year, due to challenges of absorption in our Ministries, which are now being addressed as
a matter of urgency.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government is expected to spend K479.1 billion by the end of the 2012/13 Financial Year,
compared to K475.8 billion revised at Mid-Year.
The upward adjustment is due to increases in foreign financed development expenditure, which has increased by K6.4 billion although its effect was moderated by a K2.7 billion decrease in domestically financed development expenditure.
On recurrent expenditures,although the increases in wages and salaries led to a K4.2 billion increase in the wage bill, corresponding cuts in 2013/14 Budget Statement purchases of goods and services and subsidies and transfers
eased the pressure and contained recurrent expenditures within the target by K0.5 billion.
On the basis of the developments above, the overall balance for the 2012/13 financial year is expected to be K18.2
billion which will be wholly financed by foreign borrowing. In addition, government expects to repay domestic debt
amounting to K18.6 billion, thereby meeting the programme target for net domestic borrowing for the period ending June 2013.
MGDS II AND THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAM (ERP)
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the house is aware Government has been implementing reforms under the Economic Recovery Plan
(ERP) and in line with the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) II.
Under the ERP, five sectors were identified, namely:Agriculture; Energy; Tourism; Transport Infrastructure
Development and Information Communication Technology (ICT); and Mining as critical areas to move the ERP forward.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, my colleagues responsible for these sectors will no doubt later be making statements on the successes so far achieved, but significant progress has been made.
These will be further implemented through the 2013/14 budget.
6.0. ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE 2013/14 BUDGET
Allow me at this juncture,Mr Speaker, Sir, to state the assumptions made in projecting the 2013/14 Fiscal Year
budget.
Briefly, I will give projections of the global economic outlook, then the regional economic outlook, and lastly the
national prospects.
6.1. Global Economic Outlook
29. As you might be aware, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the National Budget is implemented within the context of a globalized economy.
According to the April 2013 World Economic Outlook (WEO) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global
economic prospects have improved, but the road to recovery in the advanced economies remains bumpy and uncertain.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, world output growth is forecast to reach 3.3 percent in 2013 and 4.0 percent in 2014, anchored by growth in emerging and developing economies.
In advanced economies, activity is expected to gradually accelerate, starting in the second half of 2013. This pickup follows the slowdown in the first half of 2012, which was manifested in industrial production and global trade.
Private demand appears increasingly robust in the United States, but still very sluggish in the Eurozone area. Growth is forecast at 0.3 percent in 2013 and in 2014 growth in Europe is projected at 1.5 percent.
6.2. Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa Region
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to continue growing at a strong pace during 2013/14 period, with both resource-rich and lower-income economies benefiting from robust domestic demand. Growth in 2013 is projected to reach 5.6 percent.
The strong performance is based on ongoing investments in infrastructure and productive capacity, continuing robust consumption, and the activation of new capacity in extractive sectors.
Sub Saharan Africa is projected to grow by 6.1 percent in 2014 driven by the strengthening of activity in South Africa and other middle-income countries predicated on improvements in the external environment. On the other hand,
Mr. Speaker, Sir, some deterioration is expected in the short term in the current account balances of a number of countries, largely on account of the expected decline in the terms of trade, especially among oil exporters.
6.3. The Malawi Economy
Turning to the domestic economy, Mr. Speaker, Sir, growth in 2013 is expected to rebound to 5.0 percent from 1.8 percent in 2012. This growth is mainly being driven by improvements in the Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing sector.
The rebound in agriculture is partly propelled by increases in tobacco production from 79 million Kg in 2012 to 156 million Kg in 2013.
In addition, manufacturing is also expected to increase on account of higher tobacco processing and fewer
production bottlenecks related to fuel and foreign exchange problems.
As indicated earlier, Mr. Speaker, Sir, capacity utilization in most of the sectors has shown great
improvement.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, considering the foregoing, inflation is expected to slow down to 14.2 percent by December 2013 and to 7.0 percent by December 2014 as the economy continues to recover.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, as usual, we expect to experience the traditional seasonal trends that are a characteristic of the Malawi economy. However, we are very confident that these seasonal trends will be smoothened out on account of the prudent economic management.
7.0. MAIN FEATURES OF THE 2013/14 BUDGET
7.1. Transitional and Recovery Based Budget
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the key objective of the 2013/14 budget is to restore macro-economic balance and a market-based economy that will consolidate the bold economic reforms that the Government embarked on in 2012.
As we all know, the country will be going to the polls in 2014 to elect a president, members of parliament and
councillors.
The budget must, therefore, provide for this important event in our democratic process. This expenditure is not a
regular feature in our budget framework. In order to create space for this event, some activities have had to be
reprioritized.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have, however, prioritized some critical expenditures in areas of Agriculture and Food Security, Health, Education, Transport and Water. Adequate resources, within the limitations of the resource envelope, have been provided to those sectors.
With diligent management of the economy and efficient use of the resources provided, the country should expect quality service delivery.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in this budget, Government will continue to implement the reforms undertaken in 2012. In this regard, we will continue to adhere to the principle of a market based economy, so as to reduce the burden of subsidies on tax payers. In addition, Government is scaling up implementation of Public Financial and Economic Reforms aimed at achieving meaningful expenditure control and prioritization, strengthening governance systems for public financial management and prevention of and avoiding the build-up of domestic debt and arrears as was the case in the past.
The Budget follows the principles of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework with proposed estimates for the
2013/14 fiscal year as well as projections for 2014/15 and 2015/16 fiscal years. This ensures that Budget allocations are aligned with the country's medium term goals as outlined in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II; Economic Recovery Plan; and the Millennium Development Goals.
The Medium Term Expenditure Framework is intended to encourage long term planning and not to cram programmes
and projects in the short term. Short term planning results in thinly spreading of our resources over too many activities with minimal impact on development.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is important that we consider critically our implementation capacity in order to ensure that programmes and projects are implemented efficiently and effectively. Over the years, we have seen the dangers of trying to do everything at the same time without due regard to implementation capacity. Programmes have experienced cost overruns and poor quality which could have easily been avoided.
7.2. Fiscal Policy Anchor: No Net Domestic Financing
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to remain on track on our programme to reduce inflation and stabilize the exchange rate, government has in the past relied on monetary policy. Beginning from the 2012/13 fiscal year, government planned the fiscal policy, so that it complements its critical role, just as the monetary policy in dealing with inflation and exchange rate.
You will agree with me that in the past, programme targets were missed primarily on account of loose fiscal stance.
In order to sustain and build on the gains achieved so far, the fiscal policy will have to remain very tight in the coming year.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in this regard, the fiscal anchor for the 2013/14 fiscal year, like that of the current financial year, remains "No Net Domestic Financing" with a planned net domestic debt repayment of K7.2 billion, which is equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP.
This fiscal stance is intended to reduce the domestic debt stock to allow the private sector space to borrow at reasonable rates for productive investment. The private sector as the engine for growth and development must be allowed to operate in a conducive environment. One such element in this atmosphere is financing at reasonable interest rates.
7.3. Monetary Policy and Financial Sector Development
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Budget will be supported by a prudent and tight monetary policy stance designed to contain money growth and achieve price stability while allowing for private sector growth. Money is programmed to grow at about the pace of nominal GDP in the near term and further financial deepening in the medium term would allow broad money to grow faster than nominal GDP without fueling inflation.
The monetary authorities will monitor the inflation rates very closely so as to adjust interest rates in line with the levels of inflation.
The monetary policy reforms that the Reserve Bank has been implementing will continue. Foreign exchange will remain
liberalized and the rates being determined by market forces.
The target, Mr. Speaker, Sir, is that we achieve sustainable foreign exchange levels.
In order to protect small depositors and strengthen the stability of the financial system, we will expand the financial safety net by instituting a Deposit Insurance Scheme for the country. To this effect, we have constituted a National Task Force comprising experts from the Ministry of Finance and the RBM with the task of designing and establishing the country's first ever explicit Deposit Insurance Scheme.
The National Task Force, under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, has
already developed a comprehensive business plan upon which
Government and RBM will provide seed capital to enable the
scheme roll out. We have provided resources for the
capitalization in this year's budget and within the course of the
year, we will be asking this august House to consider and
approve the legal and regulatory framework for the scheme.
8.0. THE 2013/14 BUDGET FRAMEWORK
8.1. Resource Envelope
Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me now turn to the fiscal projections for the 2013/14 Budget. Total revenues and grants for the 2013/14 FY are expected to amount to K603.4 billion from K460.9 billion in 2012/13 FY. Domestic revenues are projected at K363.1 billion, representing 60.0 percent of total revenue and grants, while K240.3 billion are donor grants, representing 40.0 percent of total revenue and grants.
Of the total domestic revenues, tax revenues are projected at K328.1 billion while the non-tax revenues are estimated at K35.0 billion. Grants, on the other hand are expected to increase by 36 percent from K177. 4billion estimated for 2012/13 FY to K240.3 billion.
8.2. Total Expenditure and Net Lending
Mr. Speaker Sir, total expenditure and net lending for the 2013/14 Fiscal Year are projected at K638.2 billion comprising K463.1 billion recurrent expenditure and K175.0 billion development expenditure.
8.3. Overall Balance and Financing
The overall fiscal deficit for the 2013/14 FY is projected at
K34.8 billion. This deficit will be wholly financed by foreign
borrowing amounting to K42.0 billion. These resources will
further be used to finance domestic debt repayment of K7.2
billion which is equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP in line with
the fiscal anchor of No Net Domestic Financing. This
repayment of domestic debt will reduce the domestic debt stock
from K170.6 billion at the end of 2012/13 financial year to
K163.4 billion at the end of the 2013/14 financial year.
9.0. THE BUDGET STRUCTURE
Mr. Speaker, Sir, as the August House considers the budget for approval I wish to ask that special attention be paid to the following aspects of the budget:
The first is the fact that the development partners are financing the budget to the tune of 41 percent of total
expenditure. While this is good news in that it shows the trust and confidence that development partners have in Her
Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda's leadership and policies, it also raises the issue of long term fiscal sustainability.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the questions we should be asking ourselves as a Nation are critical for our future. A few of these are: (a) How do we move towards living within our means? (b) How do we grow this economy fast enough to meet our consumption demands and population growth? How do we increase the contribution of domestic revenues to the Budget?
I have no doubt that this House will agree with me that the people of Malawi have no wish to turn into a nation of
subsidies. We need to face the fact that almost every service that the government is providing is heavily subsidized.
Mr.Speaker, Sir, as everyone knows we subsidize Agriculture by almost 75 percent, Education by close to 90 percent, Health by almost 100 percent. Until last year, we were subsidizing fuel and electricity. We still heavily subsidize water.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, subsidies are justified in a number of
cases. But from the Pre-Budget Consultations that I led we
found out that Malawians want their Government to implement
policies that will one day make some subsidies unnecessary
while maintaining targeted subsidies for the poor.
The other element to note is the imbalance between
salaries and wages and goods and services. The proposal is to
spend K131.1 billion in salaries and wages and yet spend only
K64 billion in goods and services. What this means is that we
need to examine how to ensure that sufficient resources are
provided to improve efficiency.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, our Development budget which is K154
billion is 70 percent financed by development partners and is
only about 24 percent of the total expenditure. Much as we
thank the Development Partners and the tax payers in their
respective countries for their generosity, time has come to start
asking ourselves whether this is sustainable.
Mr. Speaker, allow me to echo the call by the President
that we undertake a soul searching exercise as a nation. Could
we be asking too much from our Government to the extent that
we are consuming too much without sufficient investment for
our children?
As we go for elections, I have no doubt in my mind that
during the campaign period we politicians will be promising
the moon to the electorate, such as free secondary school
education, free fuel and electricity, high salaries and wages for
the public service and many more, and indeed where
government is providing subsidized fertilizer somebody will
promise free fertilizer. Mr. Speaker, I am just mentioning this
as food for thought, and this, too, is free.
10.0. KEY ALLOCATIONS IN THE 2013/14 BUDGET
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I now turn to key allocations in the 2013/14 budget. Due to the constraints in the resource
envelope, the budget has had to prioritize key sector which we believe would make an impact on poverty reduction. These areas, Mr. Speaker, Sir are in line with the Economic Recovery Plan and MGDS II. The major areas are Agriculture and Food Security, Social Support and Protection, Education, Health, Transport, Tourism, Mining and Energy. Some of the areas, Mr. Speaker, Sir, may not feature highly in the budget because
they will be undertaken by the private sector and these include
mining, tourism and energy.
10.1. Agriculture and Food Security
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Agriculture is the main stay of our
economy and will remain a major driver of the economy in the
medium term. Agriculture will also remain the source of
livelihood for most of the population in Malawi and the critical
element in this is food security. In order to achieve this Mr.
Speaker Sir, we need to bring in the private sector. In this
regard, we will work with stakeholders to find ways of making
agriculture more attractive to investment. This is intended to
ensure National food security and export oriented agriculture.
66. Government also intends to resuscitate sub-sectors of
agriculture such as animal husbandry and legumes. Apart
from Maize, tobacco, cotton, tea and other traditional crops
government intends to encourage non-traditional crops such
as legumes. In this budget, therefore, Mr. Speaker, Sir
Government has allocated adequate resources for animal
husbandry, scaling up of legume production, and irrigation.
The budget is proposing an allocation of K1.7 billion for
legumes, K2.0 billion for the second cropping, K1.6 billion for
small stocks, and K2.0 billion for a Cow per Family
Programme.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, despite the resource challenges, food
security remains a major priority and the Farm Input Subsidy
Programme will continue. A total of K60.1 billion has been
allocated. This fertilizer will be made available to the small
holder farmers at a subsidized price of K500 per 50kg bag for
both basal and top dressing fertilizers. The Ministry of
Agriculture and Food Security has worked out the specific
details on the distribution modalities and schedules, including
participation of the private sector, to ensure that the
distribution is timely and without any irregularities. It is
expected that the fertilizers will have been bought from the
suppliers by September, 2013 and that distribution will start
immediately.
As you know, Mr. Speaker, we need to replenish our
Strategic Grain Reserves. In this regard, a total of K5.0 billion
has been allocated, of which K3.7 billion is grant from the
Norwegian, Irish Governments, and African Development
Bank. We are in discussion with more Donors to assist us
increase the amount of maize to be procured for our Strategic
Grain Reserves.
10.2. Public Works Programme
Mr. Speaker, Sir, a total combined outlay of K 23.3 billion
will be used to implement programmes aimed at asset building
and infrastructure improvement as well as nutrition
supplementation. Government will implement a K3.4 billion
Social Cash Transfer program under the Ministry of Gender,
Children and Social Welfare with support from KfW and
Ireland. As usual the Public Works Programme will be
implemented under the Local Development Fund (LDF) where
K18.4billion will be spent with support from the World Bank,
African Development Bank (ADB) and KfW. After a successful
implementation of the last Public Works Programme, we are in
discussion with the World Bank to increase the amount so that
we increase the number of beneficiaries and the number of
days each beneficiary is allowed to work. This will mean more
income for the beneficiaries.
10.3. School Feeding Program
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government will continue to support the
school feeding programme that is being implemented by the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) with
financial assistance from World Food Programme (WFP) and
other partners. A total of K500 million has been allocated in
the 2013/14 budget. All pupils in the targeted schools receive
a mid-morning serving of corn soya blend (Likuni Phala)
porridge each school day. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is ample
evidence this programme leads to surges in enrolment,
attendance and academic achievement. The allocation is
double what was allocated last year and thus the number of
pupils will double.
10.4. Public Financial and Economic Management Reforms
Mr. Speaker, Sir, earlier I spoke of the need to take a fresh
look at what we are spending our money on so that we
concentrate on productive investment. To complement this, we
need to achieve high levels of efficiency and economy. We must
achieve high levels of value for money.
72. In this regard, in 2012, we developed a programme to
improve our Public Financial and Economic Management
which covered 10 components including planning, resource
mobilisation, budgeting, accounting, procurement, reporting
and auditing. We have now launched two projects covering
several of these components. In light of the critical importance
of financial reporting and accountability, the first project dealt
with the issues of our financial management information
system and auditing. During the last 12 months there has been
significant progress on the development of our Public Financial
and Economic Management Reform Programme (PFEM).
Mr. Speaker, Sir, over the next 12 months a series of
improvements are being undertaken under a project known as
Financial Reporting and Oversight Improvement Project
(FROIP). These include a re-engineering of our business
process which will be used for upgrading the Integrated
Financial Management Information System, strengthening our
financial operations now that we have been able to roll out our
IFMIS to all central and local government institutions, and
strengthening our auditing systems to respond more effectively
to not only financial but also performance reporting.
Government is grateful for the support we have received from
donors DFID, EU, Germany and to the World Bank for this
project.
Another project supporting elements of planning and aid
coordination has also been signed with support from UNDP
and the UN agencies. In addition, a further project is planned
to undertake the remaining components of the Public Financial
and Economic Management reform programme. These include
improving revenue collection and administration,
procurement, improving medium term fiscal framework, and
improving parastatal financing. We have offers of support from
the African Development Bank, United States Agency for
International Development and Norway for the continuation of
our reform programme.
10.5. Education, Science and Technology
.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the education sector has been allocated
K99.19 billion in the 2013/14 budget representing 20 percent
of the total budget. Comparing with the 2012/13 revised
allocation of K80.0 billion the current allocation represents an
increase of 24 percent on last year's approved allocation.
The recommended allocation for Education in Sub-
Saharan Africa is 24 percent of the budget. We have not yet
achieved this but we are almost there. I believe in the next two
years we should be able to achieve if not surpass this target.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, we expect that the quality of education
will continue to improve as we reduce teacher pupil ratios,
especially in the primary schools. In the 2013/14 fiscal year we
expect to employ 10,500 primary and 1975 secondary school
teachers. As Her Excellency the President announced in her
State of the Nation address about 11,000 primary school
teachers will be promoted during the year. The process of
promotions is well advanced.
In order to create efficiency in the system procurement of
teaching and learning materials will be decentralized. This has
been done in order to further improve the availability of
teaching and learning materials in all primary and secondary
schools.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, during this current sitting of Parliament
the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology will bring to
the august House a bill for students' loans for those in tertiary
institutions of education. The current system of subsidy is not
sustainable. Beyond being unsustainable, the system denies
many deserving students the much sought after higher
education.
In addition to operating resources allocated for the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology a total of
K12.4billion has been allocated for development projects.
Currently 1,000 primary school teachers' houses are complete
and it is planned that 2,000 houses will be built in the next
financial year. The plan Mr. Speaker, Sir, is that in ten years
every teacher especially in the rural areas should have a decent
house. Mr. Speaker, Sir, government will continue with the
building of classrooms. It is planned that 1,000 classrooms will
be built in the next financial year. Work on construction of
girls' hostels in 17 Community Day Secondary Schools is under
way and an additional 28 will be started in the coming fiscal
year. Under MASAF/LDF a total of K4.3 billion has been
allocated for continuation of construction of teachers' houses
and school blocks in the next financial year.
10.6. Public Health, Sanitation, and HIV/AIDS Management
Mr. Speaker, Sir, special attention has been paid to the
provision of drugs in the Health facilities of the country. In this
regard, K14billion, equivalent to US$35mmillion will be made
available for drugs for the Health sector. Furthermore, we
expect an additional K7.6billion equivalent to US$19million
equivalent in drugs to be given by Development Partners such
as Global Fund. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in total the drugs to be
available will exceed the US$7.6 per capita recommended by
the World Health Organisation.
The challenge, however, will remain in distribution,
management and control. Government is calling for total
accountability of these drugs from the Health personnel
involved. Mr. Speaker, Sir, government has also decided that
drug procurement be central. This will prevent Health facilities
buying from drugs from vendors at exorbitant prices. The
procurement process will also be improved to avoid drug stock-
outs that we have experienced in the past.
83. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to call upon all the Health
personnel and all those involved in the drug supply chain
management to be honest and diligent in the way they manage
the drugs.
Government has also allowed some Health facilities to
open or introduce fee paying windows to allow those who can
afford and those with Health insurance such as MASM to be
able to use them. Government has also decided that the fees
paid in these facilities will be retained and used by the Centre.
85. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we will continue implementing the
projects that were started last year. This primarily concerns
rehabilitation of facilities such as Zomba Central Hospital,
Zomba Mental Hospital, Nsanje District Hospital, Kamuzu
Central Hospital, In addition Mr Speaker, Sir, Government will
be completing construction of Nkhata-bay District Hospital and
start the construction of Phalombe District Hospital and staff
houses under the Umoyo Project.
10.7. Transport and Public Works
Mr. Speaker, Sir, transport infrastructure will remain one
of the critical elements of our development programme. Our
transport infrastructure, especially the road network, is
relatively well developed compared to other countries in SSA.
However, in recent years maintenance has not been
maintained adequately in recent years. Resources that would
have been used to maintain our road network was used to
subsidize fuel as most of the fuel industries were holding fuel
levies.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, with the introduction of the Automatic
Fuel Pricing we have cleared what the Price Stabilization Fund
owed the industry and remittances have started to come in. In
this budget therefore, resources have been allocated for the
maintenance of the road network, including rural feeder roads.
As such a total of K9.1 billion has been allocated for the
grading and maintenance of rural roads. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this
amount of money would cover in excess of 35,000 kilometers.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, on transport infrastructure
development, government will continue with the construction
of Thyolo-Thekerani-Muona-Bangula road, Chikwawa-Nchalo-
Bangula road, Liwonde-Naminga road, Zomba-Jali- Kamwendo
- Phalombe- -Chitakale Road, Jenda-Embangweni-Edingeni-
Euthini Road, Ntcheu-Tsangano-Mwanza road, Lilongwe-Old
Airport- Kasiya-Sathe Road and Mzimba-Mzalagwe road among
others.
11.0. REVENUE POLICY MEASURES FOR THE 2013/14 BUDGET
11.1 Preamble
Mr. Speaker, Sir, before I outline the revenue policy
measures, I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all
taxpayers that have contributed towards paying taxes through
the Malawi Revenue Authority and this is reflected in the
satisfactory performance of domestic revenues as presented
earlier in this Budget Statement.
The domestic revenues collected from taxes, user fees and
charges have assisted Government in the provision of the
necessary social services such as purchase of drugs,
construction of roads and schools and other important social
amenities. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to give
examples of roads that have been constructed using domestic
resources and these include: Ekwendeni-Ezondweni-Mtwalo-
Njakwa , Lumbadzi-Dowa-Chezi-Ntchisi and Bangula - Nsanje
roads. I therefore wish to urge and encourage all Malawians to
continue being compliant by remitting their taxes to contribute
towards national development.
11.2. Tax and Non-Tax Policy
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to inform this august house that
in this Budget it will be observed that the measures show that
Government remains committed to support the sectors that
have been identified as priority areas under the ERP.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to now articulate the Non-Tax and
Tax revenue policy measures for the 2013/14 Budget.
11.3. Non Tax Measures
Stamp Duty
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order for Malawi to improve on the
ease of doing business ranking with a view to create a pro-
business environment, Government has reduced stamp duty
under the Registrar General from 3 percent to 1.5 percent .
This measure is in line with the Doing Business Reforms that
Government is currently implementing with a view to make
Malawi an attractive investment destination.
11.3. Tax Measures
Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to now present the tax
measures for the 2013/14 Budget as follows:
11.4. Customs and Excise Tax Measures Incentives for the Tourism Sector
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in an effort to further support the
Tourism Sector, Government has removed taxes on off-road
game/scenery viewing motor vehicles (Safaris). In addition, Mr.
Speaker, Sir, to ease the problem of transportation of guests in
our Hotels and Resorts, Government has also removed taxes on
shuttle buses. This provision will allow Hotels, Lodges and Inns
with guest capacity of 50 rooms or more to import two shuttle
buses every five years without payment of duties.
Incentives for the Construction Industry
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the previous Budget, taxes on most
machinery were removed in order to promote the various
productive sectors of the economy. In this Budget, Government
has further removed taxes on crane lorries, concrete mixer
lorries, mobile drilling derricks and track laying tractors for the
construction Industry to boost the industry.
Incentives for the Agricultural Sector
Mr. Speaker, Sir, most of the agricultural equipment and
machinery are exempted from duties. In order to encourage
diversification and promote animal husbandry in the country,
Government has removed taxes on importation of livestock
meant for breeding and this will cover live bovine animals, live
swine, sheep and goats as approved by Ministry of Agriculture.
This is in line with Her Excellency's' vision of one cow per
family which aims at empowering households especially the
marginalized.
Incentives for Electricity Generation and Distribution
Industry
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government has noted the need to
involve other business players in the energy sector and to
encourage investment in this sector. Government has therefore
extended the Custom Procedure Code for ESCOM under the
Customs and Excise Tariffs Order to allow all investors to
import electricity generation and distributing equipment
without payment of import duty. It is believed that this will
encourage investment in the energy sector and also improve
the electricity generation and distribution capacity for the
country and support the industry that requires use of
electricity for production.
Incentives for Mining and Exploration Industry
Mr. Speaker, Sir, mining has been identified as another
2013/14 Budget Statement
21
Page 25
area that can foster economic development, as the Nation
continues to diversify. Honourable Members, in support of this
sector, Government has re-introduced a provision under the
Customs and Excise Tariffs Order to allow for exemption of
taxes on importation of specialised mining and exploration
machinery and equipment in order to encourage exploration
and mining activities in the country.
Incentives for Television and Radio Stations
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is clear that access to information and
the promotion of investment in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) remain critical. In support of
this, Government has removed taxes on specialised
broadcasting equipment for Television and Radio stations to
further improve access to information.
Rebate for Travellers
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the amount provided as an allowance
under Customs Procedure Code 429 for Travellers in the
Customs and Excise Tariffs Order, has been increased from
MK150,000 to MK300,000 to take into account the changes in
the economic environment. I wish to emphasize that this rebate
applies to travellers with accompanied baggage for personal
use and not commercial consignments. In order to further
facilitate clearance of passengers at our Airports the Malawi
Revenue Authority will adopt a risk based approach by
introducing the Green and Red lane with random checks.
Duty on Bicycles and Motorbikes
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it remains the wish of Government to
ensure that all Malawians especially the under-privileged are
able to access cheaper and affordable modes of transport. In
view of this, Government has removed, yes, totally removed,
import duty on bicycles. In addition, import duty on
motorbikes of engine capacity not exceeding 250cc, has been
reduced to 15 percent and excise tax on these motorbikes has
also been removed considering that this mode of transport is
widely used especially in the rural market areas.
Duty on Inverters
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government remains committed to the
promotion of the use of clean energy and in this regard. Most
of the items used for solar power generation are exempted from
duty as announced in the previous Budget. In order to make
clean energy affordable to Malawians, import duty payable on
inverters has been reduced to 0percent considering that
inverters are critical in the generation of solar power.
Taxation of Buses
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to improve affordability, safety
and comfort of passengers and to decongest the streets of our
cities and towns, Government has reduced import duty to 15
percent on motor vehicles of seating capacity of 11 to 31
persons including the driver, and motor vehicles of seating
capacity of 32 to 44 persons including the driver, regardless of
engine capacity and year of make. In addition, excise tax has
been reduced on motor vehicles of seating capacity of 32 to 44
persons including the driver depending on year of make as
follows: 0percent for new and used motor vehicles not
exceeding 8 years, 10percent for used motor vehicles
exceeding 8 years but not exceeding 12 years and 25percent
for used motor vehicles exceeding 12 years.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government would like to urge operators of these buses to
ensure that the benefits trickle down to the consumer through
reduced transport fares.
11.5. Income Tax Measures
Tax Holiday - Designation of Priority Industries
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to encourage value addition in
the Agricultural Sector, Agro-processing shall be designated as
a priority industry for purposes of tax holiday as required
under the Taxation Act, 11th Schedule. In addition , Electricity
Generation and Distribution shall also be designated as a
priority industry.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to inform this August
House that Ministry of Finance is working closely with
stakeholders in other sectors where this tax holiday provision
can also be applied. It is clear that investors are showing keen
interest to invest in these areas if given the right fiscal
incentives.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government deprives itself from
revenues from corporate taxes by letting investors benefit from
tax holidays. It is therefore imperative for all investors that
shall benefit under this provision to ensure that they remain
committed to deliver the desired outputs such as; production
for export, value addition, employment creation and generation
of forex for the economy. In view of this, Government will
closely monitor performance and is at liberty to withdraw this
incentive where there is evidence of abuse or
underperformance depending on the agreed benchmarks.
Loss Carry Forward Provision
Government has reduced the indefinite loss carry forward
provision under section 42 of the Taxation Act, to 6 years for
the manufacturing sector in order to encourage investment in
profitable business ventures.
Interest and Transfer Pricing
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Taxation Act has also been reviewed
and slightly amended in some sections to provide for tax
administration adjustments. In this regard, Mr Speaker, Sir,
section 105 (5) and (6) of the Taxation Act on Interest has been
amended to remove the insignificant amounts of MK22 and
MK5.50 contained therein. In addition section 127(A) of the
Taxation Act regarding Transfer Pricing has been reviewed to
incorporate transactions of related parties who are both
resident in Malawi. Previously, this provision recognised
transfer pricing transactions between a resident and non-
resident party.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is clear that Malawians are beginning
to witness signs of recovery in our economy. However in some
cases the impact of the devaluation and its inflationary effects
are still being manifested in the economy and this is affecting
the welfare of the people. As a mitigating measure Government
has increased the 0percent threshold for PAYE from MK15,000
to MK 20,000 and the next MK5,000 will be taxed at 15 percent
whilst the excess will be taxed at 30percent .
Withholding Tax for Cross-Border Traders
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government has noted that small tax
payers including our smallholder farmers suffer withholding
tax when they sell their agricultural products. I wish to report
to this august house, that there are quite a large number of
locals and foreigners who are involved in cross-border trading
but are not paying income taxes to Government. Mr. Speaker,
Sir, in order to ensure equity and fairness in the tax system
and to ensure that most of the traders pay income tax,
Government is extending a 3percent withholding tax on all
imports Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to clarify that all registered
taxpayers with Withholding Tax Exemption Certificates will be
exempted from this withholding tax. Distinguished colleagues,
withholding tax is an advance tax and not a final tax meaning
that the amount paid on withholding tax on imports is tax
deductible upon submission of a tax return by a taxpayer.
11.7. Excise Tax Measures
Excise Tax on Matches and Ball-Point Pens
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government continues to review the
excise tax regime as indicated in the last Budget Statement. In
view of this, excise tax on products such as matches has been
removed considering that this is a basic commodity and has no
negative externality that could make it liable for excise tax. In
addition, Mr. Speaker, Sir, excise tax on ball point pens has
been removed.
Excise Tax on Flavoured Mineral and Aerated Waters and Non-alcoholic Beverages
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to harmonise the application of
excise tax and also to promote the local industry, Government
has reduced excise tax from 20percent to 10percent on waters,
including mineral waters and aerated waters, containing added
sugar or other sweetening matter or flavoured, and other non-
alcoholic beverages, not including fruit or vegetable juices
classified under Heading 20.09 of the Customs and Excise
Tariffs Order.
11.8. Value added Tax Measures
Threshold for VAT Registration
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to align VAT registration
threshold with the prevailing economic environment and levels
of inflation which have a direct influence on VAT Government
has increased the VAT registration threshold from MK6 million
to MK10 million.
VAT on Internet Services
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government has introduced a standard
rate of 16.5 percent VAT on Internet services in order to allow
Internet service providers claim input VAT and this will in turn
reduce costs associated with the provision of internet services
thereby making internet services relatively cheaper and
accessible to users.
VAT on Machinery
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to promote national
development through use of machines in the construction and
transport industry Government has removed VAT charged on
other lifting, handling, loading or unloading equipment such as
conveyors, teleferics classified under Heading 84.28 of the
Customs and Excise Tariffs Order.
VAT on Raw Materials under Industrial Rebate
Mr. Speaker, Sir, members of this August House may
recall that in the 2012/13 Budget Government removed VAT
on raw materials imported under industrial rebate. This
measure was implemented to ease the challenge that
Government was facing with accumulated arrears of tax
refunds. I wish to report that in the 2012/13 fiscal year
Government has managed to clear the backlog of tax refund
arrears that were accumulated. Considering the improvements
in the refund management system, Government has
reintroduced a standard rate of 16.5percent VAT on raw
materials imported by manufacturing industries registered
under Industrial Rebate. This policy has been reinstated
considering that the refund management system has improved
in the 2012/13 fiscal year and to ensure compliance with the
VAT principles of Taxation.
11.9. Administrative Measures
Customs and Excise
Mr. Speaker, Sir, there are several tax administrative
measures that have been done and cover issues relating to
proper classification in the Customs and Excise Tariffs Order
of items such as:
food supplements, iron/steel and
alluminium caskets, and articles of wood including proper
definition of "furnishings" under Customs Procedure Code 442
for Hotels, Inns and Lodges covered in the Customs and Excise
Tariffs Order, to avoid abuse arising from mis-description. In
addition various customs fees and charges have been reviewed
and adjusted accordingly.. The details of these revisions to the
various Customs fees and charges and other services will be
outlined in a Technical Notice that will be published by the
Malawi Revenue Authority.
11.10. International and regional Trade Agreements COMESA Simplified Trade Regime
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in order to conform with the agreement
made under the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime programme
which aims at promoting small cross border trade amongst
COMESA countries, Government has aligned the processing
fee for processing customs documents under the COMESA
Simplified Trade Regime (STR) to USD1.00 equivalent to
Malawi Kwacha in line with COMESA obligations.
COMESA and SADC
Mr. Speaker, Sir, in an effort to adhere to commitments
made under the COMESA and SADC Trade protocol, Malawi
will continue to adopt instruments that will facilitate the
implementation of deeper regional integration with a view to
encourage intra-regional trade for the benefit of the regional
economies. In the last fiscal year Malawi was able to reduce
and align its tariffs in line with the commitments made under
the SADC Tariff phase down after a long period of stagnation
amidst the economic challenges that were being experienced.
Although the country is operating under tight fiscal regime ,
Malawi remains committed to implement the obligations agreed
under the COMESA and SADC integration agenda respectively.
Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs)
Mr. Speaker, Sir, Malawi is actively reviewing and
negotiating new Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements
(DTAs). These bilateral Agreements assist countries to
eliminate double taxation of income by allocating taxing rights
to the resident country, with a view to alleviate tax evasion and
fiscal fraud through the exchange of information. Efforts are
being made to terminate all the old DTAs that are porous and
are being grossly abused by unscrupulous investors and also
to ensure that the country has new DTAs with other countries.
120. In conclusion Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to echo what the
President Joyce Banda said in her remarkably visionary State
of the Nation address, namely, that "the road to recovery is not
easy". However, it is always gratifying when efforts result in
positive developments. As the President pointed out, and as
others have observed, the tough and painful measures that we
put in place have begun to bear fruit.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, there had been a general expectation
that signs of recovery would begin to show in 18 months, but
the recovery actually started earlier than anticipated. As I said
earlier, due to availability of foreign exchange and fuel,
capacity utilization in industry has improved, such that
companies that would have closed down resulting in
unemployment were able to stay on their feet, and a significant
number of firms were even able to expand, thereby creating
more jobs.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, commentators on the Malawi economy
have often used the metaphor of a patient requiring medical
attention. It so happens, Mr. Speaker, Sir, that the patient has
been taking some pretty painful medications. That we agree,
because the nature of the illness required a really strong
dosage to be taken over a considerably long period.
123. Now there are signs that the patient is getting better.
There are signs that indeed, the patient is very much on the
road to recovery, thanks to the medicines he has been taking.
What we in Government find amusing, Mr. Speaker, Sir,
is the attempt by various commentators p to give the
impression that the patient's improving condition has
absolutely nothing to do with the medicines he has been
taking.
Instead of giving credit to the medicine, there is now a
frantic search for the cause of this healing process. Suddenly,
it seems to cause of this improvement in the patient's condition
has become a mystery. Questions are being asked: Is it
perhaps only because of the season? Is it perhaps the tobacco,
or the maize, or could there have been a massive depreciation
of another currency which has caused the Kwacha to gain
weight? Could this be temporary? In fact sometimes we even
seem to be hoping that it is temporary, almost hoping for a
return to the really bad days of yesteryear. There is an
obsession with negativity and the glorification of the sad
mentality which is preventing otherwise reasonable people
from accepting the very obvious linkage between cause and
effect.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge those engaged in this fruitless
search to search no more. The reasons for the stabilization of
the kwacha and the availability of fuel are staring us all in the
face: the reasons are the very same economic reforms and
measures which this House debated and wisely approved. The
reasons lie in the legislation regarding human rights which this
House passed. The reasons for the emerging recovery have to
do with the restoration of damaged relations with our
development partners which this House applauded last year.
127. I submit Mr. Speaker, Sir, that all Malawians should take
credit for encouraging President Joyce Banda to address the
nation's economic challenges, and the President should take
credit for heeding the call. Civil society should take credit for
demanding that Government takes action to save our economy
from total collapse last year. I submit that this honourable
House should take credit for approving the tough measures in
the current budget aimed at restoring the economy.
128. As for the fact that this is all because of the tobacco, let
us remind each other that we did have a tobacco season last
year. Among other factors, a conducive environment at the
tobacco auction floors, good rains provided by the Almighty
God, and good policies being implemented at the Ministry of
Agriculture have contributed to this being a good year, just as
an up scaled Fertilizer and Subsidy Programme has
contributed to a good maize harvest which is helping drive
inflation down.
129. Suppose, as the doomsayers and professional cynics say,
all this proved to be temporary. Well, we all know about the
seasonal structure of our economy. It is true that our economy
is characterized by seasonality. It is equally true that in the
past two years we experienced the seasonality phenomenon.
However, there was no recovery during those two years. But should we just sit back and lament that the
encouraging signs we see T the moment are only temporary
and therefore we should continue looking sad like professional
mourners because come December the kwacha will weaken
again? We in government, we in the People's Party, do not think
so. We believe that with the right policies in place and hard
work, the lean season can be broken. We do not have to accept
the seasonal structure of our economy as a permanent
condition, a permanent curse, of our nation.
It is possible to grow more crops and ensure that there is
plenty of food available in the lean season. That is what
President Joyce Banda has in mind when she talks about the
second crop and more robust use of irrigation. It is possible to
create an environment in which the private sector is more
productive and exports more in order generate more foreign
exchange that would ensure that we have adequate reserves
even in the lean season. That is what our tax measures and the
reforms being implemented by the Minister of Industry and
Trade seek to achieve.
Working together in unity as the President has appealed;
we can kill the lean season, or at least make it less lean, and
at long last change the structure of our economy. It may not
happen in one year, and in fact it need not happen in one year,
but it is possible, and with PP leadership it will happen.
One of the ways to achieve this and ensure
macroeconomic stability is to continue upholding the policies
that we put in place in the 2012/13 fiscal year. We must
maintain the tightness of the fiscal stance. We must continue
with the tight monetary position.
We need in the short to medium term to be able to reduce
the interest rate to allow meaningful and profitable investment
for the private sector.
In this regard, Mr. Speaker, Sir, Government's pre-
occupation in the next budget will be to bring inflation down
while at the same time ensuring optimal investment in the
private sector. I wish in this regard to call the private sector to
do a serious self-assessment of the relevance of their
investments. We expect the private sector to play its role as an
engine of economic growth and invest in productive sectors
that will spur economic growth.
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my
profound gratitude to my colleagues in Cabinet for their
support and encouragement in the implementation of the
budget and the drawing up of the new budget. Supporting me
was not always easy for them in view of the fact all too often
they had to take "No" for answer from me.
I have learnt, Mr. Speaker, Sir, a lot from all colleagues in
this Honourable House who in one way or the other have given
us good suggestions on how to implement the budget. Off
course, some of these suggestions were by way of criticism and
I took them with humility.
In particular, Mr. Speaker Sir, I would want to
acknowledge the advice from the standing committees of this
noble House starting with the Budget and Finance Committee,
the Public Accounts Committee and indeed many other sector
committees. I have enjoyed a good working relationship with all
these. We may not have agreed on a number of issues but that
is the nature of democracy and I remain convinced that every
individual member of these committees is driven by not selfish
interests, but by a wish to do good for our beloved country.
I also wish to thank our development partners namely DFID of the UK, the African Development Bank, World Bank,
Global Fund, Norway, Ireland, Germany, the European Union,
USAID, JICA, and many others. They always stand by us in our
time of need. Apart from their financial assistance, we also
benefited greatly from their suggestions and advice on how to
implement our programmes. It is my sincere hope and prayer
that the good and cordial relationship existing between our
development partners and this country will grow from strength
to strength.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would also like to express
government's appreciation to civil society organizations who
never miss an opportunity to let us hear their views on the
economy and other related issues. We remain convinced that
as government we have a duty and responsibility to listen to
everyone and especially to those who disagree with us or offer
alternative views.
Lastly but not least, I want to thank the hardworking men
and women of our Economic Management Team: members of
Staff in my Ministry, my friend the Minister of Economic
Planning Development and his fine team, the Reserve Bank of
Malawi, National Statistical Office and the Malawi Revenue
Authority for their tireless and commendable efforts to stay on
course with the programme. Mr. Speaker, Sir, without these
very dedicated and professional ladies and gentlemen it would
have been difficult to implement these reforms and for me to
present this budget. These are the unsung heroes of the
Economic Recovery Plan.
But Mr. Speaker there is another group of people that I
know are also here that deserve the continued appreciation of
the nation. They are not exactly donors, but they certainly
qualify to be called development partners. I am talking about
the taxpayers, big and small. Some of the big ones from the
corporate world are represented up there in the galleries and
the smaller ones are there too.
We do not always get well with taxpayers, Mr. Speaker.
Some of them given a chance would rather find some legal way
of avoiding the paying of tax, and we sometimes have to engage
in cat and mouse chases with them. Actually this is not
peculiar to Malawi, as we have seen in recent international
headlines. Ingenious tax avoidance and tax evasion tricks go
back in history to the day the very idea of paying taxes was
invented by mankind. Some of our taxpayers make really
unreasonable demands and are frequent visitors to my office or
that of the Commissioner General.
But they are all good men and women and when eventually they do pay their taxes, their money is what builds
many of the roads and bridges, the hospitals, and the schools in which our young people learn. So, on behalf of government, I salute all the taxpayers of Malawi and urge them to continue paying their taxes with a smile.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.
2013/14 BUDGET STATEMENT
Delivered in the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI
By THE MINISTER OF FINANCE
THE HON. DR. KEN LIPENGA,M.P.
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