By Donald Zimba

Lilongwe, August 28, Mana: Government through the Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (DoDMA) is working in connection with the Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) in supporting survivors of tropical cyclone Freddy with shelter in Phalombe and Zomba as part of post disaster-recovery project.

Speaking recently at the construction site, Malawi Red Cross Society Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Specialist, Cecelia Banda said so far this project phase which is an initiative of President Dr Lazarus Chakwera is set to construct 75 houses, 45 in Phalombe and 30 in Zomba.

The houses are set to be completed and handed over to communities by 30^th October, 2023.

“The good will ambassadors of tropical cyclone Freddy recovery, former Presidents Dr Joyce Banda and Dr Bakili Muluzi, mobilised resources from the Dozy Mmobuosi foundation which has provided 75 houses, and also from the Big Win, a charitable organization from the United Kingdom (UK) which has provided seven houses in Phalombe in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Nazombe.

 “We also have four houses which have been constructed in Chiradzulu with support from the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) in collaboration with the NBS Bank and are ready for handover, and we also have two houses which have been constructed in the same Chiradzulu district with aid from the First Capital Bank (FCB). This is just the beginning as we are continuing to mobilize more resources” she said.

Group village head Mchenga from Chiradzulu said after the tragedy he collaborated with the T/A Phwelemwe to discuss with the department of forestry, to request for a piece of land to begin construction and their request was granted.

“I assure my fellow chiefs who have also been affected by this tragedy, not to be afraid to request government for help, by providing them with land which is safe for their families to relocate to safer ground.

“I am happy to say that no one in my area was reluctant to this new development, they were happy when I announced to them about this relocation, I want ask my fellow chiefs to do the same to help their people relocate to safer locations” he said.

This project is part of the Government’s efforts to relocate the survivors of cyclone Freddy to safer areas, working hand in hand with chiefs in respective areas with support from development partners, corporate institutions and other charitable organization.

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By Brian Wasili,              

Mwanza, August 27, Mana:  Government has asked district councils in the country to identify resources for introduction and sustainability of Children’s Parliament in their respective councils as a way of providing a platform for children in Malawi to voice out their concerns to duty bearers.

Principal Secretary for Administration and Finance in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Nwazi Nthambala made the appeal at the close of the Seventh Session of Children Parliament in Mwanza on Friday.

“Government is committed to ensuring that this initiative is expanded to all the districts which are yet to implement it so that the issues affecting children receive maximum attention by relevant authorities,” said Nthambala.

She commended Norad, through Save the Children International, for supporting Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission to implement a project called Securing Children’s Rights through Education and Protection (SCREP).

The project, which has been implemented in Mwanza for five years, is expected to wind up its activities this year.

In his remarks, Member of Parliament for Mwanza Central, Nicholas Dausi pledged to support Children’s Parliament with Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to ensure sustainability of the parliament at constituency level.

“This will expand inclusion of children in rural areas in decision making to address obstacles which hinder their future,” said Dausi.

Mwanza District Council Chairperson, Emmanuel Kapawe said the council is committed to sustain Children’s Parliament beyond SCREP project in the district.

“We are in the process of identifying some reliable means of getting resources to sustain the programme in our district,” said Kapawe.

Speaker of the Children’s Parliament in Mwanza, Shekina Galuwapananji said inadequate teaching and learning materials, increased cases of child marriages and teenage pregnancies, child abuse, effects of climate change and environmental degradation and sustainability of children’s parliament in the district were some of the issues deliberated in the parliament.

“We are glad that our council started implementing some of the issues raised in the previous sessions. As such, we expect them to respond to the issues raised this year as well,” said 14-year-old Galuwapananji, a form two student at Ludzi Girls’ Secondary School in Mchinji.

Mwanza District Social Welfare Officer, Mary Msindwa said through the children’s voices the district registered a decrease in child marriage on top of her office and partners doing their best to end child marriages.

“The drastic drop in child marriage cases is because we engaged a multi sectoral approach. We teamed up with partners such as police, judiciary, education, health, information office and traditional leaders to raise awareness in the communities,” said Msindwa.

Save the Children International with funding from Norad is also supporting Neno, Mzimba South, Ntcheu and Ntchisi to implement Children’s Parliament.

The theme for this year’s Children’s Parliament in Mwanza was ‘Children voices matter.’

By Chihalo Kamanga

Karonga, August 18, Mana: The National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) has challenged local authorities to be proactive in ensuring that people have sustainable potable water as one of the means of preventing waterborne related diseases.

Spokesperson for NWRA, Masozi Kasambara, made the remarks, Thursday during the authority’s engagement meeting with members of Karonga District Council.

Kasambara said a survey which the authority conducted in the cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba revealed that 75 percent of 44 sample boreholes are contaminated.

He said the revelation have necessitated the authority to immediately embark on sensitisation on the significance of quality water.

“We therefore call on communities and authorities to ensure that boreholes that were drilled without undergoing registration to register with NWRA so that we reduce cases of waterborne diseases that come through   contaminated water,” Kasambara said.

He also advised local authorities to be checking quality and legality of water abstraction points to reduce the authority’s work load.

Karonga District Coordinator for Malawi Red Cross Society, Reuben Malemia said that the society is already rehabilitating some boreholes in the district and that they will take advantage of the exercise to establish registered and none registered boreholes.

NWRA is a government entity that is mandated among other functions to issue licences to borehole drillers and constructors and regulate water suppliers such as the all water utility bodies in the country.

By Margret Praise Kalua

Nkhata Bay, August 19, Mana: National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) has called for collaborative efforts in regulating and managing water resources to ensure its sustainability for social economic growth.

Speaking Friday during a District Executive Committee (DEC) meeting in Nkhata Bay, NWRA Senior Civic Education Officer, Masozi Kasambala said the Authority is engaging councils in the country as one way of creating awareness regarding water resource management

He pointed out that the 2013 Water Resource Act gives NWRA mandate to manage and regulate water resources and forbid abstraction of water without its authorisation. 

“Construction or operation of all agriculture activities along the lake or rivers is prohibited. One must first seek authorisation and guidance from NWRA. We now give the responsibility to councils to prohibit abstraction of water when there is no consent from the Authority,” he said. 

Director of Planning and Development for Nkhata Bay, Edgar Chahana commended NWRA for conducting an engagement meeting with the council saying it enlightened them of the authority’s mandate and functions.

“Illegal activities such as construction, sand mining and farming along Lake Malawi and rivers are compromising water quality in the district. There is need to enhance the relationship between the council, stakeholders and NWRA to fight against the vice” he said.

By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, August 23, Mana: Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sili Mbewe said his institution is optimistic that it would manage to deal with the issue of water loss caused by illegal water connections, pipe leakages and vandalism of water supplying equipment among others.

He made the remarks on Wednesday during Project for Strengthening the Capacity of Non-Revenue Water Reduction for Lilongwe Water Board (LiSCaP) 9^th Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting which was held in Lilongwe.

Mbewe said that as water board they are looking forward to reduce the issue of water loss in a range of 25 percent reaching the year 2025.

“If we are to ask our customers they will say we want 0 percent nonrevenue water, but unfortunately the reality is we cannot have zero percent across the globe even in Japan where we are learning the experiences they still have non-revenue water within 10 percent.

“For us when we look at our annual targets we are looking at least managing 35 percent but in terms of our strategic plan we are looking at 25 percent by the year 2025 specifically in June,” Mbewe said.

LWB is currently losing about 38 percent of water that it produces annually which translates to the money loss of about K15 billion, according to the CEO.

He further expressed confidence that through various interventions that are implementing which include; replacing old water supplying equipment with new ones among others would help them solve the issue of water loss.

“Under the Lilongwe Water and Sanitation Project we actually have a specific component to look at non-revenue water reduction so it looks at the whole essence of replacing the aged pipe line but again within the project we are also implementing what we are calling District Metered Areas (DMAs).

“The DMAs allow us to demarcate supply areas into manageable areas where we are able to measure how much water has gone into a particular DMA, how much water has been lost and where we have higher incidences of nonrevenue water, therefore we are very optimistic that we should be able to reduce nonrevenue water,” he said.

He also hailed Japan International Cooperation Agency (JAICA) for assisting LWB in dealing with the issue of nonrevenue water through the LiSCaP which is scheduled to phase out in December 2024.

In his comment, JAICA Chief Representative, Kazuhiro Tambara said that as JAICA they are committed to providing LWB with different support such as the latest equipment and capacity that would assist in dealing with the issue of nonrevenue water.

By Manasse Nyirenda in Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, August 24, Mana: Two African Countries have on Thursday been accepted into the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) in addition to the existing four.

The announcement was made Thursday at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa by the host, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Egypt and Ethiopia were accepted alongside United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Argentina.

Speaking during the announcement, Ramaphosa said the aim of the grouping is to promote economic growth and sustainable development for countries in the Global South.

They will officially become members on January 1, 2024.

President Dr Lazarus Chakwera is attending the meeting on invitation from President Ramaphosa.

The Malawi leader is expected to hold bilateral talks with Chinese President, Xi Jimping on Wednesday.

By Manasse Nyirenda

Johannesburg, August 23, Mana: President Lazarus Chakwera has asked ILOVO Group to diversify their value chain in Malawi to other crops for the benefit of Malawians and also the company.

The president was engaging Group Chief Executive Officer, for ILOVO Africa, Gavin Dalglish at Davinci hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg on the sidelines of the on-going BRICS summit in South Africa.

In an interview after meeting the president, Dalglish said was looking forward to the completion of the Shire River canal which is significant and I think it will have multi-generational benefits and it’s a wonderful opportunity to create more value chains for Malawi.

“We talked about growth prospects for ILOVO Sugar in Malawi in particular around the Shire River Canal Project and the potential it has to create more value chains for Malawi and the ongoing investment climate in Malawi,” he said.

Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said the president has been engaging the ILOVO Group for the past three years to find ways of diversifying

“The main focus was on illovo to diversify value chain to sectors of our economy in addition to sugar. ILOVO is about 60 years old, but they have really done only the sugar value chain addition and I think time is now ripe with the Shire Valley Transformation Programme which focuses on gravity fed irrigation.

“ILOVO can be the main off taker of that water and develop a second value chain whether its cotton or legumes or whichever value chain that can be scaled to the size of sugar and I feel it is a win-win for Malawi and ILOVO,” he said.

The BRICS Summit officially closes tomorrow and president Chakwera is expected to attend the closing ceremony with other leaders.

BRICS comprises of five emerging world economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa focusing on economic and political stability.

President of China, XI Jinping has also backed expansion of the BRICS arguing it would make global governance fairer.

Some Africa countries including Algeria and Egypt have expressed interest to join.

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By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, August 23, Kasungu: Group Village Headman (GVH) Mawawa of Santhe in Kasungu says incidences of corruption at both higher and lower levels of governance poses a threat to the aspirations enlisted in the country’s 2063 Vision (Mw2063).

He was speaking at Chankhozi in Traditional Authority Santhe on Wednesday during a day-long training for community leaders on pillars of good governance and the Malawi 2063 vision organised by National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust.

“We have a well-articulated plan that can end this poverty we see in the country. My worry is that there is too much corruption even at lower levels of governance which threatens the realisation of this dream.

“When dealing with corruption, our eyes are always on those at Capital Hill and politicians. But we need to also pay serious attention to the conduct of leaders at lower levels of governance because that is where corruption starts,” Mawawa said.

He said the 2063 agenda is a realistic plan that can easily be achieved if Malawians work together and develop a positive attitude towards work.

“Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden to take care of it so that it also supports their living. Likewise, today, if we are in positions at whatever level, we must remember the reasons why we are in those positions. We must always do the right thing.

“If we work together; if we stop living in doubt; if we stop politicking, we will achieve our 2063 agenda. We must be positive,” he said.  

In an interview, National Planning Commission Public Relations and Communications Manager, Thom Khanje, said the Malawi 2063 Vision document acknowledges that there is corruption in the country and that it recommends interventions for addressing the same.

“Fighting corruption is one of the tenets of the Malawi 2063 under Enabler number two which talks about having effective governance systems and institutions,” he stated.

Khanje further said the vision document calls for efforts to promote openness and transparency, and enhances demand for accountability to curb corruption. 

Nice Civic Education Officer for Kasungu, Pilirani Chaguza, said the realisation of the 2063 Agenda is the responsibility of everyone, including those living in rural communities.

He said: “Malawi 2063 is not a government project. Everyone has some space and role to play so that the envisioned aspirations are realised. It is a guide for everyone.”

Nice is engaging communities on good governance and mindset change with funding from government in a quest to graduate the country from being a low-income and donor-dependent country to a wealthy middle-income and self-reliant nation.

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By Manasse Nyirenda

Johannesburg, August 22, Mana:

President Lazarus Chakwera has assured South African investors of the Government of Malawi’s support in clearing all bottlenecks that stifle investment opportunities into Malawi in order to accelerate economic growth in the country.

The president said this on Tuesday at Davinci Hotel when he met South African investors with diverse investment interests.

One of the investors, Natal East India said the company which deals in rice farming, milling and distribution in South Africa has committed about U$20million dollars towards establishment of a rice mega farm in Malawi.

This was disclosed after the investor and other South African investors met president Chakwera Tuesday to discuss investment opportunities.

In an interview after the meeting, the company’s representative, Thami Shande said the company targets production of up to 100, 000 tons of rice on 10,000 hectares of land.

He said the meeting was very important as they were able to inform the president and his team about the rice specifications their clients want in South Africa.

“This will make Malawi the Champion of rice production not only in South Africa, but also the whole SADC region.

“The president has assured us that in terms of licensing it will be completed within this quarter and we will be able to start implementing before the end of the year,” he said.

Another investor, Blue Energy representative, Marcel Steinberg said he was encouraged by the government of Malawi’s commitment to economic growth and industrialization and identifying the link between energy security and economic growth.

He said his team will be in Malawi from September 5 for site visits to at least 10 areas and also to do feasibility study.

He added that his company has already identified customers in Malawi and a lot of ground work has already been done.

Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said the introduction of more energy investors in Malawi would lessen the pressure on the grid and create a conducive environment for economic development.

He further said that investment in rice mega farms will give an opportunity to local farmers in districts such as Nkhotakota and Salima among others to benefit from the available south African market.

He said the president has urged his team to clear all investment blocks in order for Malawi to develop.

The president also met other investors who are interested in investing in hospitality and tourism, among others.

The Malawi leader is in South Africa to attend the 15^th BRICS summit currently underway in South Africa at the invitation by South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

By Manasse Nyirenda

Johannesburg, August 22, Mana:

President Lazarus Chakwera has assured South African investors of the Government of Malawi’s support in clearing all bottlenecks that stifle investment opportunities into Malawi in order to accelerate economic growth in the country.

The president said this on Tuesday at Davinci Hotel when he met South African investors with diverse investment interests.

One of the investors, Natal East India said the company which deals in rice farming, milling and distribution in South Africa has committed about U$20million dollars towards establishment of a rice mega farm in Malawi.

This was disclosed after the investor and other South African investors met president Chakwera Tuesday to discuss investment opportunities.

In an interview after the meeting, the company’s representative, Thami Shande said the company targets production of up to 100, 000 tons of rice on 10,000 hectares of land.

He said the meeting was very important as they were able to inform the president and his team about the rice specifications their clients want in South Africa.

“This will make Malawi the Champion of rice production not only in South Africa, but also the whole SADC region.

“The president has assured us that in terms of licensing it will be completed within this quarter and we will be able to start implementing before the end of the year,” he said.

Another investor, Blue Energy representative, Marcel Steinberg said he was encouraged by the government of Malawi’s commitment to economic growth and industrialization and identifying the link between energy security and economic growth.

He said his team will be in Malawi from September 5 for site visits to at least 10 areas and also to do feasibility study.

He added that his company has already identified customers in Malawi and a lot of ground work has already been done.

Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said the introduction of more energy investors in Malawi would lessen the pressure on the grid and create a conducive environment for economic development.

He further said that investment in rice mega farms will give an opportunity to local farmers in districts such as Nkhotakota and Salima among others to benefit from the available south African market.

He said the president has urged his team to clear all investment blocks in order for Malawi to develop.

The president also met other investors who are interested in investing in hospitality and tourism, among others.

The Malawi leader is in South Africa to attend the 15^th BRICS summit currently underway in South Africa at the invitation by South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.