Chiperoni & more –14th Sep 2023

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 14th of September twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

On Monday the 11th, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services announced that most areas in the Southern and Northern regions would experience mild Chiperoni weather from the night of Tuesday the 12th to Friday the 15th. Chiperoni is the local name for an easterly air mass caused by an influx of cool and moist air mass that comes to Malawi, mostly from Chiperoni Mountain in Mozambique.

The Department said there would be cloudy, windy, and cold conditions, with occasional drizzles and fog.

It also said that water bodies, including Lake Malawi, would experience southerly winds, locally known as Mwera winds. They advised locals, especially asthma patients, to stay warm and away from lakes.

True to their statement, Monday the 11th was particularly windy and caused infrastructural damage to some areas such as Lunzu in rural Blantyre. Some small billboards along the Magalasi road were knocked down.

Speaking of climate-induced damage, recall that Malawi is among the countries that Cyclone FREDDY hit the hardest earlier this year.

On Wednesday the 13th, the United Nations announced that they would give Malawi four million dollars in funding through their Central Emergency Response Fund (or CERF). Malawi is one of the fourteen countries that will receive a portion of CERF’s 125 million dollar budget.

Rebecca Adda-Dontoh, the UN Resident Coordinator, said in the last three years, disasters struck Malawi and it needs assistance. She said she would ask for more support at the UN General Assembly in New York.

According to a government report titled twenty twenty-three Tropical Cyclone Freddy Post-Disaster Needs Assessment, over 500 million dollars worth of infrastructure was lost in the disaster, and Malawi will need around 680 million dollars for recovery and reconstruction. Cyclone FREDDY killed over 600 people and displaced over 600 thousand.

On Wednesday the 13th, the Malawi National Examinations Board (or MANEB) and the Ministry of Education organized a press briefing in Lilongwe to announce that students who sat for the twenty twenty-three Malawi School Certificate of Education (or MSCE) exams can now access their results

According to Dorothy Nampota, the MANEB Executive Director, over 154 thousand candidates sat for the MSCE exams, and over eighty-three thousand passed. This represents a fifty-four percent pass rate, which is a four percent decline from last year’s rate.

The highest-performing schools are Marist Private Secondary School and Mtendere Secondary School in Dedza, and St. Kizito in Blantyre. Most of their students passed with distinctions.

On the flip side, Mbongozi Community Day Secondary School (or CDSS) in Kasungu is trending for having a zero percent pass rate. Other low-performing schools are Phembe CDSS in Mzimba South and Chibvumbe CDSS in Blantyre.

Nampota said they would look into why these CDSSs did not perform well.

Meanwhile, President Chakwera pardoned two prisoners who performed exceptionally well in the MSCE exams. One was selected to study at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences in Blantyre, and the other to Mzuzu University.

President Chakwera said the pardon is a recognition of prisoners’ right to education and an indication of prisons’ rehabilitation power.

If you booked a stay at the Golden Peacock Hotel in Lilongwe, you should start looking for a replacement.

On Thursday the 14th, the Ministry of Tourism closed the hotel and temporarily revoked its operational license because it failed to meet sanitary and cleanliness standards. They also order the hotel to cancel all its bookings and to book their current guests into other hotels or refund their money.

Angela Chilale, the Regional Tourism Officer for the Central Region, told local media that they have given Golden Peacock’s management ninety days to improve. After that, the Ministry will decide whether the hotel will get its license back or not.

In last week’s episode, we said the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (or MACRA) announced that MultiChoice Malawi (or MCM) would resume operations last Friday, following the two companies’ reconciliation.

On Monday the 11th, MACRA released a statement approving MCM’s request to adjust its DSTV prices.

However, a few hours later, MultiChoice Africa—the parent company for MCM—released a statement saying their potential return to Malawi would depend on the outcome of the judicial dispute between MCM and MACRA.

On Monday evening, MCM obtained yet another injunction against MACRA, this time, to stop MACRA from taking any action against MCM and its employees.

Daud Suleman, the Director General for MACRA, said DSTV’s signals are landing in Malawi illegally since MCM revoked its own license and its right to operate in Malawi after it withdrew its services.

Recall that, despite this dispute, MCM continues to provide its GoTV services to locals.

Still on more news about MACRA, on Friday the 8th, the Authority announced that the Malawi and Tanzania governments have signed a Commercial Agreement. This Agreement is an extension of a Memorandum of Understanding signed at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on the 7th of July, by the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi and the Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation Limited.

The Memorandum and Commercial Agreement will enable Malawi to purchase internet infrastructure from Tanzania at lower costs, thus decreasing Malawi’s internet costs.

Last week, the government signed a similar agreement with Zambia.

According to social media users, while one government body is trying to save money, another one is “wasting it”,.

On Tuesday the 12th, Richard Chimwendo Banda, the Minister for Local Government, told local public officials that they “deserve proper security because they represent the government.” According to Banda, the current administration is planning to introduce police bodyguards for its District Commissioners, Municipality Council, and City Chief Executive Officers.

Malawi has twenty-eight district councils, four city councils, one town council, and two municipal councils; all translating to thirty-five individuals requiring security.

The current cost of hiring one armed police officer is forty thousand Kwacha, around forty dollars.

Funny enough, local councils have gone unpaid for three months, due to a lack of funds.

Even though the government has been put into question because of how it manages its funds, the truth is that it will “lose” money anyway.

On Wednesday the 13th, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (or ESCOM) announced a hike in electricity tariffs. Recall that last week, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority granted ESCOM permission to increase its tariffs by fifty percent gradually, from now till twenty twenty-six.

According to the statement, ESCOM has raised tariffs for all its services, including postpaid and prepaid electricity supply. For instance, domestic postpaid clients will now pay a fixed charge of nearly seventeen thousand Kwacha, or about fifteen dollars, up from approximately fourteen thousand Kwacha, or nearly thirteen dollars.

You can see their new rates with the link in our show notes.

Speaking of price increases, let’s talk about fuel.

According to a Business Insider Africa article published on Tuesday the 12th, the average price of gasoline turns out to be very expensive in some countries because of their economic realities. Malawi is such a country and appears as one of ten African countries that sells fuel at significantly higher prices than the world average.

Malawi sells fuel at an average of a dollar and sixty-five cents per liter and ranks second in the Top 10 countries in Africa that sell fuel at the highest prices. The Central Africa Republic ranks first, and Senegal third. Malawi is forty-one on the global list.

Speaking of ranking, Moyenda Mutharika-Knapp, the daughter of former president Peter Mutharika, has been featured in the Top 100 Black Lawyers in the USA. The USA-based National Black Lawyers Association makes the list and, according to their website, “selects the most successful and influential lawyers with reputations for providing excellent legal representation in their respective practice areas.”

The USA has over 1.3 million active lawyers so Knapp’s achievement is no small feat.

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Pitani bwino!