El Niño Comes to the Country & more – 2nd Nov 2023

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 2nd of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services forecasted that Malawi’s agricultural season, which lasts from October twenty twenty-three to April twenty twenty-four, will experience normal to below average rainfall with dry spells in most parts of the country due to El Niño. This phenomenon warms the ocean surface, disrupting weather patterns. It can cause heavy rain, which leads to floods or lower rainfall, resulting in dry weather.

However, a think tank from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources has developed a ten-point mitigation strategy called the Ten Complementary Recommendations that the government should implement to prevent El Niño Shocks, which include aggravated hunger resulting from a 16% drop in maize production.

Unfortunately, the country has already started experiencing the adverse effects of the rains. Only this time, it’s flooding and not droughts.

On Tuesday, the 31st, eighty-four households from three villages in Machinga district were displaced after the Lingoni River flooded and destroyed their homes. According to Felister Laston, an eyewitness and Vice Chairperson for one of the affected villages’ development committees in Mposa Village, about eighty-nine people are seeking refuge at a mosque. She said forty-nine of them are children.

Still on weather news, an infographic forecasting heavy rainfall patterns started circulating on social media. However, on Tuesday, the 31st, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said that they didn’t release that image and citizens should ignore it, as it is only misleading the public. The image has caused some citizens to call the Department in panic.

They have asked everyone not to trust or use it.

Some parts of the country will experience power outages this weekend. The Electricity Supply Corporation (or ESCOM) shared several memos via social media on Thursday, the 2nd.

For instance, some parts of Lilongwe city, including Area 4, Constantine, and Shoprite and Game Complexes, will have no power on Sunday the 5th from 8 AM to 4 PM.

Locals in Salima district will have the worst power outage because ESCOM will be maintaining the overhead line that connects Salima and Nkhota-kota districts. This means that districts between these two, including Dwangwa, Kasungu, Rumphi, Mzimba and Chitipa, will have no power. Some parts of Karonga and Songwe may be affected, too.

The power outage will happen on Sunday the 5th from 6 AM to 5 PM.

To see the complete list of affected areas, follow the link in our show notes.

If the area you live in is on the power outage list, consider attending the Tumaini Festival. It is free and starts on Thursday the 2nd until Saturday the 4th. One of the festival organizers, Cedric Valuti, told local media that all is set for the festival and that they have a good lineup of various artists.

Tumaini Festival is an annual cultural festival that takes place at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa. It comprises multiple performances, including music, acrobatics, drummers, and dancers.

Some performing acts this weekend include musician Eli Njuchi, Dzaleka Acrobatics, and the Salama Africa Dancers.

Moving on, an unknown fraudster is impersonating Chikumbutso Mtumodzi, the Director of Information in the Ministry of Information and Digitalization.

The government released a statement on Friday, the 27th, saying Mtumodzi’s WhatsApp account had been hacked and that the hacker was impersonating him. They advised people to ignore suspicious behavior, such as someone asking for money or favors using Mtumodzi’s name.

The hacking was called into question on social media. One person on Twitter questioned how WhatsApp, which is end-to-end encrypted, can get hacked.

Cybercrime is becoming quite common. Twenty-two-year-old Precious Kasakatiza is currently trending for running multiple accounts on Facebook and swindling locals out of their money.

Two weeks ago, Lingadzi Police in Lilongwe arrested Kasakatiza on charges of obtaining money by false pretense and defamation of character, among others. On Friday the 27th, the Magistrate Court sentenced him to three years in prison with hard labor.

Alfred Chimthere, the Deputy National Spokesperson, said Kasakatiza had over eleven fake Facebook accounts where he used pictures of innocent women to entice men and steal their money. Some of the account names were Queen Sagrada, Princess Regina, and Chacha.

He used his other accounts to pose as a steel roofing store, an Avon distributor, and a modeling agency.

About thirty-eight students from Nsalu Secondary School in Lilongwe were rushed and admitted to Kabudula Community Hospital, probably due to food poisoning. Dr. Mackson Zephaniah, Director of Kabudula Hospital, said the students had stomach pains, headaches, diarrhea, and were throwing up.

The students are all girls who live in a private hostel off-campus. According to local news, they got sick on Wednesday the 1st. They ate nsima with Chinese cabbage for dinner on Tuesday the 31st and had rice porridge for breakfast the following day.

Wilson Mandala, the hospital’s Assistant Environmental Health Officer, has since launched an assessment of the hostel’s hygiene.

In even sadder news, Kondwani Majuta, a student from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (or MUBAS), died.

The last time someone saw him was on Saturday the 28th. On the evening of Tuesday the 31st, some students peeped in his dorm

Elias Chizimba, the Spokesperson for MUBAS, said the police are yet to determine the cause of his death.

You have until Friday, the 3rd of November, to apply to take part in a theater festival by the University of Malawi.

On Tuesday, the 31st, the School of Arts, Communication, and Design at the University of Malawi announced a three-day theater festival they will host at the end of this month. They have asked professional theater companies, amateur theater groups, stand-up comedians, secondary school drama clubs, and university theater groups to send their participation requests by Friday the 3rd.

Zindaba Chisiza, the Associate Professor of Drama at the School of Arts, Communication and Design, hopes the festival will foster collaboration, exchange, and learning – all of which he said have been lacking in theater.

You can also register for the Mr. and Miss Albinism twenty twenty-three pageant.

The Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi released a poster announcing the news on Thursday, the 2nd. To register for the pageant, you must be a Malawian national between eighteen and twenty-eight years old and have a Form Four Secondary School certificate with a pass or an equivalent of that certificate.

The winners will get two million Kwacha cash price, or eighteen hundred dollars, a one-year management contract, and a commercial modeling contract.

And to wrap up this edition, there are suspicions that Mwawi Kumwenda, the shooter for the Malawi National Netball Team, has quit playing for the Queens or that she is planning to.

On Monday the 30th, the Netball Association of Malawi released a list of players who would play at this year’s FAST5 Netball World Series, but Kumwenda’s name wasn’t there. When queried by local media, she said she had excused herself to make room for new talent. Isaac Malunga, the Association’s General Secretary, confirmed the news.

And that's it for this week!

We want to make these updates better. Help us. It doesn’t matter if you are a new or a long-time listener, talk to us. We want to have a conversation with you. Do you want to talk on the phone? We’ll do that! Do you want to talk via email, Twitter, Instagram or Linkedin? We can do that! Just please, give us a hand. We want your honest opinion. We really want to hear from you.

Contact us at malawi@rorshok.com or @rorshok on social media

Pitani bwino!