MALAWI: 2025 Elections & more – 5th Nov 2024

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 5th of November twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Four political parties want to suspend the twenty twenty-five elections because they said there are some irregularities with the registration process.

On Wednesday the 30th of October, the parties held a joint press briefing in Lilongwe where they demanded that registration be discontinued by Thursday the 14th, otherwise they will hold intense demonstrations.

Jean Mathanga from the Democratic Progressive Party said that civic and voter education started late, and that is an anomaly that discriminated against some locals. She also said some authorities from the Malawi Electoral Commission or MEC need to step down as they are affiliated with the ruling party.

On Thursday the 31st of October, the MEC extended the first phase of the voter registration exercise. It was meant to run until Tuesday the 3rd. The extension was meant to make way for citizens who were unable to register due to a court case where five citizens tried to get an injunction to stop the MEC from requiring national IDs as the sole form of identification for citizens registering to vote. They said it infringed upon their constitutional rights.

The High Court dismissed the application, but MEC had halted some of its voter registration activities while waiting for the judgment.

Even though many locals said they would register to vote in the upcoming elections, a lot of them have shared on social media that they are not sure who exactly they will be voting for.

This confusion is exacerbated by issues like Michael Usi, the Vice President of Malawi and President of the United Transformation Movement (or UTM), who did not submit his presidential nomination papers before the deadline, which was Monday the 4th.

Usi told local media that the registration fee of twenty million Kwacha, which is a little over eleven thousand dollars, was too high, and he was unreachable when they tried to find out if he intended to submit his papers at all.

The UTM is set to hold its Convention in Mzuzu city on Sunday the 17th, so Usi’s behavior has caused quite a stir among locals and within the party itself.

The country marked the end of the mourning period for Saulos Chilima, the former Vice President, who died in a plane crash in June. The government held prayers in his honor and also used the same occasion to mark the end of the mourning period for Lucius Banda, a musician and the Presidential Advisor on Youth, who also died in June after a long illness.

The prayers were held in Ntcheu district, where Chilima was from. Some notable people attended, including Vice President Michael Usi; Patricia Kaliati, the General Secretary for the UTM; and Inkosi ya Makosi Ngwenyama Gomani, the Chief of the Ngoni tribe.

Speaking of the VP’s plane crash, Moses Shumba, a local pastor, was sent to prison on Tuesday the 29th for spreading offensive voice notes on his WhatsApp group, Rise and Shine Malawi, alleging that Chilima’s plane crash was premeditated murder. He insinuated that the president was behind the assassination.

Last week, the First Grade Magistrate Court in Lilongwe sentenced him to eighteen months in prison, but reduced it to ten months.

There are still questions about how the plane crashed. In August, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation released an interim report on the accident. It highlighted several technical difficulties but did not provide satisfactory answers. As such, President Chakwera appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the plane crash. He told the Commission to submit its report on the 30th of this month.

On Tuesday the 11th, local news said the Commission—which has nineteen members—started its work. However, Jabbar Alide, the Chairperson of the Commission, said they could not give details of their work yet. He said they would give the nation periodic updates through press statements.

In other news, on Saturday, the 2nd, First Capital Bank, one of the biggest banks in Malawi, announced that one of its most popular branches, its Capital City branch, had been temporarily closed for essential maintenance works. They said they would restore services at the branch as soon as possible but urged their customers to use their online banking services or visit their other Lilongwe branches in the meantime.

On the other hand, the National Bank posted flyers at some of its branches indicating that it had changed its operating hours. The National Bank now closes its service centers at 3 PM instead of 4 PM on weekdays. The operating time for Saturday remains the same – from 8:30 AM to 11 AM.

In trending news, locals have been robbed of over 100 thousand dollars due to mobile money fraud in the last ten months.

Local news published the story on Wednesday the 30th, when the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority launched Cyber Security Awareness Month in Lilongwe.

During the launch, Malah Kawale, a Board Member for the Authority, said there were twenty-seven thousand attempted mobile money fraud cases since January. She said this underscores the need for the Authority to commemorate the awareness month so that locals can be aware of current and prevalent cyber threats and how to avoid them.

On an unrelated note, The Malawi Revenue Authority has been ensuring that local manufacturers and importers comply with the legal requirement to stick tax stamps on their products.

On Thursday the 31st of October, they made a post on social media indicating what the stamps look like. They said that if a product didn’t have a stamp, it could have been smuggled into Malawi, meaning that the excise tax was not paid and the product could harm consumers’ health.

You can check out their post on Twitter to see what the stamp looks like, with the link in our show notes.

Shemu Joyah and Sukez, two of the country’s most celebrated filmmakers, have teamed up to produce the story of Reverend John Chilembwe’s nineteen fifteen uprising on television.

Chilembwe fought against British colonial rule and can be considered the nation’s freedom fighter and revolutionary. He even has a local public holiday in his honor.

Sukez told local media that the short film is called Strike a Blow and Die. Even though the movie is yet to be released, it has already received a nomination at the African Movie Academy Awards for Best Short Film. The duo said they hope the film will help bring Chilembwe’s legacy on screen. So far, his story is mainly depicted in books and radio plays.

In sports news, the women’s football team, the Scorchers, was eliminated from the twenty twenty-four Women’s Championship organized by the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations. They dropped out of the league on Thursday the 31st when they lost two goals to nil during the semifinals against Zambia. This was probably a tough pill for them to swallow, considering that the Scorchers beat Zambia two goals to one last year.

Local sports commentators said that Zambia took the lead this time because their midfield defense was quite good. They also said the Scorchers’ best players, including the Ballon d’Or nominated Tabitha Chawinga, were not part of the squad. Despite the loss, the Scorchers made history by scoring two hat-tricks during the league.

Unfortunately, the national netball team, the Queens, did not do so well against South Africa’s SPAR Proteas team. They played against them on Saturday the 2nd at Johannesburg, South Africa.

Even though the Queens had a great start in the first quarter of the SPAR Challenge, they took a nasty beating in the remaining three quarters. They lost sixty-nine to thirty-eight goals.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Pitani bwino!