MALAWI: Amendments Approved & more – 9th Dec 2025

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 9th of December twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Parliament passed the controversial Constitution Amendment Bill on Thursday the 4th. In a previous episode, we mentioned that the Bill gives MPs the power to approve projects that the Constituency Development Fund should fund, and takes that mandate away from local councils.

We also mentioned that the Malawi Local Government Association and many civil society organizations were worried that this Bill blurred the lines of MPs' roles. The stakeholders also feel betrayed by MPs because, in May, the Constitutional Court ordered that MPs should not manage the funds directly, and emphasized that MPs’ powers should be separated from councils.

Now, even though the President has yet to approve the Bill, some stakeholders said they will fight it in court.

Parliamentarians also approved the amendment of the Taxation Bill. In a previous episode, we reported that it would introduce levies on mobile money and bank transfers, change the Pay As You Earn rates, and increase withholding tax from 10% to 15%.

Some people are angry and believe the Bill would have been tossed out if more MPs were present on the voting day: ninety-four MPs voted in favor of the bill, forty-nine voted against it, and two refused to take sides, while seventy-seven MPs were a no-show.

The Speakers of the House may have heard the news, because on Monday the 8th, they set a new rule - effective immediately - that MPs who did not attend parliamentary sittings for no good reason would not receive their allowances. They also ordered that MPs sign a daily attendance register, or miss out on allowances.

The Parliament is yet to give an update on the bill that taxes landlords 25% on their rental properties. It has been stressing people out, as their rentals are likely to increase because of the bill.

On Monday the 8th, the Malawi Housing Corporation denied rumours that they had hiked rentals for their properties by 40%. They said a now-circulating statement is fake, and that they will increase rentals by 10% like they do every year.

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Still on bills, the government is worried that it is spending too much money on wages, so it launched a nationwide payroll and personnel audit to remove fraudulent payments to ghost workers and duplicate roles.

On Friday the 5th, the Minister of Information and Communications Technology revealed that the wage bill was 480 billion Kwacha, which is about 280 million dollars, in the twenty twenty-one/twenty twenty-two fiscal year, and that it might hit 1.6 trillion Kwacha, which is 923 million dollars, in the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six fiscal year.

The government will run its audit from Tuesday the 9th of December to the 6th of February. During this period, all state employees will need to appear in person with original documents, including their Identification Cards, certificates, and employment letters. If they don’t, they will be removed from the government payroll.

On a similar note, on Thursday the 4th, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation ordered all central hospitals to replace all health professionals hired earlier this year following interviews held in May and June. They believe the recruitment process was not followed, making the hired candidates unqualified to work in government hospitals.

According to a letter directed to the hospitals, the Attorney General advised the Ministry to fire the recently hired workers and replace them with qualified candidates immediately. They were also ordered to recruit workers for the roles that were not filled then.

In trending news… Colleen Zamba, the former Secretary to the President and Cabinet, was arrested on Wednesday the 3rd at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe in the Central Region, minutes before boarding her flight to Switzerland. The police questioned her for allegedly abusing public office by employing nearly 300 people between twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-three without following the correct procedures.

The police released Zamba on Friday the 5th, after the court granted her bail with the condition that she hand over her travel documents and show up at the Police Headquarters every two weeks.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said they need fourteen more days to complete their investigations, but people feel this is another stunt that will not have any real consequences.

A local journalist interviewed seventy-four-year-old Lieutenant Frank Jiya, one of twenty men who tried to overthrow Kamuzu Banda and his dictatorial rule in nineteen sixty-seven, and introduce a government with pan-African values. The twenty had received training from the Russians and Cubans at their Tanzania military camp, and hid in Neno district in the Southern Region.

Unfortunately, government soldiers found them. Their General, Yatuta Chisiza, and two others were killed. Days later, eight more were captured and charged with treason. Jiya recalled how the government displayed the General’s body to the public as a warning, while the eight were executed in public.

Jiya said Kamuzu and the General were once close, until the General grew suspicious that Kamuzu had a hand in the death of the General’s younger brother.

On Friday the 5th, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said Malawi is in for a dry spell this rainy season. But luck is on the country’s side, since authorities at the Department said it will last only a few days because of some unstable air masses.

Agriculture experts have since advised farmers to hold off planting their crops until the rains are consistent again. They have also encouraged those who have already planted their crops to use soil and water conservation methods like box ridges, or to water their plants manually.

The holiday season is coming up, but if you are looking to get a bit tipsy, you might have to shell out some money, as Castel Distribution Limited announced a price hike for their beer and spirits, which became effective on Monday the 8th.

According to their statement from Sunday the 7th, some of the affected products are the popular Carlsberg Green and Carlsberg Special Brew, which will now be selling at 3,200 Kwacha or almost two dollars, from 2,500 Kwacha or almost 1 dollar and fifty US cents. Other affected drinks are the Premium Brandy and the Malawi Gin and Vodka collections.

On Thursday the 4th, authorities at the Michiru View Girls Secondary School in Blantyre in the Southern Region closed the school’s first term prematurely for all its boarding students.

On the night of Wednesday the 3rd, the students demonstrated because they were angry that their Head Teacher had changed the term’s closing date from Friday the 19th to Sunday the 21st, meaning the students would have no permission to go home for the holidays for a few more days. They burnt down their dorms, the Head Teacher’s office, and a storage room used to keep books and certificates.

On Thursday the 4th, local news said the police had arrested twenty-one students, who will be answering arson charges in court soon.

Local media casually announced that Malawi’s men’s national netball team would play at the twenty twenty-five Africa Netball Cup, but here’s the thing… Malawi did not have a men’s national netball team until August. Many locals just found out about the team via the news on Friday the 5th, and many aren’t taking it so well.

Some trolled the men, saying they were playing a “woman’s game”, while others laughed at the uniforms of the fifteen-member squad because they thought they were ugly. Still, the Malawi Kings are set to play against Kenya, Namibia and Eswatini.

The well-known and loved Malawi Queens, the national women’s netball team, will be at the tournament too, which will run from Monday the 8th to Sunday the 14th in Lilongwe.

CTS Courier, a logistics company, is also getting trolled on social media.

On Monday the 8th, CTS announced the launch of CTS Funeral, their sister company, on their Facebook page. They said the official launch would take place in Lilongwe on the 31st of January.

Even though CTS tried to position itself as a trusted help during times of loss and grief, people in the comments recalled how their parcels never got delivered or were stolen while being transferred through CTS Courier, and they joked that their loved ones' bodies may go missing too.

CTS authorities did not respond to the comments.

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

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Pitani bwino!