MALAWI: Fake Forex & more – 14th Jan 2025

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

The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said a new cyclone developed in the Indian Ocean over the weekend and hit northern Madagascar and Mozambique on Saturday the 11th. It was a little over a thousand kilometers or slightly over 620 miles away from Malawi.

A statement from Sunday the 12th by the Department said that it is very unlikely that Cyclone Dikeledi will reach Malawi, but the twister will probably increase local rainfall activities from Tuesday the 14th. They said this may go on until Sunday the 19th, mainly in districts in the Northern and Southern regions.

The country is lucky that Cyclone Dikeledi probably won’t affect Malawi that much, especially because it is still recovering from Cyclone Freddy, which hit the country in early twenty twenty-three and displaced over 659 thousand people.

For instance, on Monday the 13th, Costly Chanza, the Director Of Town Planning, told local news that the Blantyre City Council has yet to relocate about three thousand Cyclone Freddy survivors to the Mapanga Camp Site in Blantyre in the southern region. She said the site might be ready for settlement by mid-year.

After the Cyclone Freddy disaster, the government ordered that the Blantyre City Council relocate people living in flood-prone areas to safer locations.

A local media house exposed a syndicate printing foreign currencies at home, amid the country’s forex shortage.

According to the article, - published by the Platform for Investigative Journalism, on Thursday the 9th, following a tipoff and months of investigation - Karonga in the Northern Region is a hub for trading activities since it borders Tanzania, which has access to the sea. This creates a demand for forex, so the syndicate has been producing counterfeit notes, including US dollars, the Malawi Kwacha, Tanzanian Shillings, and South African Rands.

The article exposed three men who were printing the fake forex, and it also said the police may be working with the syndicate too.

You can get the full details with the link in the show notes.

Last week, we talked about the police arresting government officials for various legal offenses. Well, we’ve got a new case this week

On Saturday the 11th, the police in Lilongwe, in the Central Region, arrested Alfred Gangata, the Vice President of the Democratic Progressive Party.

According to a statement by the Malawi Revenue Authority (or MRA), which was released on Saturday the 11th, Gangata is the CEO of Master Security Services, and he used a falsified Tax Clearance Certificate number to bid for a tender that the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources had advertised. He was arrested on allegations of falsifying tax records, forgery, and uttering a false statement.

The MRA said Gangata will appear in court soon.

In trending news, the Public Affairs Committee (or PAC) called out President Lazarus Chakwera for being a bad leader in a now-viral letter that they presented to him at the State House on Monday the 13th.

In the letter, Dr Patrick Thawale, the PAC Chairperson, said they are disappointed with how the government has been inactive and indecisive when dealing with corrupt practices and abuse of funds. They also accused the government of failing the economy, and urged the President to review the cabinet.

Check out the full letter with the link in the show notes.

Still, stakeholders’ recommendations shared during the Ministry of Finance’s Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting for the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six fiscal year did not receive as much praise.

For instance, on Tuesday the 14th, Agape Khombe from the Citizens for Justice and Equity told Simplex Chithyola Banda, the Finance Minister, to increase taxes for alcohol, cigarettes and cosmetic products, so that the taxes could assist underprivileged children in completing their education.

Another stakeholder, Limbani Nsapato from Edukans, told Banda to remove the Primary School Leaving Examinations for Standard 8 learners because most students can’t afford the examination fees. However, he didn’t explain how students would be selected for Secondary Schools if the exams were removed.

Comments on the media houses’ posts mocked the stakeholders and said there were more pressing issues they have brought up.

The Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services has not provided any services, including producing driving licenses and certificates of insurance, since their system crashed a week ago.

On Friday the 10th, Watson Maingo, the Spokesperson at the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, said they couldn’t find what the problem was at first, but assured that their technicians had fixed it. He said services at the Road Traffic would be restored by Monday the 13th, but they weren’t.

On Tuesday the 14th, a local media house said a source from the Road Traffic revealed rumors within their office that the government had not paid the Road Traffic’s South African network provider, hence the outage.

Meanwhile, Alexander Moyo, the National Deputy Director of Traffic at the Malawi Police Service, said they wouldn’t penalize any motorists with newly-expired licenses or certificates until the issue is dealt with.

Ntcheu District Hospital located in the Southern Region, will no longer be providing meals to its patients or its staff, starting from Wednesday the 8th.

On Thursday the 9th, the hospital released a memo saying it was experiencing severe food shortages and could not afford to supply food. The memo said the hospital is working with the Ntcheu District Council to resolve the issue, but did not say when they think things might return to normal.

Government hospitals serve free meals to their patients, making it easy for people from poor backgrounds to afford hospital stays and recover with ease. They also provide free or very cheap services compared to private hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority has been building computer labs and donating computers to schools across the country to help promote digital learning in local schools and improve Malawi’s digital literacy rates, which stand at nineteen percent, according to a study conducted by the National Statistics Office in twenty nineteen.

But on Thursday the 9th, the Authority encountered a major setback after fifteen computers that they donated to Phalombe Secondary School in the Southern Region were stolen.

Local news did not say whether the police made any arrests. However, the news sparked mild social media debates on how locals’ actions sometimes cause the country’s poor development.

On another note, the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament appointed a new Chairperson and Vice Chairperson on Wednesday the 8th at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe.

They appointed Honorable Grant Ndecha, an MP for Machinga South, as the new Chairperson. He replaced Honorable Joyce Chitsulo, who was recently appointed as the Deputy Minister of Local Government during the Cabinet reshuffle, which we covered in our previous episode.

The new Vice President of the Committee is Honorable Bester Awali, an MP for Zomba Central.

A new Twitter thread may help you pick your next local travel destination.

On Saturday the 11th, Africa Firsts - a popular Twitter account that showcases various destinations across the continent - put the spotlight on Malawi. Their thread included various local scenic spots, including popular places like Mulanje Mountain in the Southern Region. However, they also shared some not-so-famous locations too.

We have shared the link to the Twitter thread in our show notes.

Perhaps when you pick your travel destination, you could help yourself to two new books by local authors that were released this month.

Asante Mtenje, a local author and an Associate Professor in the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Malawi, released a poetry collection called Forms of Slaughter and Other Poems. She told local media that she felt like a hypocrite for encouraging her students to publish their work while she wasn’t doing the same.

Ekari Mbvundula, another local author, published a science fiction novel titled Green Shadows: Vinjeru’s Awakening, which talks about a new Malawi where environmental problems have been solved with technology. She said she worked on the novel for over ten years.

Aaand that’s it for this week!

Thanks for tuning into the Rorshok Malawi update. You can connect with us on social media as @rorshok_malawi on Instagram or @RorshokMalawi on Twitter

Pitani bwino!