MALAWI: Kamuzu Day & more – 16th May 2024

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 16th of May twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

The 14th of May marks Kamuzu Day - a public holiday where Malawians celebrate the birth of its first president, Kamuzu Banda.

To commemorate the day, President Chakwera led celebrations at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

Activities included traditional dances and live performances by music artists such as the Black Missionaries and Piksy. The event was free, so many people spent their afternoon in the stadium.

Meanwhile, people on social media put Kamuzu's leadership into question as he could be seen as a dictator who oppressed locals under his strict rule, or as a hero who saved Malawans from British colonial rule.

Nearly 900 police officers across the country had a great Kamuzu Day as the Police Service Commission promoted them to top ranks.

Peter Kalaya, the Spokesperson for the National Police, said the promotions were done after the Commission met between Friday the 3rd and Sunday the 5th. He revealed that nearly 650 cops achieved the rank of senior officers, while the remaining 250 got junior officer positions.

Kalaya also said that ten officers had been promoted from the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police.

He said such moves motivate police officers to provide quality services to the country.

After celebrating, locals were hit with the state of the country's debt. The Ministry of Finance revealed that as of December twenty twenty-three, Malawi's debt has risen to 13.1 trillion Kwacha or 7.5 billion dollars, from 9.3 trillion Kwacha or 5.3 billion dollars in December twenty twenty-two. As a result, the debt equals eighty-five percent of the country’s gross domestic product ratio.

Richard Chiudzu, the Deputy Director of Debt and Aid in the Finance Ministry, said the debt has worsened because of the Kwacha devaluation and the conversion of Treasury Bills, used for short-term domestic borrowing, to long-term facilities, commonly known as Treasury Notes.

Lesley Mkandawire, a Consultant for the Center for Social Concern, predicted that the country will probably borrow more money as its economy is not supporting its revenue needs.

However, the economy received substantial support as some key players stepped in to help.

For starters, the African Development Bank (or AfDB) has given Malawi twenty-three million dollars in budget support.

Simplex Chithyola Banda, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, said the support comes from the government’s good implementation of a 175-million-dollar Extended Credit Facility that Malawi received from the International Monetary Fund six months ago.

Banda said AfDB’s support will mainly go towards the agricultural sector, in activities such as food production and improving the regulatory framework.

The UK government also gave Malawi three million dollars to help the executive respond to the hunger El Niño produced. After the weather phenomenon hit Malawi a few months ago, President Chakwera declared a state of national disaster because El Niño led to dry spells and floods in twenty-three of the country’s twenty-eight districts, causing people to lose their crops.

Charles Kalemba, the Commissioner of the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, said that El Niño affected two million households, - nine million people.

He said the UK’s support would go towards helping people through cash transfers, distributing food, and addressing malnutrition through the school feeding programs.

In other news, the country is set to get its first computer factory following an agreement with Indian investors.

Sunil Hukumatray, India’s Trade Commissioner to Malawi, held a Malawi-India Business Dialogue in Lilongwe on Thursday the 9th. Hukumatray said that his government is currently looking to set up an assembly plant for Coconics computers in Malawi. Coconics is a private-public partnership that produces laptops for students in India.

Hukumatray said they are also thinking of distributing locally, and if the demand is huge, then they can produce locally too.

If all goes well, India’s investment in this project will be worth an estimated fifty million dollars.

Similar investments might also pop up from the Africa Travel Indaba - a three-day leisure trade show owned by South African Tourism. It provides a platform for tourism players across the globe to market their products and services. It kicked off with a starter event - a Business Opportunity Networking Day on Monday the 13th. The actual showcase, however, will run from Tuesday the 14th to Thursday the 16th in Durban, South Africa.

Vera Kamtukule, the Minister of Tourism, said there are eleven local brands at the event. These include the Umodzi Park, Sunbird Hotel & Tourism, and Club Makokola Retreat.

There are other players waving the Malawian flag on global fronts. Tabitha Chawinga, a celebrated footballer, won the Union des Nationale Professional Footballers (or UNFP) Women's Player of the Season, and the Best Forward award in the French women's league, known as the D1 Arkema.

Her male counterpart was Kylian Mbappe, who won the UNFP Men's Player of the Season award.

Throughout the Kamuzu holiday when the news came out, locals kept sharing pictures of Chawinga with Mbappe.

Meanwhile, Brodie Mauluka is the first Malawian to become a mayor in the UK.

Mauluka, a publican and musician, was elected as the Deputy Mayor of Farnham at the Farnham Town Council meeting held last week. This happened just weeks after he won elections to join the council.

President Chakwera and the First Lady have since congratulated Mauluka on his historic win. In a short statement, Chakwera said Mauluka’s election serves as an inspiration to all Malawians living locally and abroad.

In our previous episode, we mentioned that the Israeli government deported some locals who had gone to work on Israeli farms because they escaped their designated employment stations and got higher-paying jobs elsewhere. Unfortunately, the local employment agencies that facilitated their jobs in Israel’s farms are now suing them for a breach of contract to recover the costs they incurred in sending them to Israel.

Justice Kangulu, the Managing Director of the Workers for Arava Farmers, said the workers’ contracts obliged them to pay back some of the incurred costs, which include visas and air tickets. He said they will remain liable until those costs are refunded.

Kangulu said these costs were supposed to be deducted from the workers’ payments for nine months. While he refused to disclose the actual costs the employees have to pay them, local news said the workers may be expected to pay around five thousand dollars each.

The First Discount House (or FDH) Bank will close some of its service centers in Lilongwe, namely Bangula, Mtunthama, Chiringa, Crossroads, and Kamuzu International Airport, between the 31st of May and the 31st of July.

According to a statement released on Monday the 13th, the closures align with their new strategy to optimize their service center network.

Clients affected by these closures will have their accounts migrated to another nearest FDH Bank. The bank promised to contact them too.

To get more information, you can call, email, or send a WhatsApp message to the FDH. Check out the details in the show notes.

And to wrap up this edition with some exciting news, Malawi will host a World Cup qualifier match between Kenya and Burundi in Lilongwe on the 7th of June. Kenya was supposed to host the game but couldn’t because it doesn’t have stadiums approved by FIFA..

Malawi’s CIVO Stadium was approved a few years ago when the country had to host some matches of the Africa Cup of Nations.

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

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Pitani bwino!