MALAWI: No Mpox & more – 27th Aug 2024

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 27th of August twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

In previous shows, we talked about The Blantyre District Health Office having two suspected cases of monkeypox or Mpox. They had been admitted in an isolated ward at Blantyre’s Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital about two weeks ago.

On Saturday the 24th, the Ministry of Health released a statement saying the two suspected cases tested negative for Mpox.

Despite the good news, the Ministry warned that Malawi remains at risk since Mpox is a global threat. However, they assured that they are working with the World Health Organization and the Africa Center for Disease Control to prevent the spread of the illness locally.

On Monday the 26th, the President ordered that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Cholera become the Presidential Task Force on Public Health Emergencies.

The Task force was set up when the COVID pandemic hit and then was expanded to include cholera when it became a national outbreak last year. But now, the new directive says the task force will coordinate multi-sectoral responses to public health issues. This way, the country stops reacting to health threats and instead strategizes on preventative measures as soon as they become global or regional threats.

Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma, the Co-Chairperson of the Task Force, said they are already working on their response to Mpox.

Still on health news, local news said hospitals in Dedza district have been registering 120 dog bites every month. Isaac Gondwe, the Dedza District Animal Health and Development Officer, described this as a health hazard since the people bitten by the dogs are exposed to rabies.

To prevent the potential spread of the disease, the Dedza District Animal Health Office is planning to vaccinate over fifteen thousand dogs in the district including hotspot areas, Lobi, Mayani and Bembeke.

The vaccination will be free, and they will vaccinate cats too.

In trending news, an unidentified couple abandoned their month-old baby at Thyolo District Hospital.

A note found on the baby starts with an apology to whoever finds it and urges that person to raise it as though the baby was theirs. The note said the couple did not want to abort the baby but they had serious financial issues, hence their decision. It finishes by saying the baby’s name is Glory, but the adoptive parents can change it.

The news is still making waves on social media even though it came out on Saturday the 24th. There were accusations of the move being selfish and cowardly, and there are opinions saying that if abortion wasn’t so stigmatized in Malawi, this incident wouldn’t have happened as couples would opt for abortion instead of having kids they are not ready for or that they cannot afford to take care of.

In more trending stories, the nation was devastated with the news of a road accident that killed twenty-six people on Thursday the 22nd.

Local news said that a minibus heading to Lilongwe hit and killed a cyclist before ramming into a fuel tanker coming in the opposite direction near Santhe Trading Center in Kasungu. The minibus immediately went up in flames, burning and killing all the twenty-five people that were on board.

A few days before this – on Tuesday the 20th – a local charter airline, the Nyasa Express, crashed into Lake Malawi. A statement by the company said the aircraft departed from Tongole Airfield in Nkhotakota Game Reserve and was headed to Liwonde National Park. It had three people on board, including the pilot.

At first, the government said the aircraft was sighted underwater and that they were undertaking rescue efforts to pull it to shore. They found one passenger alive, but the pilot, and another passenger were declared missing and then dead hours after their bodies were found.

Local news said the pilot lost consciousness minutes into the flight, prompting Weisthem to direct the aircraft to the lake for a water landing.

Moving on, local news published a letter dated Friday the 23rd, directed to Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, the Attorney General, appointing him as Senior Counsel.

The letter said President Chakwera appointed Nyirenda based on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the Appointment of Senior Counsel, and that he would be officially sworn in on Monday the 26th at the Kamuzu Palace.

On Monday the 25th, the Malawi Law Society asked the government to reveal the criteria they used to select the Attorney General and more than three lawyers as Senior Counsel.

One of the issues with the appointment was that according to the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act of twenty eighteen, the Senior Counsel should be a legal practitioner with a minimum total of fifteen years’ working experience, but Nyirenda, who was conferred based on his Attorney General position, had only worked in the role for a little over two years.

Later on, the Ministry of Justice announced that the conferment ceremony had been postponed.

On Monday the 26th, another government official, Vera Kamtukule, the Tourism Minister, got under fire for saying Malawi needs about twenty billion Kwacha or nearly twelve million dollars to advertise on football jerseys for any team competing in the Spanish La Liga.

Kamtukule was only responding to a question that Mike Bango, the Member of Parliament for Kasungu North had on the Ministry’s plans to boost local tourism, but some media houses made it look like the Tourism Ministry was unveiling plans to make that investment, hence the backlash, since locals thought the funds could be used for local development.

Meanwhile, locals will have to wait a little longer to register as voters for the twenty twenty-five presidential elections. the Malawi Electoral Commission (or MEC) postponed its voter registration, which was meant to start this September, but did not announce a new date

Before the voter registration, a pilot registration exercise to test MEC’s equipment must take place. The pilot was scheduled for this month, but it was shifted to a later, unknown date, hence the postponement of the registration.

Justice Annabel Mtalimanja, the MEC Chairperson, assured that MEC would still stick to its twenty twenty-five electoral calendar despite missing its start date of Friday the 2nd of August. She said the law requires MEC to begin voter registration on or after September, and it must be completed at least sixteen days before the polling day, which is on the 16th of September twenty twenty-five. She said this allows voter registration to take place until July twenty twenty-five.

Despite this, people are starting to question whether the MEC will deliver credible elections.

The Malawi National Examinations Board (or MANEB) suspended the marking of the Malawi School Certificate Examination (or MSCE) exams at the St Mary’s Secondary School.

On Friday the 23rd, MANEB released a statement asking all Examiners or Markers at St Mary’s to leave the premises as the suspension of the exam marking was with immediate effect. They said they would pay them for the papers they had already marked.

According to local news, MANEB made such a drastic move because the Markers there had skipped work for two days because they wanted higher pay and better working conditions.

Did you have any issues buying electricity over the weekend? You weren’t the only one.

On Saturday the 24th, the Electricity Supply Corporation (or ESCOM) announced that their pre-paid vending system had been experiencing technical difficulties from around five PM, making it impossible for their customers to buy electricity units on all their vending platforms.

They apologized for the issue and said they were working tirelessly to restore their system. You can check for updates on the matter on their Facebook page with the link in our show notes.

In our last episode, we mentioned that the organizers of the Sand Music Festival, canceled the festival because Lucius Banda, the Festival Founder and a legendary musician, died in June. They said they needed time to process his death and mourn him.

However, on Friday the 23rd, they announced a Lucius Banda Tribute Concert for the 28th of September. The flyer says there will be performers from Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica, among others.

Some locals commented on the post and said they were confused about why Impakt Events would cancel the festival and host a tribute show.

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

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Pitani bwino!