MALAWI: State House Vandalized & more – 14th Oct 2025

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

Kicking off this edition, on Wednesday the 8th, the Nyasa Times newspaper published an article saying they visited the State House in Lilongwe in the Central Region on Tuesday the 7th and found that it had been vandalized.

They said they found rubbish everywhere, broken and leaking water pipes, and missing equipment like fridges and TVs.

In the staff quarters, carpets were stripped off, air conditioners stolen, and chandeliers removed or broken. One room even had human feces smeared on the walls. You can see pictures and videos with the link in the show notes.

The article insinuated that the Malawi Congress Party damaged the State House because they were frustrated with Chakwera’s election loss. The party denied this, but some are still outraged and are calling for the party to be banned.

In our last episode, we mentioned that President Mutharika appointed a new partial Cabinet, which introduced new roles such as the Second Vice President and the Minister of State. Some people were confused because they did not understand the purpose of these new roles. The new cabinet was officially sworn in on Wednesday the 8th.

On Friday the 10th, the Parliament said the government would swear in 224 new MPs following the Malawi Electoral Commission's release of the official results of the twenty twenty-five Parliamentary Elections last weekend.

The Swearing-In Ceremony will be held on Monday the 27th and Tuesday the 28th. However, according to the Parliament’s statement, MPs will have to attend an Orientation Workshop from Monday the 20th to Friday the 24th, where they will learn about some key areas of legislation so they can work effectively during their twenty twenty-five-twenty thirty term of service.

On Wednesday the 29th, the government will hold elections for the Speaker of the National Assembly role.

On Monday the 13th, President Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party nominated Sameer Suleman as their candidate for the upcoming elections. He has since urged other MPs from his party to vote for Suleman to ensure that the ruling party has more power to implement its mandates in both the legislature and other governance issues.

Meanwhile, Kondwani Nankhumwa, the President of the People’s Development Party and the only MP for his party, said he is also eyeing the Speaker of National Parliament role.

On Tuesday the 7th, The Office of the President and Cabinet dissolved all the Boards for Parastatal Organizations and State-Owned Enterprises with immediate effect. Affected entities include the Copyright Society and the Electricity Supply Corporation.

The Office’s statement said that people can discuss urgent matters with the Department of Statutory Corporations, as they wait for new Boards to be selected.

On Friday the 10th, the Department of Statutory Corporations ordered that, until all parastatals and state-owned enterprises get new Boards, all their ongoing procurements and planned recruitments should be suspended, because there are some governance and oversight processes that need to be observed by a Board.

Unfortunately, this means that some youths who had interviewed for government jobs will not be employed anytime soon. While people understand where the government is coming from, some youths are sad that their employment dreams were crushed.

To make matters worse, the government also suspended all recruitments and promotions that civil service organizations had planned.

Local news reported that they saw a memo dated Friday the 10th, stating that the government had made this decision due to the Civil Service Wage Bill, which had increased wages for civil servants. They said that the salaries stated in the bill are unacceptably high and unaffordable given the country’s economic issues.

So the government has temporarily suspended all recruitments and promotions until the mid-year budget review, which is typically held in Parliament in December.

During his inaugural address held last week, President Mutharika said he would move some government offices back to Blantyre in the Southern region. This used to be the country’s business district, until former president Chakwera relocated some key government offices to Lilongwe, so that this major city could have some of them as well.

On Friday the 10th, President Mutharika ordered that four government institutions – the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, Housing Corporation, Electoral Commission, and Prison Service – be relocated back to Blantyre to promote administrative efficiency.

The reason behind the move is that Blantyre already has some buildings for the offices, while they were renting in Lilongwe, so the government was spending money on avoidable costs.

In trending news, on Friday the 10th, George Kasakula, the Director General for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, went live on the state-owned station and apologized to President Mutharika, First Lady Gertrude, and other members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, for some rude remarks that he had made against them in the run-up to the General Elections.

A few hours later, Kasakula told Times 360, another media house, that some unknown people stormed into his office and forced him to apologize on live television. Footage from the incident is now circulating on social media.

The Democratic Progressive Party has since condemned the assailants’ behavior, and the police have arrested three people.

The Annual Food Security Assessment Report by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee said that twenty-two percent of the country, which is over four million people, are at risk of experiencing hunger during the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six consumption period.

The Committee says the stats have improved because they are lower than last year’s six million, but said they are still concerned because they are higher than the 2.9 million people that authorities projected earlier this year.

The report said maize production has been poor, and that the country will need humanitarian aid to survive.

Unfortunately, local news suspects that the prices of Urea fertilizer will go up soon. They came to this conclusion after the Fertilizer Association of Malawi revealed that the global shipping costs for the commodity have gone up to 515 dollars per metric tonne, from nearly 370 dollars. The Association said this trend may also indicate that the prices of more imported farm inputs will increase, thus pressuring the local market to respond in a similar manner.

This news comes as the country prepares for its farming season, which starts around the end of November, when the rainy season sets in.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (or COMESA) has introduced its first-ever cross-border payment system called the Digital Retail Payments Platform to help integrate digital finance within the region, which includes twenty-one countries, including Malawi.

According to local news, the Platform links Malawi and neighboring Zambia, and helps traders and consumers in the two countries to make instant, low-cost transactions in their local currencies. This move addresses issues like forex, which has been scarce in Malawi.

COMESA said its new platform integrates the central and commercial banks and fintech providers.

The Apollo Auditorium in Blantyre has reopened after being closed for twenty-eight years.

According to local news, the 500-seater facility was rehabilitated through a partnership between Entertainers Promotions, Amaryllis Hospitality Group, and AYIYA LED. It was officially reopened on Saturday the 11th, in hopes of reviving the city’s entertainment scene and becoming a go-to venue for fun-seekers and event organizers.

The partners described Apollo as a modern performance venue and conference space. However, social media comments on the story show that some are hoping that Apollo will screen movies like it used to.

Finally, remember that Malawi celebrates Mother’s Day on the 15th of October, so that makes Wednesday a public holiday.

Many service centers such as banks and grocery stores will be closed, and will resume their normal operations on Thursday the 16th.

On the flipside, locals will be spoiled with fun activities and events. One that seems to have taken social media by storm is a live performance by Kell Kay and Lulu, some of the country’s biggest Afro-R&B artists, in Blantyre City.

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

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Pitani bwino!