MALAWI: Strike & more – 4th Jun 2024

The study said Malawi produces 1.7 million tonnes of mangoes from October to March. Those grown locally are so good thatthey meet the international standards for the world’s tastiest mangoes.

A twenty nineteen study by the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics found that smallholder farmers make a gross of over 300 thousand Kwacha or 170 dollars from mango sales, while semi-commercial farmers make nearly 1.6 million Kwacha or a little over 900 dollars per hectare.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture introduced a new project. On Wednesday the 29th, Sam Kawale, the Agriculture Minister, launched construction works for the Dowa-Dambo Irrigation Scheme. It has a budget of 29.1 billion Kwacha, which is around seventeen million dollars.

This is the eighth scheme the government will construct under the Rural Irrigation Development Program. Despite this, the Dowa-Dambo Irrigation Scheme stands out because it will be the first dam-based scheme. Once completed, it will have five dams that will provide water to around 450 hectares of farmland.

In political news, a Member of Parliament made headlines after proposing that President Chakwera should be a president for life. On Thursday the 30th, Esther Ceilia Kathumba, the MP for Lilongwe Mapuyu South, said this during the launch of a 350 million dollar Transport and Land contract which will develop transport corridors in the country’s central, southern and northern regions.

She said Chakwera deserves to be president for life because of his transformative leadership of the country. She even said she’d push to change the laws in Parliament to allow Chakwera to rule for life.

Her remarks were put into question, as Chakwera might not be doing a very good job.

Speaking of the President, on Wednesday the 29th, the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (or MUBAS) appointed him as the Chancellor of the university. This happened while the school was hosting its first graduation as an independent institution.

Recall that MUBAS was delinked from the University of Malawi in twenty nineteen to allow independent school management and operations.

Up next, the Executive Committee of the Netball Association of Malawi (or NAM) resigned. A local media house said the Committee wrote a letter to the Malawi National Council of Sports, citing members’ complaints as the reason for his departure. Still, NAM's statement didn’t disclose what the complaints were about.

However, the news raised questions on social media because the media house said the letter they read was dated Friday the 31st of May, but the news story came out on Thursday the 30th. This made people question the legitimacy of the story.

Meanwhile, Charles Kalumo, the Chief Executive Officer for the Department of Immigration, may lose his job. He has been given ten days to resign or be dismissed from work within the same ten-day period.

A local paper said some senior immigration officers issued an ultimatum to Kalumo on Monday the 27th after presenting work-related grievances to the Ministry of Homeland Security, which manages the Immigration Department.

The senior officers threatened to take unspecified action if Kalumo refused to resign or the President did not fire him.

In other news, the National Bank of Malawi revealed its intentions to become a regional bank. McFussy Kawawa, the outgoing Chief Executive Officer, said they want to explore regional markets to follow their customers where they trade.

In news about education, Form Two students at secondary school level have started sitting for the twenty twenty-four Junior Certificate of Education (or JCE) exams. The tests started on Tuesday the 4th of June in various schools across the country.

Nancy Chaola Mdooko, the Deputy Minister of Education, visited Mchinji Secondary School and Ngowe Community Day Secondary School in Lilongwe to inspect how the exams were being administered. She said she was impressed, and also revealed that the Ministry had hired the army and police to help invigilate the tests in the exam centers across the country.

This year, nearly 164 thousand students are sitting for the JCEs.

The film industry is mourning the death of a veteran actor, Hope Chisanu, who passed away on Saturday the 1st. Many players in the film industry have since expressed shock following his death, since it was sudden. He was just forty-four and there was no news of him being sick, in an accident or anything similar.

One popular producer, Charles Shemu Joyah, said Chisanu was always dedicated in all his roles.

On Saturday the 1st, the Film Association of Malawi (or FAMA) wrote a statement saying the industry has lost one of its pillars in the film industry.

Chisanu acted in popular films such as The Last Fishing Boat, The Road to Sunrise, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and All We Have is Us.

Let’s close this edition with some sports news. The national football team, the Flames, will be playing two matches in a few days.

The Flames will host Sao Tome at the Bingu International Stadium in Lilongwe on Thursday the 6th, and then fly out to Equatorial Guinea to play against their team on Monday the 10th. The games are for the upcoming twenty twenty-six FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

On Monday the 3rd, Patrick Mabedi, the Flames Coach, released names for a twenty-six-man squad that will play against Sao Tome and Equatorial Guinea. The list includes six-foreign based players, including goalkeeper Brighton Munthali who plays for Black Leopards in South Africa and defender Denis Chembezi of Iraq’s Al-Qasim SC.

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

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Pitani bwino!