MALAWI: Sugar & more – 25th Apr 2024

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 25th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

The prices of sugar have gone up.

On Monday the 22nd, Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc released a statement saying they had increased their prices of sugar. For instance, a one-kilogram packet of brown sugar will now sell at 2,300 Kwacha (a dollar and thirty-three cents) from 1,600 Kwacha or ninety-two US cents. Retail prices for a kilogram packet of refined sugar will be sold at 2,600 (a dollar and fifty cents) from 2,000 Kwacha or a dollar and fifteen cents.

Additionally, sugar has been scarce in local markets for weeks now. In some areas, like Lilongwe, it has been selling for as much as 5,000 Kwacha (around three dollars.)

There is some hope for relief following the recent return of Salima Sugar Company, which went off the market after local news said the company mismanaged its funds and could not operate anymore.

However, a few days ago, Wester Kossam, the Executive Chairman at Salima Sugar, said they had resumed their production and will produce over 24,000 metric tons of sugar for retail distribution.

On Wednesday the 24th, the company delivered its first consignment of 750 bales of sugar at Sana Megastore in Lilongwe. Sana is one of the twenty-two distributors that will be selling Salima Sugar. The rest are still unknown.

The prices of Salima Sugar haven’t been announced, but people hope it will compete with Illovo’s, which locals consider too expensive.

Coffee lovers are in for some good news as Mzuzu Coffee has also resumed production after disappearing a few months ago. In a press briefing held at Mzuzu Coffee’s headquarters in Luwinga, Mackson Ng’ambi, the Chief Executive Officer for Mzuzu Coffee, said that even though the brand has disappeared on local shelves, they have been distributing their beans to Europe and other African countries. He said they generated 700 thousand dollars in the twenty twenty-three-twenty twenty-four season. He also said they aim to produce 300 metric tons of green beans during the twenty twenty-four-twenty twenty-five growing season.

Ng’ambi said they are working with over two thousand smallholder farmers in six cooperatives in the northern and central regions of Malawi to ensure that Mzuzu Coffee’s beans don’t leave the local market anymore.

A recent study by the Center for Social Concern (or CFSC) in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity said the cost of building houses in Blantyre and Mzuzu is higher than the average cost of ten million Kwacha (around 5,800 dollars).

The study revealed that building a house in Mzuzu averages a little over fifteen million Kwacha (about nine thousand dollars), while in Blantyre, it costs over fourteen million Kwacha (a little over eight thousand dollars).

Kondwani Hara, the Project Officer for CFSC, said their findings indicate an average deviation of about 12.6 million Kwacha (over seven thousand dollars) higher than the expected costs. He said that it would take the lowest-earning civil servant at least twenty-three years to build a house if they saved thirty percent of their monthly salary.

Despite such staggering numbers, Malawians are topping the child-bearing charts. A local paper said that Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe reports sixty to seventy baby deliveries per day, making it the busiest facility for child delivery in Southern Africa.

Doctor Wilson Ching’ani, the Director of Health Services at the hospital, said the high volume of childbirths puts significant pressure on their resources, especially water.

Malawi’s current population of over twenty million is likely to increase rapidly in the next few years.

There have been cases where court files go missing, but the Judiciary says this will be a thing of the past, following the launch of their E-Court system. The system links up prisons and police stations with courts to ensure that justice is provided and that files are kept a bit more safely. It was launched with support from the United Nations Development Program, and with Airtel Malawi, a local telecommunications company, as the network provider.

During the launch of the E-Court System on Wednesday the 24th, Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda said the system will also cut out people’s need to travel long distances to access justice.

The Malawi Revenue Authority (or MRA) has refunded withholding taxes worth over 9.4 billion Kwacha or about 5.5 million dollars. They had been withholding the taxes from tobacco farmers since twenty twenty-one.

Local news said that tobacco farmers were deducted a refundable, withholding tax of three percent at auction floors when selling tobacco. However, due to various undisclosed challenges, the MRA delayed some of the refunds.

In an interview with the Malawi Institute of Journalism or MIJ, Janet Kholowa, the MRA Deputy Commissioner of Lilongwe Domestic Taxes, disclosed that to date, around fifteen thousand tobacco clubs, each comprising ten members, have been compensated.

The government announced that it wants eighty thousand workers to work in Israel's construction industry. This is in addition to the three thousand Malawians who went to work on Israeli farms a few months ago.

Moses Kunkuyu, the Information Minister, made the announcement on Wednesday, the 24th, during a press conference in Lilongwe. He said that the Israel Builders Association promised to go to Malawi to formally recruit the construction workers, but he didn't say when.

In some sad news, entertainment lovers and individuals working in the country are mourning the death of Geoffrey Kapusa, one of Malawi’s prominent media personalities. He was better known by his stage name, Mr Splash, for his habit of saying “splash on” while presenting his Music Splash television program which aired on the state broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.

A family member said Mr Splash was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre two weeks ago. He passed on the morning of Tuesday the 23rd, and was buried the following day in Malosa in Machinga district.

The country’s oldest citizen, aged 111, also passed on this week. Stivelia Khalamba from Thyolo district was born in nineteen thirteen and died on Sunday the 21st.

Instead of mourning her death, her family chose to view her funeral as an opportunity to honor and celebrate Gogo Stivelia, as she was fondly called by those who knew her.

In trending news, a prestigious local hotel, the Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre, is making waves on social media for alleged plagiarism. On Monday the 22nd, sponsored posts went up on several local media houses to promote the hotel’s Zinziri Monday special. Zinziri is the local name for quail.

Unfortunately, someone said he owned the picture that Crossroads used for their promotion. Hope Mezuwa, the owner of Max & Sherry Dine and Lounge, shared and commented on a Facebook post by Crossroads, saying that the picture they had used was one of a meal his diner had prepared. He said he had taken the photo, and that Crossroads had obscured his restaurant’s logo in their promotion. He asked them to take the picture down.

A few hours later, a similar incident happened on Twitter. Khwima Mchizi, a prominent attorney known for his love for cooking on social media, also quoted a tweet where Crossroads had taken a picture of one of his meals and promoted it as though it were theirs.

Crossroads is yet to respond to both these claims, but locals have urged both accusers to take Crossroads to court.

And to wrap up this edition, the Pakhonde Ethno Music Festival has announced its third round, set for the 25th and 26th of May at Chingalire Cultural Village in Lilongwe under the theme, Preserving Africa. The event will be free of charge!

Gayigheyi Mathews Mfune, the Festival Director, said they have a renewed drive to promote cultural conservation following the success of the festival's event last year. He said they want to build on that momentum.

Mfune said that some of the headlining musicians include Eli Njuchi, Skeffa Chimoto, and the Mozambican Ghost Not Band.

And that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Pitani bwino!