MALAWI: The Economic Sabotage Bill & more – 18th Mar 2025

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 18th of March twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Last week, Cyclone Jude hit Malawi and affected several parts of the country, with the Southern Region being the hardest hit. The cyclone caused significant damage, especially considering it landed in Malawi on Tuesday the 11th and exited on Wednesday the 12th.

On Thursday the 13th, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs released a statement saying the cyclone had left three people missing, nearly 4,900 homeless, and over one thousand households displaced in eleven districts in the Southern Region. The total number of affected people is over 20,600.

According to the statement, the Department has since established eight camps to help the displaced people.

On Friday the 14th, the Ministry of Trade and Industry introduced the Control of Goods Order of twenty twenty-five which bans the importation of twenty-one goods.

The regulation bans foods, including some fruits and vegetables except those that aren't grown locally, rice, peanut butter, meat products, and honey. It also prohibits the importation of other items like wooden furniture, plastic utensils, and mops.

Even though the order aims to support locally produced goods, the measure might be premature since many people prefer international items because their quality is usually better.

On another note, on Thursday the 13th, Vitumbiko Mumba, the Trade Minister, told local media that the Ministry is working on developing the Economic Sabotage Bill, which aims to protect locals from cartels and the overpricing of goods. He said they would also develop the Essential Commodities and Goods Bill to protect Malawian consumers, but he didn’t explain what this bill would be protecting them from.

He said the two bills are important because, without proper regulation, it is difficult to stop pricing fixing.

Still in the trade industry, on Wednesday the 12th, the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (or MCCCI) launched a Single Digital Portal (or SDP), which is a web-based platform designed to automate applications and business processes offered by the Chamber.

During the official launch held in Blantyre in the Southern Region, Wisely Phiri, the MCCCI President, said the SDP automates essential processes like membership applications and renewals, event participation requests, and property applications.

The Chambers anticipate that the portal will reduce the costs and time associated with these processes by about fifty percent.

A shocking new study by the Malawi Traffic Information System (or Maltis) says the number of active vehicles in the country is a little over 380 thousand as of December twenty twenty-four.

Even though many people were in shock because there are very few cars compared to the country’s population of over twenty million, Maltis said the new statistics are actually an improvement. In December twenty thirteen, the number of active cars was a little over 360 thousand.

The Maltis study said the increase shows a growing demand for personal and commercial transport. While this may seem like a good development, on Monday the 17th, trade experts told local news that it is detrimental for Malawi’s forex shortage, since imported cars take up a significant amount of it.

The forex shortage has affected several local industries so much that Malawi’s industrial production dropped by fourteen percent in twenty twenty-four, compared to twenty twenty-three. The Malawi Government Annual Economic Report shows a huge contrast: from twenty twenty-two to twenty twenty-three, there was a seventeen percent increase in manufacturing activity.

The report said that most manufacturing sub-sectors experienced declines.

The study has projected a rebound of nearly four percent, but on Monday the 17th, officials from the Economics Association of Malawi said that this is overly optimistic, considering that the industry’s growth has been stagnant.

Locals are also feeling the impact of the forex shortage as the prices of goods keep soaring.

On Wednesday, the 12th, Illovo Sugar Malawi increased the prices of selected sugar packs, including the 500-gram and two-kg packs.

The price of alcoholic beverages produced by Castel Malawi also went up on Saturday the 15th. Some of the affected liquors include Castel Beer, and Malawi Gin, Brandy, and Vodka, among others.

The cost of rental properties will also go up from the 1st of April. On Tuesday the 18th, the Blantyre City Council said residential properties will go up by ten percent of the total value, while commercial properties will go up by thirty-five percent. The Council said the hikes will help them carry out their tasks better.

A New York Times article from Friday the 14th said the US is considering a new travel ban on forty-three countries to stop its citizens from going to the US, including Malawi.

Some countries like Somalia were banned from traveling to the US completely, while others like South Sudan have had their Visas restricted. Malawi falls under the category of countries that were given sixty days to address concerns on issues like failing to share information about incoming travelers with the US, inadequate security practices for issuing passports, or selling information to people from banned countries.

On Saturday the 15th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying they had not received any official communication from the US, and urged the public to remain calm. However, this only sent some locals into a deeper frenzy.

Still on the topic of bans, on Sunday the 16th, local news revealed that about fifty-five percent of Malawi’s health funding comes from donors, and that the biggest donor was the United States Agency for International Development, which is currently under the US foreign aid ban imposed in January.

Since the ban, some hospitals in Malawi have cut down treatments. For instance, on Sunday the 16th, local news revealed that a health center in Blantyre in the Southern Region had stopped administering routine viral load tests for HIV and Aids patients unless the patient showed signs of treatment failure.

An analysis published on the Center for Global Development website— a think-tank based in Washington DC and London – said Malawi is one of twenty-six countries that are highly exposed, highly fiscally constrained, and are exceptionally unlikely to be able to fill the US ban funding gap.

In our last episode, we mentioned that the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (or MACRA) would meet with content creators on Saturday the 15th to discuss content monetization for local artists on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

During the event, Daudi Suleman, the MACRA Director General, said they are still in talks with the two companies, but the progress has been slow because Malawi does not meet the criteria for direct monetization on these platforms due to issues like low internet connectivity and widespread digital illiteracy.

He said that, while global platforms can help content creators grow in several areas, they should use them to drive traffic to locally developed monetization platforms so that they can monetize content in the country.

There is a new courier service in town. Lion Cage Courier was launched on Wednesday the 12th at the Olympic Mall in Lilongwe in the Central Region. They have already opened regional offices in the capital city and in the other three cities: Zomba and Blantyre in the Southern Region, and Mzuzu in the Northern Region.

Comments on a social media post announcing the news show that many locals are excited about the development, but they’re not sure if the new company will live up to its hype. Many local courier companies are known to have rude employees, and some are even popular for losing customers’ parcels.

Dan Lu, a popular musician, was arrested on the night of Tuesday the 11th for allegedly assaulting an official of the Lilongwe Water Board.

According to Maria Kumwenda, the Spokesperson for the Police, the Lilongwe Water Board official had gone to Dan Lu’s house to cut off his water supply because of unpaid bills. However, once she broke the news to Dan Lu, the singer beat and injured her.

The Police said Dan Lu will be appearing in court soon to answer charges of assault.

Some locals on social media said that, while the news was disappointing, it wasn’t really shocking because Dan Lu is known to act rogue sometimes.

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

Did you know that you can send an episode as an MP3 file? You can download it directly from our website: www.rorshok.com/malawi. The link’s also in the show notes.

Pitani bwino!