MALAWI: The National Budget & more – 4th Mar 2025

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 4th of March twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

On Friday the 28th, Simplex Chithyola Banda, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, announced that the national budget for the twenty twenty-five/ twenty twenty-six financial year would be 8.5 trillion Kwacha, which is almost 5 billion dollars. He said it prioritizes the agriculture, health, education, infrastructure development, and social protection sectors.

Most of the budget will go towards debt repayments since the country’s public debt is nearly 17 trillion Kwacha, which is almost 10 billion dollars.

Other interesting developments are that the government interns will now receive a stipend of 150 thousand Kwacha, which is almost ninety dollars, up from 80 thousand Kwacha, that is, forty-six dollars.

The executive has reduced excise duties on cars, and completely removed them for phones. It also removed the value-added tax on bread and pastries, to lower their prices.

Check out the budget presentation with the link in the show notes.

In more economic news, forex rates on black markets were soaring over the past few weeks. In our last episode, we mentioned that a dollar was selling for over 5 thousand Kwacha. However, the rates miraculously went down just days before the President faced the Parliament, leading many to wonder if the forex shortage is really caused by external factors like the government has been saying.

On Monday the 3rd, local news reported that a dollar was selling at 2,500 kwacha in the black market. They questioned how the forex situation fixed itself, but it seems they couldn’t find or provide a logical answer.

Next up, President Chakwera addressed the Parliament on Wednesday the 26th for the Presidential Question Time so that he could answer pressing questions from Members of Parliament. An Order Paper from the Parliament indicated that five key questions would be asked, but MPs were allowed to ask supplementary questions.

During the session, Chakwera blamed opposition parties for causing hyperinflation and influencing forex rates. He also accused them of tarnishing his State of the Nation Address or SONA, which some local organizations called into question for asserting non-existent developments.

Public commentary indicates that many were not impressed with Chakwera’s inability to take accountability for his government’s shortcomings.

Public frustration with the government may be the reason why a recent poll by a local media house indicated that most Malawians are likely to vote for former president Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party during the presidential elections this September.

Malawi24 ran an online poll for a week on Facebook and Twitter asking Malawians who they would vote for in the elections. When the poll came to a close on Friday the 28th, Mutharika got 62%. He was followed by Dalitso Kabambe of the United Transformation Movement party, who got 23%. President Chakwera scored a measly 10%.

Although the poll caused interesting public discourse, it only got 40 thousand votes out of the millions that are expected to vote in September, so it’s not much to go by.

Speaking of the elections, the Malawi Electoral Commission (or MEC) announced that they will start Phase 2 of the voter transfer exercise on Wednesday the 5th until Friday the 7th in several districts.

Sangwani Mwafulirwa, the MEC Director of Media and Public Relations, said voters who want to transfer their registration should visit the registration center where they plan to vote in the presidential elections. He said this exercise must be done now because MEC will not allow any transfers on the polling day or another period after this exercise.

The Voter Transfer plan comes in handy for voters who may have registered to vote in one district, but ended up relocating to another before the elections take place.

There’s been a minor change to the cabinet. On Wednesday the 26th, President Chakwera appointed Vitumbiko Mumba as the new Minister of Trade and Industry, replacing Sosten Gwengwe. Mumba previously served as the Minister of Labor.

The President didn’t say what would happen to Gwengwe. However, some users on social media speculated that President Chakwera may have dropped him because of the vendor demonstrations in Lilongwe City in the Central Region that took place last week. Recall that vendors demanded that the prices of bales of used clothes be reduced.

Unfortunately, Mumba has walked into a huge mess. Vendors from Blantyre City in the Southern Region held demonstrations against the high cost of goods in Limbe on Friday the 28th.

Unlike the Lilongwe protests, those in Blantyre turned ugly as some protestors broke into shops and stole various items. They also placed huge stones on the roads, lit fires in various parts of the city, and threw rocks at vehicles.

Aubrey Singanyama, the Limbe Police Station Spokesperson, said they have arrested twenty-six people in connection to the looting. He said they’re still looking for more who took advantage of the demonstrations to commit crimes.

Before his transfer to the Trade Ministry, Mumba had to answer to the media, who queried him on why the country’s Israel Labor Deal had only exported twenty-nine youths since last April, Malawi had agreed to send three thousand by April twenty twenty-six.

Last year, the Israel and Malawi governments signed a Labor Exportation Deal under which thousands of Malawians would be sent to Israel for work until April twenty twenty-six, when the agreement will expire.

Mumba told local media that they would send nearly forty women to Israel soon, but said Israel was reluctant to recruit more Malawian workers since most of the men who were recruited earlier, had either sought asylum or ran away to work elsewhere.

In previous shows we reported that President Chakwera hosted his first SONA for youths, at the State House in Lilongwe. While it received both public and media backlash, he went on to host his second SONA For Youth at the Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on Friday the 28th.

This time, even though the government vetted questions, youths broke protocol and asked relevant questions about corruption, delayed projects, inflation, foreign currency challenges, among others.

The third SONA For Youth will be held in Mzuzu City in the Northern Region on Wednesday the 5th.

Malawi commemorated Martyrs Day on Monday the 3rd under the theme The Martyrs: A Great Model of Patriotism. It was a national holiday. The commemoration honors the lives lost during the country’s struggle against British colonialism. There is special focus given to fifty-one Malawians who were killed on the 3rd of March in nineteen fifty-nine in Nkhata Bay District in the Northern Region.

President Chakwera visited Kakumbi cemetery where he laid wreaths at the mass grave of the deceased, and then proceeded to the memorial pillar at Nkhata Bay Jetty, to lead Malawians in laying wreaths in respect to lives lost across the country.

This year’s commemoration was a bit different because there was, for the first time ever, a commemorative chitenje cloth, also known as the African print material.

A local arts company, Mwezi Arts, launched the international festival Theater Renaissance Cabaret (or TRC).

The first event will happen from the 21st to the 27th of July in Lilongwe, with lots of activities.

According to the festival team, The TRC aims to bring together Malawian artists and the global theater community. They hope that, by connecting local enthusiasts with international productions, the festival will foster cultural and artistic growth while elevating Malawi’s presence on the world stage.

They are accepting applications from theater companies and groups worldwide until Sunday the 9th.

Locals can also look forward to the Miss Malawi pageant, which went on a two-year break. Its organizers, the Miss Malawi Organization, said the event would make a comeback on the 28th of November.

Godfrey Kambewa, the Festival’s Creative Director, said they would incorporate online applications which will be followed up by in-person interviews. They will select at least thirty contestants for a pre-elimination event in July, and then proceed to select the top twelve who will compete in the grand finale.

The competition is open to Malawian women aged between eighteen and twenty-nine, who have never been married, have no children, and hold at least a Malawi School Certificate of Education qualification.

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

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Pitani bwino!