Power Outages & more –27th July 2023

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 27th of July twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

There will be power outages in some parts of Blantyre and Zomba cities this weekend.

On Tuesday the 25th, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (or ESCOM) announced that they would be conducting maintenance works in Blantyre on Friday the 28th. The most affected area is Chichiri, meaning that a lot of companies in the area, such as Chichiri National Bank, Barloworld, and the Malawi Bureau of Standards, will have no power. The outage will last from eight AM to four PM.

Zomba will have the same fate on Saturday the 29th, from six AM to five PM. Affected areas include Mangasanja, Cobbe Barracks, and 3 Miles.

ESCOM has advised customers in the affected areas to switch off all their electric appliances, as power may be restored earlier than communicated.

The Ministry of Education has released the twenty twenty-three twenty twenty-four academic year calendar.

According to a statement the Ministry published on Friday the 21st, students will start their first term on the 11th of September this year and end on the 22nd of December. They will have a two-week holiday before returning to school next January for their second and third terms.

For more details, follow the link in our show notes!

In some great news…

Two women were appointed to management positions.

On Monday the 25th, the First Capital Bank announced that they had appointed Agness Jazza as its CEO. They said that she started working with the bank twenty-five years ago, immediately after completing her undergraduate studies, and rose up the ranks.

On the same day, Airtel Malawi plc—a telecommunications company—also announced that they had appointed Dr Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo as its Board Chairperson. According to the statement, Dr Kanyongolo is an Associate Law Professor with over thirty years of experience. She has also served on a number of Boards, including that of Standard Bank plc and the National Planning Commission.

Still in news about celebrated women, a video of young girls performing a liturgical dance went viral.

On Saturday the 22nd, the Catholic Women Organisation (or CWO) celebrated the group’s golden jubilee. To mark the celebration, bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi and members of the Roman Catholic Church gathered at CIVO Stadium in Lilongwe.

In the trending video, that arguably stole the whole show, some pre-teen girls and boys performed a dance while adorned in the Catholic uniform. Wanna watch the video? Follow the link in our show notes!

The police are currently trending as well, but this time, it’s for stealing.

On Wednesday the 26th, Jack McBrams, a local investigative journalist, shared video camera footage showing two police officers working for the Area 30 police station in Lilongwe. They were robbing Burundi businessmen during a raid of their shop, located along Salima Road.

McBrams said that the businessmen had been taken in for questioning at Area 30 when the incident happened, but that they had been released on the same day.

He accused the police of targeting refugee businessmen and robbing them of their cash.

In rather grim news, there was a spate of unusual deaths in the country.

Over the weekend, concerned citizens started sharing images of a man believed to be “Mike”, a foreign exchange dealer on the country’s black market. He had been shot four times.

On Monday the 24th, Hastings Chigalu, the Spokesperson for Lilongwe Police Station, announced that they had launched investigations into the death of twenty-nine-year-old Rashid Kanga. Chigalu said they received a report around ten PM about the body of an unidentified man lying dead along the Bypass Road in Lilongwe.

Upon arrival, the police took his body to Kamuzu Central Hospital for postmortem, where the results showed that he died due to head injuries, secondary to gunshot wounds. The police believe that Kanga was shot dead at a different location and dumped where he was found. They suspect that thieves wanted to rob him.

Yet another awful incident happened in Lilongwe on Tuesday the 25th. A ten-year-old boy was mauled to death by a security dog while out with his parents at Crossroads Mall in Lilongwe.

According to Foster Benjamin, the Deputy Spokesperson at Lilongwe Police, the dog is part of a security detail for SafeGuard Security Services, a local security company. It was in the custody of a guard, Mtalison Damiano, when the incident happened. The dog did not have a muzzle on. It broke its chain collar, pounced on the boy, and ripped part of his neck. He died on the spot.

Benjamin said that they have arrested Damiano, and that an angry mob killed the dog.

Blantyre encountered a similar heart-wrenching event on Wednesday the 26th.

Around eight AM, local news reported that a young man had been hit by a train in Machinjiri township. The twenty-five-year-old Innocent Zakariya was walking along the train tracks with earphones while going to work. He couldn’t hear the train coming.

However, some people think he might have committed suicide. They think that a train is difficult to miss even when you can’t hear it because the earth vibrates a bit when it’s nearby.

Football lovers are mourning the death of Kumbukani Lungu. Lungu was a former defender for one of the country’s biggest football teams, the Nyasa Big Bullets.

According to reports, Lungu went missing on the 10th of July. He was found dead on Tuesday the 25th, in Johannesburg, South Africa. His brother, Grant, said he found Lungu’s dead body at one of the city’s hospitals. He believes his brother was killed by unknown thugs.

Lungu’s other brother, Mabvuto, said the family will release the full details concerning Lungu’s death, including his burial arrangements, in due time.

In more sad news, a celebrated artist, Tremour, is currently fighting for his life at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe after being involved in a motorbike accident that left him with dire head injuries.

According to his mother Towera, Tremour had the accident while going home from a studio recording session on the evening of Sunday the 23rd. He was a passenger on a motorbike, locally known as kabaza. Unfortunately, a vehicle hit the motorbike. The driver of the car sped off, and they are yet to identify him.

On Monday the 24th, Tremour’s family released a statement asking well-wishers to help them pay Tremour’s medical bills.

DSTV’s behavior was called into question after the company increased the prices of its subscription packages.

According to a statement the television satellite company released on Monday the 21st, the new prices will become effective on the 1st of August. People used to pay sixty-seven thousand kwacha, or sixty-four dollars, for the Premium package, which is their most expensive offer. Now they will have to pay seventy-nine thousand Kwacha or seventy-five dollars.

Some of its customers think DSTV shouldn’t increase its prices since it hasn’t added new shows in years. Just last week, GoTV, a subsidiary of DSTV, increased its premiums too.

The country’s devastating unemployment rates were exposed.

Last Wednesday, the Ntcheu District Council announced that they would be hosting walk-in interviews for primary school teachers in various schools in the district.

On Monday the 24th—the day of the interview—the school premises had over three thousand hopeful applicants, but the vacancy said they were only looking to recruit sixty teachers. Reports said all of them were qualified teachers.

Just a few weeks ago, a report said that Malawi’s unemployment rate is at ninety percent.

In our last bit of news, Desiree Namachotsa, a local actress and storyteller, is among the recipients of a grant from the Trevor Noah Foundation. Namachotsa is famous for her roles in local movies such as “School Days” and “Fatsani: A Tale of Survival”.

The grant will help her implement a project that uses theatre to bridge the gap between Western literature and local students’ own experiences. While talking to local media on Monday the 24th, Namachotsa said she uses theatre and costume design to help students understand Western literature better, thus improving their grades.

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

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Pitani bwino!