Suspension of ID Cards Expiry Dates & more –3rd Aug 2023

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 3rd of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

The Ministry of Homeland Security has suspended the expiry dates for National Identity Cards.

In twenty seventeen, the Ministry, in coordination with the National Registration Bureau (or NRB) launched a mass identity registration exercise. They agreed that the cards should have expiry dates to prove the owner of the card is alive. However, the NRB was supposed to renew the identity cards the same day the citizen asked for renewal but the NRB has not been delivering cards on time, with some people waiting for a year to get their cards renewed.

On Sunday the 30th, the Ministry released a statement saying that renewing cards have been difficult because of foreign exchange shortages. They announced the suspension of the National ID card’s expiry dates until the 1st of January twenty twenty-six and said no stakeholders should withhold services from citizens with expired cards.

To read the full statement follow the link in our show notes.

In other news, Peter Mutharika, former Malawi President, has been implicated in what is known as the “Recruitment Scandal”.

On Wednesday the 2nd, Daston Tsoka Manda, a State Witness in the recruitment scandal, named Mutharika as one of the masterminds behind the illegal employment of immigration assistants during their time in office – which was from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty. He made the revelation during his testimony at the Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Court.

The Recruitment Scandal happened at the Department of Immigration in twenty seventeen, and it implicates several government officials in recruiting about 120 unqualified assistants to the government.

Wanna know more about the scandal? Link in our show notes.

In a follow-up of a previous story…

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that DSTV had hiked the prices of their subscription services.

On Friday the 28th of July, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (or MACRA) obtained an interim injunction from the High Court in Blantyre, prohibiting Multichoice Malawi (or MCM) – the company that manages DSTV— from changing their DSTV tariffs. MACRA’s statement said the injunction will remain effective until an ongoing case between MACRA and MCM is concluded, and that any attempt by MCM to adjust their tariffs will be a violation of this court order.

On Monday the 31st, MCM released its own statement saying it was puzzled by MACRA's statement because they do not offer DSTV services to the public, and that MultiChoice Africa Holdings is responsible for that. MCM said it manages another subscription service, GoTV, whose price increase was approved by MACRA a week ago. However, MCM represents MultiChoice Africa Holdings in Malawi, including DSTV, so their excuse didn’t make much sense.

That same Monday, MACRA released yet another statement, saying the Blantyre High Court had issued a temporary stay of the injunction they had gotten on Saturday the 29th. The temporary stay was from Friday the 28th to Thursday the 3rd, to allow MCM to correct its systems and apply the old DSTV tariffs.

MACRA advised DSTV customers to wait until Thursday the 3rd to pay their subscription fees or pay the old tariffs.

Although DSTV customers are rejoicing, the public will still suffer the consequences of new Policy Rates by the Reserve Bank of Malawi (or RBM).

On Thursday the 27th, RBM raised its Policy Rate to 24% from 22%. Wilson Banda, the Governor for RBM, said the performance of Malawi's economy has remained weak due to several factors such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign exchange shortages, and adverse weather shocks such as Tropical Cyclones FREDDY, and Ana.

This means local banks will increase their lending rates as well, making bank loans more expensive and inaccessible to the masses.

Speaking of increases, students of the University of Malawi (or UNIMA) in Zomba have had a rough start to the year.

Last Wednesday, UNIMA announced a fee hike for the twenty twenty-three twenty twenty-four academic year. Undergraduate students used to pay 350 thousand Kwacha (or 330 dollars) and will now pay 650 thousand Kwacha (or 620 dollars), while mature entry students will now pay a million Kwacha (950 dollars) up from 850 thousand Kwacha (800 dollars).

Students did not take this news very well. Humble Bondo, the President of UNIMA Students’ Representative Council, accused the school’s administration of “conspiring and implementing an unjust and outrageous tuition fee hike”, and said students are “deeply disheartened”.

On Monday the 31st, some concerned students from the country's public universities gave President Chakwera a fourteen-day ultimatum—reverse the fee hike decision or face demonstrations.

Charles Dokera, a UNIMA law student, told local media that the fee increase denies needy students their right to education. He argued that students are barely surviving their tertiary years and that most go to class hungry and without proper accommodation.

UNIMA has just reopened after being forcefully closed earlier this year after the students held vigils and demonstrations against a new academic calendar that reduced their annual semesters from one to two. UNIMA’s administration had succumbed to the student’s demands to keep the old academic calendar.

In sad news, the country is mourning the loss of a local artist Tremour. He had been hospitalized a little over a week ago after a car hit the motorcycle he was on, causing him severe head injuries. He died on the afternoon of Sunday the 30th.

On Tuesday the 1st, thousands of people gathered at Dzenza Mission Ground in Lilongwe to pay their last respects to him, before being laid to rest at Area 18 cemetery. Some people in attendance included the Minister of Youth and Sports, as well as fellow artists such as Wikise. Other artists sent their condolences through social media.

The Queens have been performing wonderfully at the Netball World Cup games, which are currently underway in South Africa, but they had a terrible thirty-nine to sixty-two loss to England on Saturday the 29th.

Ten members of the Queens, led by the team’s Captain Jane Chimaliro, made a video blaming shooter Mwawi Kumwenda for their loss because she refused to be added to the game on two occasions, leaving the Queens with short shooters, hence their loss.

They said they were disappointed in her because the team depends on her.

When queried by local media, Kumwenda confirmed that she refused to join because she needed more warm-up time.

This divided social media, with one group saying Mwawi deserves more respect as an international player, while others think Kumwenda should be let go since she believes she’s bigger than the Queens.

Despite their disagreements and embarrassing loss, the Queens had a great match on Sunday the 30th. They scored eighty-four to forty-eight against Barbados. After the match, center player, Takondwa Lwazi was named the Player of the Match, giving locals an even bigger reason to celebrate the Queens.

Meanwhile, the Malawi men’s national football team will not participate in the twenty twenty-four TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (or CHAN) games.

In a statement released on Wednesday the 2nd, the Football Association of Malawi said the Flames’ program is crammed due to a series of international tournaments, such as the twenty twenty-three Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next month. They said they’re also preparing for the women’s national team participation in the Council of Southern Africa Football Association’s Women’s Championship games in September.

As a result, they’ve had to forgo the CHAN tournament to manage the financial pressure.

And to close this edition…

Cement has been scarce for a few weeks now.

On Monday the 31st, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Competition and Fair Trading Commission warned cement traders against overcharging for cement due to its scarcity.

The statement followed trends in the past few weeks where cement traders raised the prices of locally and internationally produced cement. A social media user said that a bag of fifty kilograms of cement was at fifteen thousand Kwacha (fifteen dollars) last week, but was now prices are ranging between seventeen and twenty thousand Kwacha (between seventeen and nineteen dollars).

The Ministry called this behavior an exploitative malpractice. Cement manufacturers said limited forex has made the importation of raw materials to produce cement hard, causing low production, and the shortage of cement on the market.

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

Do you want to know more about us? Head over to our website with the link in our show notes. Over there you can also check out how to contact and support us.

Pitani bwino!