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MALAWI
High Court Judge Charles Mkandawire has ruled that presidential elections-related cases filed separately by UTM and MCP be consolidated and heard as one and should be referred to the Constitutional Court.

MALAWI
*Kasungu MCP supporters*
posing with their placards today. Meanwhile in LL MCP supporters have chased some civil servants at capital arguing that *those occupying the offices at the govt base, were elected illegally;* however capital hill is filled with non elected civil servants, who don't take part in politics

Member of Parliament for Chikhwawa Central Constituency, Zaheer Gaffar has come under fire from an influential chief in his area Traditional Authority Katunga who is accusing him of misappropriating funds meant for the purchase of construction materials of his office.
In an interview at his Namalindi headquarters in Chikwawa, Traditional Authority Katunga also accused Gaffar for not undertaking on some crucial infrastructural projects in his area although funds for the projects were already provided for under the Constituency Development Fund(CDF).
According to Katunga, one year since funds were approved at the district council for the purchase of construction materials of his office, the office is yet to be constructed.
The T/A said efforts to meet the MP to account for the funds have proved futile as he has been elusive. Traditional Authority Katunga has vowed not to relent until justice on the matter is done.
“I have indeed summoned the MP after noticing that some projects we agreed with him were not being implemented. I have information that the MP has been getting money for various projects in my area but there are no new projects in my area.
“I have information that he reported at the council that my office is already completed when nothing is being done about it. Last time I called him he said he will come to handover the construction materials of my office but he never came. That’s what he has been saying. I shall not relent until my office is built,” said Katunga.
Programmes officer for Center for Fighting for Freedoms Organization John Josiki, a local NGO operating in T/A Katunga’s area collaborated T/A Katunga’s remarks saying he delivered a letter on behalf of the MP for him to meet the chief and his subjects but the MP has been non committal.
Gaffar confirmed getting a letter requesting him to appear before the chief but he said he failed to go as he was required to travel to Lilongwe for Parliament meeting.
He said he requested for the meeting to be rescheduled until Parliament rises.
The MP dismissed accusations against him that he misused money for the purchase of construction materials of T/A Katunga’s Office, saying the supplier called Saeed Investment delayed in supplying the construction materials.
He said at the moment the supplier has managed to supply some bags of cement which he plans to handover when Parliament rises.
“I have four Traditional Authorities in my constituency, the T/A should realize that it’s not like when he mentions a project then it shall immediately be done,” said Gaffar”.
According to Traditional Authority Katunga a number of infrastructural development projects the incumbent Member of Parliament pledged before he was voted into office have not been fulfilled.
He mentioned Mawira CDSS, Chinangwa under Five Clinic and construction of a standard 8 class room block at Chilongoma Primary School as some projects the MP is yet to fulfill.
There is no Under Five Clinic in Traditional Authority Katunga’s area forcing expectant women to cover a long distance to Chikhwawa District Hospital to seek medical care.
MP Zaheer Gaffar Issa replaced Bernadetta Mlaka Maliro as an MP for Chikwawa Central Constituency in the 2014 tripartite elections as an independent candidate.

MALAWI

Lucius Banda has said that the launch of his 19th album titled Crimes at Lilongwe Golf Club on Sunday was affected by rain.
He said the rain came late on when the launch was about to hit the climax and that more people, who were outside, had to leave.
“More people came but they were yet to get inside and with the rain some decided to leave. But all in all those, who came enjoyed the launch. I am happy to have launched the album,” Lucius said.
The launch had an appetising line-up which included Chileka reggae group, Black Missionaries.
“It’s a trend in Lilongwe where people come for shows around 6pm and rain started that time and although it stopped later, some were forced to stay indoors,” the musician said.
He said after Lilongwe, he would be launching
Crimes in Blantyre and Mzuzu as well as other areas.
“We are not rushing into doing this, we have to prepare well and also look at the dates because we also have other musicians launching their work,” the ‘Mabala’ star said.
The 12-track album, which was first launched in South Africa in December last year and speaks highly of the sufferings of Malawians, has songs such as ‘Chida Cha Mtendere’, ‘Chako,’ ‘Zithumwa’, and ‘Touch Me’.
Lucius has since said that he is also working on a DVD for the album which he would launch very soon.
The musician has also put Crimes, which has received an overwhelming response, online on platforms such as ITunes, Tidal, Spotify and Amazon Music to reach out to everyone.

(Sulom) has disclosed that the 2018 season would kick off on April 15, just a week after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for April 7 in Mangochi District.
The dates follow an Executive Committee meeting which the league governing body held in Lilongwe over the weekend to do a postmortem of the 2017 season.
Sulom Treasurer, Tiya Somba- Banda, on Monday confirmed the development.
“Between now and April, there would be a number of activities such as ground inspection and meeting some stakeholders, including referees,” Somba-Banda said.
During the meeting, Sulom also discussed the possibility of providing a starter-pack to league champions, who wish to participate in Caf Champions League.
The fund has been proposed following the struggles of Be Forward Wanderers when they ventured into the 2018 Caf Champions League campaign after being drawn against AS Vita of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nyasa Big Bullets also struggled financially when they participated in the 2015 Champions League.
Silver Strikers General Secretary, Thabo Nyirenda, said it was good news that, finally, the date for the AGM had been set.
“There are several issues which need to be tackled before the start of the season. For instance, we need to address gate revenue challenges as well as broadcasting rights’ issue,” Nyirenda said.
Nyirenda said clubs also expect the AGM to fill vacant positions at Sulom.
The position of vice-chairperson is vacant after Daud Suleiman resigned to join Football Association of Malawi as an Executive Committee member.
Nyasa Big Bullets Chief Executive Officer, Fleetwood Haiya, said although Sulom was yet to communicate to them on the dates of league’s kick-off and the AGM, he welcomed the proposed schedule.
In 2017, Sulom failed to hold the AGM due to what they called ‘lack of funds’. Sulom last held such a meeting in 2016.

MALAWI




BLANTYRE-The 11-kilometre Blantyre- Chileka Dual Carriage Way, estimated at K11 billion, is one of the development projects government unveiled recently. It is expected to become operational in the next two years.
A seasoned tourism expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said lack of a transport system to ferry passengers during the rainy season to the arrivals terminal only helps to entrench the picture of poverty to the outside world.
He said in the long-term, this defeats efforts aimed at boosting tourist flows into the country.
First Officer on Bombadier Dash 8-Q400, Lusekelo Mwenifumbo, said it may be justifiable that the airport does not have a bus due to resource constraints.
She, however, said while it may be considered a luxury at this point to procure a bus for Chileka Airport because of the distance between the landing bay and terminal, there is need to make special arrangements in such circumstances to ensure that there is service quality. Mwenifumbo observed that there is a lot more than needs to be done to ensure that local airports are at par with other countries in the region and the globe.
In a separate interview, Chief Flight Operations Officer in the Department of Civial Aviation, Hastings Jailosi, said there is no need to have passenger transportation based on the way the ramp and terminal are set at Chileka Airport.
He said, when the designers of the airport came up with the plan, transportation of passengers was not considered due to the distance.
Jailosi said: “In case of rain, the ground handling needs to provide umbrellas as they did. This is very common in many parts of the world having an airport similar to Chileka.”
He further said the option of procuring an air bridge would need to be justified based on passenger figures.
“These are very expensive and they may require a complete change in the design. Apart from that, personnel to operate and maintain need to be trained,” Jailosi said.
The Economics Association of Malawi has since said government should consider running the projects [transport and road network] concurrently.
When contacted, Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Henry Mussa, said government plans to run the project geared at modernising Chileka Airport concurrently with construction of the dual carriage way.
While he could not indicate the time frame in which this would be done, Mussa said government is on course to make this dream a reality and that progress is being made to identify key stakeholders such as the contractor, funding agent and procurement agent, among others.
“At this point, it is a matter of identifying who does what. The good thing is that in principle, government resolved to come up with these two very important infrastructures; the international airport and the dual carriage way,” he said.

MALAWI

POLITICALF NEWS-MCP) members who last month petitioned the High Court against their party president Lazarus Chakwera have lost the case.
The four aggrieved members dubbed ‘Nkholokolo’ (troublemakers) are Stowell Gondwe, former regional chairperson for the North; Bauleni Mkweza, former regional chairperson for the Lakeshore; Angela Chunga and Malita Nasoni, former chairpersons for League of Malawi Women in Dowa East and Nsanje, respectively.
The aggrieved members obtained an exparte injunction restraining their president’s decision to reconstitute the party national executive committee (NEC) by creating new positions and moving existing position holders to other posts which the convention did not elect them to.
Gondwe in his sworn affidavits asked the Court to block the MCP NEC meeting describing it as unconstitutional.
But pronouncing judgement on Tuesday, Judge John Chirwa ruled that there was nothing wrong with the meeting.
The court further argued that the request by Gondwe was just an abuse of court systems and that he has lost the case with costs.
During the MCP national executive committee (NEC) resolved to suspend the party’s first vice president Richard Msowoya and Secretary General (SG) pending disciplinary action for causing “confusion” in the main opposition party.
The party suspended Msowoya and Kaliwo who stayed away from the meeting despite being invited to attend.
The MCP NEC also suspended former spokeswoman Jessie Kabwila, director of foreign affairs Tony Kandiero and Second Deputy Secretary General Chatonda Kaunda who were party to the “troublemakers” group.
The meeting at the MCP headquarters in Lilongwe was called by Chakwera to resolve internal wrangles.
During the same meeting, NEC appointed Eisenhower Mkaka as Secretary General replacing Kaliwo and Reverend Maurice Munthali as acting Deputy Publicity Secretary.
MCP deputy publicity secretary Ezekiel Ching’oma was endorsed as full party Publicity Secretary.
Under Article 14 of the MCP constitution, NEC has powers to suspend or dismiss a member if such members has committed a serious and persistent breach under the constitution provided that the procedure for such action should conform to the rules of natural justice that the accused be heard.
Mkaka has since expressed happiness over the outcome of the case.

The minister made the remarks in Thyolo during a ground breaking ceremony for two bridge projects at Nsuwazi and Livunzu rivers in traditional authorities Khwetemule and Mphuka respectively.
The minister said the first line of security for project materials should be provided by the community members themselves as the police cannot be at the project site all the time.


“Community Development Committee members can divide themselves where they will make sure that one or two people are at the site full time for monitoring and supervision of work as well as providing security,” he said.
Mhango said most of the times communities do not supervise projects which in turn provide loop way for some corrupt contractors to do substandard work and at times sell project materials like cement.
“We’ve warned the contractors already. If they are involved in any cheating, they will never work on any government projects, and they will be arrested. We don’t want any compromise on development projects,” warned Mhango.
Member of Parliament for Thyolo-Thava Constituency, Mary Navitcha, said she would be mobilizing people in the project areas to ensure that project materials are fully totally protected.


She said chiefs and communities should take responsibility in providing checks and balances to the projects.
She warned them against asking the contractors to sell them project materials like cement.
“We are the ones (villagers) who ask contractors to sell materials on the site. This will not be tolerated in these projects. We want everyone to participate in policing the projects,” said Navitcha.
Both bridge projects are financed by Roads Fund Administration to the tune of K262million.

MALAWI

POLITICAL NEWS -MCP) has said its legislators will not receive money from the controversial K4 billion special fund.
Last week, Members of Parliament (MPs) approved the allocation to be shared among 193 constituencies for projects.
Mkaka: MCP will reject the funds.
But Deputy Secretary General for main opposition party Eisenhower Mkaka told the local media that the MCP will reject the funds.
He hinted that party president Lazarus Chakwera has now got more information on the funding hence the U-turn.
“This issue happened within two days and the leader of opposition was trying to get as much information on the issue as possible. That is why he made a statement that he does not want to be party to the experiment that government is making with people’s money.
“In other words, he does not want to entertain the so called K3.2 billion,” Mkaka told the local media.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations have hailed MCP for the change of heart saying the party has taken a commendable step.
Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe initially allocated the money to 86 MPs who blocked the electoral reforms bills last year.
The move was widely condemned and the allocation was deemed illegal since it was not approved by Parliament and there were also questions over the source of the money.
But last week the MPs legalised the funds after government agreed to share the money among all 193 constituencies.

MALAWI
Malawi outfit Kufewa acrobatics group impress in Lesotho.
The talented area 36 group put up a fantastic acrobatics styles in front of many views.
They have terrorised the streets there as they do in Malawi.
Picture courtesy of
Hd cameras

MALAWI

KARONGA-Malani Mtonga has praised President Peter Mutharika in Parliament saying he was a “God-sent leader” who his visionary to develop Malawi beyond recognition despite taking the reigns of power from Joyce Banda at a challenging time when Malawi had lost donors confidence due to cash gate and the floods that hit the nation resulting in drought.
“Let me thank God for giving us leaders in Malawi at such times like this. The President, you as the Speaker of this House from Karonga Nyungwe and the Chief Justice Nyirenda from Usisya, taking these high offices of leadership is something that people of Karonga also appreciate. They do appreciate because you are visionary leaders. It is very important to note that you are not there on your own but it was the finger of God that pointed you. When God’s finger is upon you, no man, no devil and no hell can remove you,” said Mtonga who is also a preacher and former religious adviser to late president Bingu wa Mutharika.



Mtonga cited the Holy Bible that “where there is no vision, people perish,” saying President Mutharika had a vision o ensure food security when he said that no one is going to die of hunger in Malawi.
“Mr Speaker, Sir, in this House, we stood and said we should sell maize outside the country. It was an element of lack of vision that we were showing by asking the State President to sell maize outside because by now, we could have been in problems,” he said.
Mtonga said Mutharika’s visionary leadership had that foresight to see that at such a time like this, Malawi will need maize.



“Those with vision are people who put the nation like Malawi first unlike those without the vision who put their own needs and interest first. We see the President putting Malawi first because we have seen a number of things that are happening,” he said.
But Mtonga’s statement attracted point of order from Rumphi East MP Kamlepo Kalua (PP) who asked why Church and Bible issues are being discussed instead of Mid-Term Budget Review Statement.
And Lilongwe North East MP Maxwell Thyolera of Malawi Congress Party (MCP)also asked if it is in order for Mtonga to “ insinuate that telling people to grow enough maize, keep some for consumption and sell the surplus is lack of vision?”



He said : “ This is so because even our extension workers tell farmers to grow more maize and keep enough for consumption and sell the surplus. The same applies to a country when it has enough food and the surplus is sold to other countries. Is that lack of vision? “
But Speaker Richard Msowoya said he is not a development economist and that Mtonga could be speaking “from the point of view of his professional upbringing. I would not argue.”
Continuing with his remarks, Mtonga said without vision one cannot see that the construction projects like Nkhata Bay Road, Rumphi-Hewe Road, and the Njakwa-Livingstonia.

MALAWI

Menard Kaunda Sabela.
He is a Malawian national staying in South Africa.
It is alleged that he has defrauded many Malawians through fake air tickets before his 40th day knocked his hiding door down.
It is further said that he was pretending to be a travel consultant issuing air tickets for various airlines. When one buys the air ticket from him, he/she was bouncing at the check-in. After defrauding his clients, he was becoming inaccessible to them.
He was mostly targeting Malawians.
The Malawi Police recieved complaints from many people. They created a hook: They approached him as clients. They ordered several air tickets worth millions of Kwachas. Due to heavy amounts of cash involved, the 'clients' demanded that he should come to Malawi for proper transactions. He agreed and flew to Malawi to deliver the 'tickets'.
On the date of his arrival to Malawi, he proudly wrote on his Facebook timeline as follows: "Game kuiponyera patali. Udolo".
Little did he know that his clients were the ones who actually rendered the game to depth.
He checked in at Sunbird Capital Hotel where the police found and arrested him. He was denied police bail and is currently at Maula Prison awaiting trial.