Malawi to pay Time magazine K295mil for positive stories – Finance Minister confirm

January 10, 2016 Nyasa Times Reporter 56 Comments

Minister of Finance Goodal Gondwe has confirmed the government of Malawi made an agreement with Time magazine to publish positive stories for President Peter Mutharika and the country would pay 295 000 pound sterling ( K295 million).

Gondwe: There is an arrangement to pay £295,000 to Time magazine
Gondwe: There is an arrangement to pay £295,000 to Time magazine

According to press report, Gondwe confirmed Malawi engaged the UK-based firm Business Outlook to create a package that would be used to sell the country’s potential for investment on the global stage.

As part of the deal, the company arranged for the publication of several articles in the magazine between November and December, quoted at 295 000 pound sterling (K295 million).

“We made an agreement that Time magazine should run the articles as a forerunner to the President’s (Peter Mutharika) trip to the African Global Summit in London,” Gondwe confirmed as quoted by a local newspaper on Sunday.

“We agreed that we will pay 295 000 pound sterling. This money will be infused into the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Culture vote during the mid-year budget review around February this year. The law allows us to spend sometimes outside the budget but regularise it whenever the august House meets,” he said.

The Finance Minister told the newspaper that the deal was being handled by ministries of Information alongside Trade and Industry

Among the articles that were published in Business Outlook under special advertising section were eight pages themed as Malawi up and open for business, Private sector to be engine for growth, Reforms helping to expand investment, Agriculture the economic bedrock, Malawi a mining country, Infrastructure; economic priority and well connected, safe and beautiful.

Director of Information Bright Molande confirmed the ministry received an invoice for K295 million from Business Outlook but denied formally engaging them to render services to the ministry, according to the report.

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56 replies on “Malawi to pay Time magazine K295mil for positive stories – Finance Minister confirm”

  4. MALAWI, A NATION OF CROOKS & LOSERS..
    SHAME! THESE OLD MINISTERS WILL DIE IN THEIR CROOKEDNESS. DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE CROOKEDNESS. MAKING SAME MISTAKES OTHERS HAVE MADE BEFORE.
    YOU’LL PERISH AT OUR WATCH AS YOU PLUNDER THE NATION..

  8. Just let the works of your head speak for you, you wlil get all the publicity you need freely world wide

  12. This is very serious Malawian wake up now we have lost alot to this mutharika family. Pls pls save Mother Malawi from these criminals before it’s over.

  14. You did well indeed very well to advertise our country. What is the Department of Tourisim for? Didn’t JB cashgate the dormant money that they could have used to advertise Malawi? So what is wrong to question this expenditure? Palibe nkhani apa!

  16. This is very sad story as the government can not manage to get internal public relations. we have professional Mass communicators and public relations practitioners and its a shame to give such an amount to an international agent.

  17. And how much more is the stupid dpp government spending through crooked ways that Malawians are not aware of? As we speak, he is keeping envelopes full of money to bribe his way to victory come 2019 general election and the best thing Malawians will do is to cry and bitch about it on social network. Dpp caused all these problems and you expect them to end them. No brain that creates a problem has the capacity to solve it but it takes a completely different one to solve it and that is a fact.

  19. You have been caught in your own lies. Did you or did you not engage them, did you sign a legal contact or had a verbal contract with them???? Did they honor the contract and printed what you asked them to do???? If yes then yo are in big shit.

  21. I refuse to believe that 8 pages cost poor Malawians MK295M. It does not make the slightest sense. What happened to the austerity measures?????

  22. cry my beloved country. This is corruption and waste of resources of highest order. No matter how much money you spend. You can not turn a Pig into a sheep. Muthalika is a rotten corrupt thief. No amount of money will prop up his image. Malawians should be appalled by this. we need to riot and let these thieves that we had enough

  24. So these decisions are just made blindly without the approval of parliament? Where are the checks and balances that Malawians and the donors community are asking for????

    1. Nanunso inu….Malawi does not have donor community anymore. Let this sink into that small skull of yours. Malawi does not have donors anymore. And this is good. Why should Malawi continue relying on kupemphetsa? This is the time to become economically independent.

      1. are you sure, you have no donors community in your poor country? you better acknowledge their presence although they are not directly supporting your government budgets.

        Remember floods last year? See what happens as pass through the drought this year.
        I hear about World Vision, Concern, CRS, UNESCO watieva watieva who pays them?

  25. Enough said about how daft that decision by government is to waste un-budgeted money on this stupid adventure. My question is though, have foreign news outlets from developed countries lost their integrity and started to be prone to fraudulent practices, accepting money for stories? Because that is what this is, fraud!

  27. Are these the best comments Malawians can make?

    Its no wonder this country is poor. Any business venture needs to be advertised. We talk about tourism, who is going to tour, the bikers that pass through from Tanzania on their way to South Africa? you call that tourism?

    How many hotels do we have along the lake-shore? And we believe that we have advertised ourselves enough to attract people with money who can build hotels along the lake shore?

    Why is everything about politics?

    Go and find out how much it costs to advertise on MBC and TVM you will be shocked that companies in Malawi spend close to that, advertising themselves, and you complain about 295 million which is about K20 per citizen?

    It is so disappointing that 99.99% of Malawians do not understand what impact good news has ont an economy. Most economies measure their fortunes by the movement in the stock market, and how do stock market figures move? by good or bad news. (People feeling good about the economy and then buying shares)

    Malawi has a stock market where Malawians do not invest, because it is not a get rich quick scheme, but if you invested on the stock Market, may be we would not resort to advertising for people to invest in Malawi, our companies would have enough capital to build hotels along the lake-shore.

    We in Malawi believe that the stock market is for the rich.

    If half the population in Malawi invested 200 kwacha in the shares of a company, and went to the AGM and voted for a proposal to build a hotel on the lake-shore, that would be done, because those investors would have put in over a Billion kwacha. But Malawians would rather go to a witch doctor to multiply that 200 kwacha. That is our problem.

    No common sense.

    Don’t blame these politicians for doing their best for this country. When the fruits of their labour start to be felt, you will praising the wrong people, that is life it happens all the time.(kiyimbila mfiti mmanja)

    1. Hahahaha my brother Angel of Doom, why are you surprised with Malawians? These are monkeys. Let it sink into your head that almost 98% of Malawians are still monkeys. And most of the comments you see here are made by those monkeys. Don’t you worry, this is what they are. Just like wild monkeys, these Malawians don’t even know what is good or bad for them. They are just useless monkeys. Forget them.

      1. Government was advertising what? Actually Goodall Gondwe says Government was, ‘publishing positive stories about the president’ Nothing about business.

        Government makes conducive policies only do not go beyond that…..

    2. Good or bad news being reflected in stock prices hence affecting investors’ decisions to buy or sell or hold is backed by fundamentals.
      Even if you conjure the efficient market hypothesis, you will clearly see that in its weak form, stocks are priced with some company information it them; not bogus but fundamental.
      This is arguably not the case in Malawi currently hence the mistiming.

  29. WHAT PRIORITIES ARE THESE? WHEN WILL WE FOR ONCE BE SERIOUS ON OUR PRIORITIES ON HOW TO SPEND OUR HARD EARNED CASH? 295 MILLION? serious?
    OPPOSITION, WILL YOU FUSE THIS IN THE BUDGET IN FEB AS CLAIMED BY THIS GUY? SERIOUS? SERIOUS?

  30. Apparently some people just chastise whatever the present government does, just for sake of it. Or for wholesale dislike and scorn. …to hell with that!
    The government is advertising Malawi as possible destination for tourism, serious investment etc. Almost all countries, especially the small poor ones, do this; and it can be effective. Important to followup regarding the outcomes, obviously. And it would not make sense to advertise without touting virtues of the present government. Even if the virtues are far ad between, according to some dubious “analysts”.
    Apparently, some people are against anything that has even a chance of improving the economy, lest APM get the credit! Shameful motive, to be sure. And the man will not be thwarted by such shallow minded, and naive thinking.

  31. you cannot perfume a pig and Magulifi sakusowa kugulitsidwa the work of his hands are speaking for him

  32. Where and what r these articles. Time is a centedpiece of journalism. It cannot be brobed for positive articles. What he means was that they paid for SELF ADVERTISING pieces. Most magazines do this and atvthe beginning and at the end of the article with a clear disclaimer that the contents of the piece are not in any way an endorsement nor necessarily the views of the magazine. Case closed. Goodall too old to express himself. Mukapume madara!

  34. Kodi anthu inu ndidzimene mumapanga kulemba zabwino mumatinamiza kuti zinthu zilibwino pomwe mwangogula ama nwespaper!! Be ashamed if yourselves, this is not something to be proud of. You are cheating!! People are looking for tangible things not fake as you are portraying here!! Do you think think the would be investors be encouraged if they read about your intentions? Shame on us!!! Matchonas have ran out of ideas.

  35. Tsono muwauze a Malawi kuti kwabwera ma Investors angati kudzayambitsa ntchito zao dziko muno ndi phindu lomwe lipezeke popereka ma million onseo. Mwaiwala kuti anthu akungofa mu zipatalamu mankhwala ochepa, ma Ambulances ar grounded for no servicing and fuel, apo bi DPP mutenge ndalama zanu mukalipire, what a stupid deal.

  39. AFTER 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE MALAWI CAN NOT MANAGE TO MARKET HERSELF. INFORMATION FROM THE INVESTOR GATHERING INDICATES THAT MALAWI PRESIDENT AHD THE TEAM WERE THE WORSE PRESENTERS. SOMALIA A WAR RAGED STATE SCORED BETTER THAN MOST COUNTRIES AT THE GATHERING. SHAME ON MALAWI WITH NKHALAMBA KUKAMILA ACTIVE POLITICS.

  40. Boma la a Pitala ladya ndalama ngati Tomato, zachisoni zedi. Chikhalakuti ndi munthu wamba bwezi tikuti Pitala wa mwela mowa ndalama za pension mmalomopangila chitukuko. Matafale adayimbakale.

  41. O……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………O
    And what kind of reasoning is this? How do you ask someone to write good about you when there is nothing good about you? He or she should lie? Come on Good-All-Gondwe.

    Go into Google and type Malawi. The first thing that greets you is chaos. Trust me, you don’t need anyone to tell lies about you. Don’t make us think you just need to pocket the money coz the motive is not making any iota of sense; there is nothing good about Malawi that you want this newspaper to write about. Everything about Malawi now is wrong, including its leadership.

    “It is better to be hurt by truth than be comforted by a lie.” – Khaled Hossein. Inu izi simukudziwa bwanji?

    I now believe that . . .

    “Age doesn’t always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.” – Confucius (Chinese Philosopher
    O………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..O

  42. I now have no doubt that this government is a whole lot daft. Abale kodi mukuganiza bwanji? Are you guys serious? Make no mistake my fellow well meaning Malawians, this is fraud of highest order. I think we are really in for problems as Malawians. I do believe the only effective way to market our country is making sure we have, among other things, an uninterrupted power supply, good road network and a stable economy because those are some of the areas investors would assess before making any steps.

  43. wait a minute £295,000 for marketing a country? why not investing the very amount irrigation, energy or tourism?

  45. Munthu sumachita kupempha kapena kulipira kuti uyamikilidwe amwene!Ndalama zaboma zochepa kalezo mukuonongela zopusazo?Iwe Pitala ukamufunse nkulu wako kuti zimakhala bwanji?Akakuyankha kuti “Ulore ntchito za manja ako zikuchitire umboni” osati ndalama zathuzo ayi

  46. A useless venture that will not benefit Malawi. Parliament is urged to block this expenditure. D PP has no vision to transform this country.

    1. By “parliament”, do you mean jealousy MCP and PP MPs? Are you forgetting that DPP, UDF and Independent MPs are also there? Stop hating yourself for nothing. By hating your government you are hating your country and finally you are hating yourself. I bet you don’t have any other country you call it home except Malawi. Malawians (monkeys) themselves spoiled and destroyed the image of their own country and the current government desperately wants to get that back.

  47. NDIYE MUZITI MUKUFUNA DONOR AID PAMENE MUKUSEWERETSA NDALAMA CHONCHI NGATI NDALAMA ZACHULUKA AMAFUNSA MA ADVICE KIKI

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