It is a well-documented fact that the Malawian political story has a funny way of repeating things. No matter how one chooses to look at Malawi politics, the painful truth is that the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. The politicians are the same; the speeches are the same; the […]
On Sunday, July 12, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held a political but christened development rally at Thyolo Community Ground where ruling party zealots and apologists took turns to spew vitriol at various real and perceived enemies. President Peter Mutharika made an ‘official announcement’ that he will be the party’s candidate in the 2019 General […]
On the night of Thursday, the July 2, 2015, Malawians once again woke up to the news that a very senior investigator at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Deputy Director, Issa Ali Tayub Njauju, has been brutally murdered in the Capital City, Lilongwe. He was shot twice and buried in a shallow ‘grave’, his vehicle, a […]
At the end of the last week, I had been listening to old songs of Malawian artists and one track that I enjoyed most was by Lucius Banda. The musician turn UDF Member of Parliament sang “tiyende limodzi pokapeleka msonkho, koma tiyende ndi uyu yekha pokadya” [Better together in paying tax but only sacred cows […]
From constitutional perspective I support the call by lawmakers to have President Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika appear before the National Assembly for questions time. It is in the constitution and our citizen number one should respect the provision. It is regrettable that our leaders have constantly refused to come to Parliament for His Excellency’s question time […]
Why is it that Brown James Mpinganjira’s resignation from the People’s Party (PP) is not particularly earth shaking? Why is it that there is no substantial waltz surrounding the news of his departure from the former ruling party? The answers might not be far off; in fact they are right next to you. It is […]
Could this be? Could this really be true? The death of Raphael Kinn Tenthani, a respected Malawian journalist, has been received with much sadness within the media profession and the Malawian nation at large. To those of us who revered him, and we are many, we like to think of him as the amazing mixture […]
The Malawian body politic is pretty predictable, even by a toddler. It is a zigzag street where daggers between government and opposition are always drawn. When government does this, opposition does that. In other words when government zigs, expect the opposition to zag – it is religiously ‘normal’. Opposition leaders have responded to the State […]
For the past few weeks, the Twitter, Instrgram, Facebook, Whatsapp and the mainstream media have been flush with pictures and news about the resurgence of xenophobic motivated attacks in South Africa, a few years after the country experienced the same in 2008. We have seen gruesome pictures of people being mercilessly and publicly stabbed, hacked […]
The way Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika goes back and forth on almost every issue is legendary, in fact award-winning. Malawians have in mind the issue of presidential salary hikes; appointments of parastatal board members; the issue of diplomatic appointments; and now the issue of his assets declaration. Not long ago, the office of the Director […]
That some Malawians are serial gossipers is a well-documented fact. That some folks can spend a better part of their adult life doing nothing but backstab and bad-mouth other people is something that is well articulated in the annals of our history. A few days ago, a scholar from University of Malawi, Chancellor College, appeared […]
Malawi government announced recently it had suspended all oil exploration licenses pending a review of some sort. Just to put you in the loop, the Malawi Government issued some exploration licenses to a number of International companies to explore the shores of Lake Malawi to find out if there are enough oil reserves to be […]
There’s no smoke without fire, so goes the saying, and rumours do not spread unless there is some element of truth in them. Of late there has been a lot of ‘blue’ smoke at State House, either someone is extinguishing fire within the Plot Number One or some Shisha is being smoked by the powers […]
Welcome on board to my first newslog of the Loose Cannon. In Malawi there are plenty of authoritative newspaper columnists such as Raphael Tenthani, Graciun Tukula, Edward Chitsulo, George Kasakula, Ephraim Munthali and also prominent bloggers Dr Steve Sharra and Dr Boniface Dulani. These are but some influential opinion makers. I am very conscious that I […]
Nyasa Times will be carrying a new column titled: ‘The Loose Cannon’ by Thom Chiumia. It will be about my reflections and analysis on issues without fear or favour. I will not gossip about issues. I will discuss them and indeed I will be a ‘Loose Cannon’ . Tighten your belts. Look out for my […]