Facts being to the mind what food is to the body (Edmund Burke), I will start with facts. Justice Dr Chifundo Kachale’s extraordinary leadership in managing the 23 June 2020 Fresh Presidential Election raised our flag high. To evidence this, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Electoral Commission […]
Yet to be written is the story of Malawi Congress Party (MCP)’s perseverance when most of its liberation peers have since gone into oblivion. MCP’s history is pregnant with lessons. Not only has MCP survived, but after a twenty-six-year wait, it rebounded into power. After the June 1993 Referendum and the subsequent 1994 Elections losses, […]
Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Director-General Aubrey Sumbuleta is on forced leave due to sexual harassment allegations which some female members of staff leveled against him. Minister of Information Gospel Kazako confirmed this, saying: “He has been sent on forced leave to allow free and fair investigations on complaints lodged by some lady and MBC members […]
If rhetoric was all we needed to beat corruption, once we clear the backlog of cases Reyneck Matemba is reeling under, we would have had no reason to keep the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Corrupt Practices Act. Unfortunately, rhetoric without action is nothing. In our case, action could speak louder than words. Sadly, that action […]
“We want to destroy everything, not rebuild on the same rubble. We have different ideas. It is like any work. You must start with a clean slate. Then, you have a programme, a new way of thinking. It is a way of thinking. Not a restoration. Political parties out; and citizens not politicians, in.” Sounds […]
Sometimes, wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. Under the so-called Tonse Government, this behaviour is quickly becoming the norm. As I write, there are multitudes refusing to believe that the much-touted Tonse Philosophy was all a hoax despite increasing evidence. Before I proceed, let […]
In December 2014 former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Christopher Makileni commenced a lawsuit against the Malawi Government. He sued for “constructive dismissal” and claimed MK1.1 billion. His grievance was that on 3 June 2014 he was redeployed from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to the […]
“In my school days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight, the self-same way with more advised watch to find the other forth – and by adventuring both, I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof because what follows is pure innocence. I owe you […]
Saying that President Lazarus Chakwera’s Sermon of the Eight Rubbles delivered on this year’s independence cum inauguration day excited many Malawians is an understatement. That sermon struck the right chords. It thrilled the nation. Cynics of course, for good reasons, were and are sceptical because Malawi, besides being ‘the Warm Heart of Africa’ easily qualifies […]
It was supposed to go the other way round. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parliamentarians were supposed to go to town on President Lazarus Chakwera during His Excellency’s Question time (HEQs) organized under Section 89(4) of the Constitution. Chakwera was supposed to be the hunted and DPP the hunter. From Chakwera’s first jab, however, it was […]
Sincere apologies for missing an entry last week. Please take note that I now have a mechanism in place to spare you from reading recycled pieces. Talking of recycling, it is enough that the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the UTM Party have fully embraced the counterproductive art of recycling cheap political harlots. You and […]
Since independence, Malawi has had six presidents who have presided over ‘seven’ regimes. We had the Kamuzu era, Bakili’s lost decade, Bingu’s first and second terms, Joyce Banda’s cash-gate stained short stint, Peter Mutharika’s six years of plunder and today, Chakwera’s supposedly “tonse” time. Six presidents in ‘seven’ regimes because Bingu’s first term was distinctively […]
History is littered with infamous con men. Gregor MacGregor and Victor Lustig are perhaps the most legendary. MacGregor, a Scot, is best known for a scam where he invented an entirely non-existent country and was convincing “investors” to hand over funds to exploit natural resources found in “Poyais,” his fake nation for which he was […]
The trajectory of an average Malawian family’s rise from poverty to affluence used to be predictable. A family invariably started humbly. Then it tried this and that business before specializing in one. What followed was hard work and gradually, things happened. First came a bicycle for the ‘daddy’. Then a motorcycle, followed by a fairly […]
President Lazarus Chakwera announced his first full Cabinet the other day. Save for a few hard-line sycophants who have quickly taken over the shoes this far sported by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) apologists, many Tonse Alliance followers were up in arms. Independent critics who had in the same week been singing songs in praise of […]
The only explanation I have heard which has a teeny-weeny bit of proximity to being rational for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s retention of Jean Mathanga and Linda Kunje as Commissioners at the Electoral Commission is “continuity”. In everyday conduct of business, maintaining a modicum of continuity does make sense. Exceptions however exist. This, for […]
This last week was simply historic. First, was the submission of nomination papers for the July 2, 2020, Presidential elections. These were as significant as engagement ceremonies because they confirm who goes to bed with who in electoral pacts. While in the past the element of surprise was intraparty, this time around it was high […]
“Woman murdered, 7 houses damaged in Nkhata Bay”, “Religions in bloody fight”, “Christians, Muslims clash in Balaka” and “Muslims go on rampage in Mangochi, destroy beer places.” These are appalling headlines from Malawi, a country working hard to lose the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ tag as it declines into a cursed land where anyone can, […]