By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened on Tuesday to close parliament if a budget crisis threatening to cut off services in the impoverished nation was not resolved within two days.
The 2007/2008 budget debate, which should have been concluded by June 30, was suspended last month because the opposition first wanted a dispute over the poaching of its members by the ruling party settled.
"I am giving them two days -- today and tomorrow -- and if today and tomorrow they do not start discussing seriously the budget, I am closing down the parliament," Wa Mutharika said in a speech monitored on state radio.
"Parliament, especially the opposition, has abrogated their responsibility and as such they have therefore become irrelevant for the development of this country," the president said in the eastern town of Balaka.
Leaders in parliament were meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss what to do. Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said in an interview with Reuters that the southern African country risked losing donor budget aid if the stand-off continued.
"We are in a financial crisis and further delays to pass the budget will be catastrophic as donors will not be forthcoming to put financial support to the budget," Gondwe told Reuters on Monday evening.
On Monday, the government rejected a proposal by the opposition to adopt a temporary three-month budget that would allow for public spending while the political dispute over the opposition's members was being resolved.
The draft 2007/08 budget allocates more resources to poor rural areas, proposes salary increases for civil servants and allows higher spending on health care and food production.
Malawi relies heavily on donor support for its public spending. Gondwe said the country was expecting $500 million of foreign aid for its $1.2 billion budget.
Frustrations have been growing in the southern African nation of 12 million people as the political standoff deepened, and thousands have taken part in demonstrations
Full article e from Reuters Africa
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Australians to open Uranium Mine in Northern Malawi
Pilirani Semu-BandaBlantyre
Malawi will have its first-ever modern mining project located in the northern town of Kayelekera in Karonga by early next year if plans by an Australian mining company, Paladin (Africa) Limited, are successful.
In April this year, the Malawi government granted the mining company a licence to exploit up to 34,5 million tons of uranium.
Malawi will have its first-ever modern mining project located in the northern town of Kayelekera in Karonga by early next year if plans by an Australian mining company, Paladin (Africa) Limited, are successful.
In April this year, the Malawi government granted the mining company a licence to exploit up to 34,5 million tons of uranium.
- The project will generate an annual income of over 100 million US dollars, which is about five percent of Malawi's annual gross domestic product and 20 percent of the country's total export income.
- The revenue for the uranium is projected to exceed tobacco's annual proceeds of 19 million US dollars. Tobacco is currently Malawi's main foreign exchange earner.
- The uranium project also promises to transform the under-developed Kayelekera into a prosperous town and create jobs for 800 people during the construction phase and 280 people during the operational phase.
- It also promises to indirectly support more than 1,000 additional jobs, build a modern primary school, a secondary school and a health facility near the project area.
However, controversy has been dogging the project since its hatching stages with fears from the public that the mining of uranium poses serious health hazards, such as cancer and disability in infants due to radiation.
- n environmental impact assessment (EIA) was conducted last year by an international consulting firm, Knight Piesold Consulting. Among others, it indicated that the project could increase social problems in the Karonga area in the form of increased cases of HIV/AIDS due to the migration of sex workers to the area.
There will be an increase in the existing commercial sex industry and risks of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS," says the EIA.
A group of six influential civil society organizations in Malawi said the company has neither complied with the Environmental Management Act nor with international uranium mining standards which underscore the importance of ensuring health and environmental protection for people.
These organisations were the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Focus on Karonga, Citizens for Justice, the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), the Uraha Foundation and the Foundation for Community Services.
They have since obtained a court injunction stopping the project from proceeding. It is unlikely that the issue will be resolved soon since court processes in Malawi usually take a long time due to case backlogs.
Titus Mvalo says uranium is radioactive and that with open-pit mining, like the one to be conducted at Kayelekera, the soil drains into rivers and contaminates the water. When humans drink the water, it damages kidneys and causes cancer.
- In Malawi, according to the 2006 Human Development Report (HDR), up to 33 percent of the population of 12 million people do not have access to safe water. They depend on water from rivers and lakes. Mvalo says there is a need for measures that will mitigate the damage that could arise from radiation.
The Rest @ AllAFrica.com, via inter-press Johannesburg
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
MTL Launches FreeNET
We are maintaining ground lines--MTL...launches FreeNET dial up service
BY SAM BANDA JNR 08:58:59 - 20 June 2007
Fixed phone service providers Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) says the rolling out of the US$7.5 million (K1.05 billion) Liberty phone line project in the country was not meant to phase out ground lines (copper line), which most Malawians have become used to.
MTL’s Chief Commercial Officer Stephan Hoehne said in an interview on Saturday that various technologies they intend to introduce would depend on the ground lines.“Ground lines will be there. After all, the copper line will assist us in the more technologies we will be introducing to Malawians shortly,” he said.
He said Liberty phone lines would try to ease congestion, which has been there with ground lines and that the communication service would be faster.“There have been congestion with only ground lines being used and communication has moved at a slow pace and now the Liberty phone will try to help on that and also bring in new things,” said Hoehne.
Ground lines have proved to be a big disadvantage in the country as they are subjected to vandalism.There have been several cases of people stealing MTL cables thereby disrupting the communication process.“The new MTL management found that the Liberty phone is the appropriate communication technology for Malawi and that is why we undertook this project. The issues of vandalism are water under the bridge with the Liberty phone for it does not use cables but it’s a wireless phone line,” he said.He then cautioned all those who indulge in theft and vandalism of MTL cables that their actions were retrogressive to national development.“We get so many cases of cable theft and vandalism, which really is retarding development. Communication is very important because without it, things do not move.
However, with introduction of Liberty phones, we have to move forward and talk about positive things,” said the chief commercial officer.
BY SAM BANDA JNR 08:58:59 - 20 June 2007
Fixed phone service providers Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) says the rolling out of the US$7.5 million (K1.05 billion) Liberty phone line project in the country was not meant to phase out ground lines (copper line), which most Malawians have become used to.
MTL’s Chief Commercial Officer Stephan Hoehne said in an interview on Saturday that various technologies they intend to introduce would depend on the ground lines.“Ground lines will be there. After all, the copper line will assist us in the more technologies we will be introducing to Malawians shortly,” he said.
He said Liberty phone lines would try to ease congestion, which has been there with ground lines and that the communication service would be faster.“There have been congestion with only ground lines being used and communication has moved at a slow pace and now the Liberty phone will try to help on that and also bring in new things,” said Hoehne.
Ground lines have proved to be a big disadvantage in the country as they are subjected to vandalism.There have been several cases of people stealing MTL cables thereby disrupting the communication process.“The new MTL management found that the Liberty phone is the appropriate communication technology for Malawi and that is why we undertook this project. The issues of vandalism are water under the bridge with the Liberty phone for it does not use cables but it’s a wireless phone line,” he said.He then cautioned all those who indulge in theft and vandalism of MTL cables that their actions were retrogressive to national development.“We get so many cases of cable theft and vandalism, which really is retarding development. Communication is very important because without it, things do not move.
However, with introduction of Liberty phones, we have to move forward and talk about positive things,” said the chief commercial officer.
- MTL has launched Liberty phone in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.
- The project would be extended to other 24 areas in the country with the latest launch being in Zomba last Friday.
- Meanwhile, MTL Tuesday launched yet another new product called MTL Freenet dial up service in Blantyre in its efforts to provide quality Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and this service is using the ground line.
- "We have been offered a licence on this. FreeNet is a dial up service, which will enable MTL customers to have access to the Internet and has no monthly subscription, registration and the service connects to your computer via a modem and your MTL line,” said Hoehne Tuesday.
Monday, June 18, 2007
"Lawmakers Who Switch Parties Can Be Ousted" Says Judge
BLANTYRE, Malawi: Malawi's highest court ruled Friday that lawmakers who switch parties after their election can be ousted from parliament, a decision affecting scores of President Bingu wa Mutharika's supporters.
The ruling, delivered by Chief Justice Leonard Unyolo, could affect about 70 of parliament's 193 members, including Cabinet ministers, all of whom left the United Democratic Front to join Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party. Mutharika was elected as a member of the United Democratic Front in 2004, but quit the party last year to found the Democratic Progressive Party, accusing his former allies of blocking his clampdown on corruption, and survived a subsequent attempt to impeach him.
the Rest @ The International Herald Tribune
The ruling, delivered by Chief Justice Leonard Unyolo, could affect about 70 of parliament's 193 members, including Cabinet ministers, all of whom left the United Democratic Front to join Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party. Mutharika was elected as a member of the United Democratic Front in 2004, but quit the party last year to found the Democratic Progressive Party, accusing his former allies of blocking his clampdown on corruption, and survived a subsequent attempt to impeach him.
the Rest @ The International Herald Tribune
Monday, June 4, 2007
Somali Refugees Stretching Malawi Security
Somali Refugees have been flooding into Malawi since the Somali war reignited. Malawi is shutting down a camp near the Mozambique border and tightening up their border with Tanzania. Officials have security concerns about trafficers using Malawi as a pass through country.
-Lee
In Malawi, our staff are rushing to install additional facilities for 3,000 refugees at Dzaleka refugee camp following a government order to close the only other refugee camp in the country. Although UNHCR will take until July to move all the refugees and asylum seekers from Luwani camp, it will have some of the necessary facilities in place in Dzaleka by the government's deadline of May 31.
The government said its decision at the end of last month to close Luwani was prompted by increasing concern at the number of asylum seekers who arrive from Ethiopia and Somalia, claim asylum, stay a few days at Luwani and then disappear over the border into Mozambique en route to South Africa.
It termed these arrivals - from what it sees as the unstable Horn of Africa - a threat to its own security. Luwani is located near the southern border with Mozambique, while Dzaleka is near the capital, Lilongwe, in the centre of the country. The government believes placing all asylum seekers in Dzaleka, further from the border, will reduce the number using Malawi purely as a transit route for heading toward South Africa.
The government also announced the deployment of soldiers to reinforce police along Malawi's northern border with Tanzania in order to tighten control on undocumented crossings. UNHCR has welcomed the government's assurance that these changes in policy, which are its right, do not mean any reduction in the government's international commitment to continue providing asylum to refugees. It is imperative that legitimate asylum seekers still have access to protection.
With the decision to close Luwani, the government also stopped moving newly arrived asylum seekers from the transit station it operated with UNHCR near the border with Tanzania. That has resulted in a build-up of asylum seekers at the transit station, which has a normal capacity of about 100 people but now holds more than 350. The government wants new asylum seekers moved to Dzaleka, which had previously been considered full with its current 5,000 residents. UNHCR is working to ensure a makeshift reception centre for new arrivals is available at Dzaleka by the end of the month.
The transfer of the 3,000 refugees from Luwani - likely to begin in the second half of June and take up to a month to complete -- will require additional school and medical facilities at Dzaleka.
Initially refugees will be housed in temporary structures and tents before they erect homes. Building materials for traditional houses - wooden poles and grass - is already being stockpiled. To ensure the disruption to education is minimized, students at first may have to study in makeshift structures.
Unlike those asylum seekers who quickly transit through Malawi with the apparent services of traffickers - the group who triggered the government's closure of Luwani -- most of the refugees to be relocated have been long-term residents of the camp. Some had hoped to become self-sufficient through farming at Luwani but there is little land available at Dzaleka so they will remain dependent on aid.
The Rest @ All Africa.com
-Lee
In Malawi, our staff are rushing to install additional facilities for 3,000 refugees at Dzaleka refugee camp following a government order to close the only other refugee camp in the country. Although UNHCR will take until July to move all the refugees and asylum seekers from Luwani camp, it will have some of the necessary facilities in place in Dzaleka by the government's deadline of May 31.
The government said its decision at the end of last month to close Luwani was prompted by increasing concern at the number of asylum seekers who arrive from Ethiopia and Somalia, claim asylum, stay a few days at Luwani and then disappear over the border into Mozambique en route to South Africa.
It termed these arrivals - from what it sees as the unstable Horn of Africa - a threat to its own security. Luwani is located near the southern border with Mozambique, while Dzaleka is near the capital, Lilongwe, in the centre of the country. The government believes placing all asylum seekers in Dzaleka, further from the border, will reduce the number using Malawi purely as a transit route for heading toward South Africa.
The government also announced the deployment of soldiers to reinforce police along Malawi's northern border with Tanzania in order to tighten control on undocumented crossings. UNHCR has welcomed the government's assurance that these changes in policy, which are its right, do not mean any reduction in the government's international commitment to continue providing asylum to refugees. It is imperative that legitimate asylum seekers still have access to protection.
With the decision to close Luwani, the government also stopped moving newly arrived asylum seekers from the transit station it operated with UNHCR near the border with Tanzania. That has resulted in a build-up of asylum seekers at the transit station, which has a normal capacity of about 100 people but now holds more than 350. The government wants new asylum seekers moved to Dzaleka, which had previously been considered full with its current 5,000 residents. UNHCR is working to ensure a makeshift reception centre for new arrivals is available at Dzaleka by the end of the month.
The transfer of the 3,000 refugees from Luwani - likely to begin in the second half of June and take up to a month to complete -- will require additional school and medical facilities at Dzaleka.
Initially refugees will be housed in temporary structures and tents before they erect homes. Building materials for traditional houses - wooden poles and grass - is already being stockpiled. To ensure the disruption to education is minimized, students at first may have to study in makeshift structures.
Unlike those asylum seekers who quickly transit through Malawi with the apparent services of traffickers - the group who triggered the government's closure of Luwani -- most of the refugees to be relocated have been long-term residents of the camp. Some had hoped to become self-sufficient through farming at Luwani but there is little land available at Dzaleka so they will remain dependent on aid.
The Rest @ All Africa.com
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A 2009 Confrontation Coming with Old Roots
Aaron Akwete Sandie
Akwete Sande gives an overview of the current political situation in historical context in Malawi in the lead up to the 2009 elections.
Akwete Sande gives an overview of the current political situation in historical context in Malawi in the lead up to the 2009 elections.
- Bakili Muluzi was a powerful politician under dictator Hastings Banda, first President of Malawi 1964-1994.
- As Secretary General of Malawi Congress Party at a younger age, Muluzi was dictator number two to Banda. But like all others before him, he served for a short period and was removed.
- Bakili Muluzi went into business, but he resurfaced to lead the United Democratic Front - UDF in 1992 as a pressure group to agitate for political pluralism.
- Muluzi, an accomplished orator backed by the faith community alvanised Malawians against the one-party state.
- In 1994 Bakili Muluzi, a Muslim in a Christian dominated country defeated Banda at the polls and began a reform process that included entrenching judicial independence, and freedoms such as press and association.
- A new constitution that provided for an Ombudsman's office, an anti-corruptions bureau was adopted. N
- Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) were initiated.
- The UDF, which had attracted all sorts of characters, lost popularity as people moved to other parties. Come elections in May 1999, Muluzi could only manage a bare win.
- The second and last constitutional term for Muluzi was a troubled one. Successive droughts left the majority of people starving from 2002-2004.
- Newspapers were a wash with revelations of official corruption.
The most seriously affected was the ministry of education, where dubious contractors were paid for uncompleted school blocks. - The Anti-Corruption Bureau Act, was not strong enough to discipline those with connections in powerful places.
- A slow but steady campaign for constitutional amendments for 'Open Term' and 'Third Term' to do away with two consecutive terms was waged. But parliament rejected the amendments. This campaign alienated Muluzi from most of his senior colleagues, who opted out of the party and government.
- Muluzi anointed Bingu Wa-Mutharika, the current president and former international servant of the World Bank and COMESA as his successor. He successfully campaigned for Bingu, propping him as an economic 'engineer'.
- However after a few months the new president complained that the former president wanted to control him. He left the Party.
- Bingu formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Many people flocked to it and within a short period DPP won six seats in by-elections therefore becoming a ruling party by default.
- An attempt to impeach Bingu failed due to some gaps in the constitution, which provides for that possibility. Mutharika left the UDF
- It sparked bitter rivalry with Muluzi. Though several attempts have been made by a public watchdog - Public Affairs Committee - PAC, it has failed to reconcile the two.
- Each side accused the other of sparking political tension, and the race to 2009 elections has been unofficially begun.
- Muzuli announced that he intends to run for election.
as a retired president. - President Mutharika deployed the Malawi Defence Force to stop a rally from being addressed by former the president in Mulanje, a place seen as Mutharika's stronghold and where the majority of his ethnic kinsmen come from.
- Some chiefs have formed a coalition to lobby fellow chiefs to deny support to the former president.
- Prominent journalist - Gedeon Munthali and Chinyeke Tembo have formed a coalition too - Anti-Muluzi Coalition to mobilise people against Muluzi.
- A constitutional reform programme which started last year entered into second phase this month and a conference to review the 1995 constitutional was recently held.
- The issues to discussed included abolishing of death penalty, a recall provision for non-performing legislators, amendments on the presidency where a former president after completing five year terms should not come back, a president should have a minimum of an academic degree, are some of the hurdles Muluzi has to contend with.
- However, constitutional amendments will have to go to parliament where the combined opposition is capable of upsetting the motions which people see as targeting ', says Billy Mayaya of the Blantyre Synod of the influential Presbyterian Church, explaining the reasons for the referendum.
- An analyst from the University of Malawi, wiseman Chijere Chirwa says Muluzi's comeback is a sign of a leadership crisis in a party-UDF that ruled the country from 1994-2004.
- Muluzi cites arbitrary arrests, and flouting of constitution by Mutharika as his major reasons for comeback.
World Bank Approves 15$ Million Aimed at the Private Sector
The World Bank Board of Directors today approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant of US$15million for the Business Environment Strengthening Technical Assistance Project (BESTAP) which is designed to support capacity development and investment climate reforms to accelerate economic growth in Malawi.
The project will support the Government’s strategy of a private sector-led economic growth. "The foundations for economic growth have been laid in Malawi with improvements in the macro-economic situation, and this opportunity needs to be seized. The project aims to support the development of the private sector in Malawi as an engine for sustained economic growth," says Malawi’s Country Manager, Timothy Gilbo.
The Rest @ All Africa.com
The project will support the Government’s strategy of a private sector-led economic growth. "The foundations for economic growth have been laid in Malawi with improvements in the macro-economic situation, and this opportunity needs to be seized. The project aims to support the development of the private sector in Malawi as an engine for sustained economic growth," says Malawi’s Country Manager, Timothy Gilbo.
The Rest @ All Africa.com
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