Author: Malawi Freedom Network

The Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has described President Lazarus Chakwera's address on Tuesday, as empty and full of dishonesty. Chakwera addressed the Nation on Tuesday where among others he outlined fifteen austerity measures which among other things put limit to external travels for senior government officials. Chakwera also fired Zangazanga Chikhosi as Secretary to President and Cabinet and replaced him with Colleen Zamba. In a Statement signed by DPP National Organizing Secretary Chimwemwe Chipungu says the President's address was empty and failed to provide solace to the misery and suffering of Malawians. According to the Statement, the DPP considers the announced measures as not deep enough to quickly turn around the economy and relieve Malawians of the...

There are now hopes for improved power outages in Malawi as power generator EGENCO has disclosed plans to commence reconstruction works for Kapichira power station in July. This follows securing funds amounting to 60 million US Dollars from World Bank through the Ministry of Finance for the repairs of the Kapichira dam for both phase 1 and phase 2 works. The funds are to cater for the Emergency Power Restoration Project from cyclone Ana disaster for both EGENCO and ESCOM. In a statement released by EGENCO, the first phase of rehabilitation works will involve temporary reconstruction of the dam to resume power generation with the actual works commencing on 1st July and will take 3 to 4 months to be completed. The second phase which will involve construction of a resilient-perma...

The Minister of information and digitization Gospel Kazako who is also the government spokesperson said Malawians should trust the process that the government is fixing the broken system left by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Kazako was reacting to calls from the DPP governing council members who called for a referendum in the country saying the Tonse government has failed to revive the country’s economic situation. He said this is better than listening to failed politicians who contributed to the plunder of the country’s finances. The minister wondered why the DPP is trying to look smarter today when it messed up the country under its leadership evident with the free-for-all plunder of public resources and doctoring of figures to the IMF. Kazako has si...

An organisation that provides home based care to postpartum women and babies in Malawi by the name Chimwemwe Mu’bereki (Joyful Motherhood), has received a financial boost of K1,500,000 from MyBucks Banking Corporation. The bank said the funds have been sponsored towards the purchase of baby formula, following inadequate funding faced by the organization which has led to an acute shortage of formula to reach out to all 290 beneficiaries under the Foundation. Speaking on Wednesday in Lilongwe during the presentation of the donation, MyBucks Malawi’s Marketing & Customer Experience Manager, Lindani Nkosi said “we are pleased to be part of this life changing initiative as it is in line with MyBucks strategic goals of making social impact as the donation will contribute to the reduct...

Communities of Bowe in the area of Traditional Authority Chikulamayembe in Rumphi are demanding back their money from Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), accusing the utility body for failing to connect their houses to power in 2019. When we Speaking to the one of the villagers, Joy Chakaka Nyirenda told us ESCOM collected five thousand kwacha from each household in 6 villages as connection fee, through the Ndawala project but nothing has materialised except provision of bulbs. In reaction to the claims ESCOM Public relations manager, Kitty Chingota has denied the allegations saying the area was connected through Malawi Rural Electrification programme-MAREP, a government project and that ESCOM charges are different from MAREP. On a faulty transformer in the area Chi...

Kasungu Senior Resident Magistrate Biar Joshua Kamanga has ordered the Police to release 9 suspects on Police bail. This is after the court learned that some of the suspects had spent about 20 days in police holding cells against the 48 -hour-rule. The rule demands that suspects be tried within the same period after being brought into police custody. The development has come as the Paralegal Advisory Service Institute (PASI) with funding from EU and UNDP is facilitating cell visits in some detention facilities in the district where the Magistrate is hearing cases and giving determination at the same spot; including at Kasungu Police Station where the nine have been granted some relief. According to the Police, the suspects were brought to book on charges ranging from conduct like...

Former Minister of Finance in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Joseph Mwanamvekha says the 25 percent devaluation on the kwacha has been made without considering the welfare of the people, and that it will not solve anything in the economy because it has been announced in haste which forex holders will leverage on. Mwanamvekha says when DPP assumed power after 2014 elections when the Peoples Party was embroiled in cashgate, they undertook serious austerity measures to feel the pain with the people. He said the president at that time, Peter Mutharika, his vice president and cabinet ministers had their salaries reduced public spending. Apart from that, Mwanamvekha says the DPP grounded government vehicles to tame unnecessary internal travel and foreign travel was limited to t...

By Lawyer George Jivason Kadzipatike I have seen extracts of a document purported to have been filed by British National Crimes Agency (NCA) in a court in London. Most of us in Malawi seem to be excited about the revelations made in the document.I’m, however, doubtful if the document in question, without more, would be beneficial to us in Malawi.Kondwani Munthali, Onjezani Kenani, Idriss operating as public prosecuting agencies for Malawi; the ones behind circulation of the questionable NCA court document It is doubtful because from the extracts I have seen, it would appear that the document places reliance on “recordings” done undercover, without the knowledge of the person who was being recorded. The one who was recording the purported Sattar is not mentioned, but the docume...

LEADER OF OPPOSITION KONDWANI NANKHUMWA SCHOOLS PRESIDENT CHAKWERA STATEMENT BY LEADER OF OPPOSITION IN PARLIAMENT HONOURABLE DR. KONDWANI NANKHUMWA, MP ON THE RECENT DEVALUATION OF THE KWACHA SATURDAY, 28TH MAY, 2022 LILONGWE FELLOW MALAWIANS, On Thursday, 26th May 2022, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) announced a 25% devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha, claiming it is one way of fixing the economy, which is currently experiencing dwindling foreign exchange reserves and runaway inflation. RBM said they made such a decision based on some economic fundamentals but I am concerned with the impact the decision will ultimately have on the daily lives of Malawians, particularly those who live in the rural areas of the country. Almost everyone who has spoken on the...