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MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE
A fortnightly
update of news from
Malawi
Edition
No: 24 24 February
1997
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists in Malawi and brings you the news from their point of view. It is assembled and edited in Denmar k by South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement, publishers o f i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine on Southern Africa.
The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided by our established ne twork of journalists in Southern Africa. ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE and TANZANIA NE WS ONLINE are our latest newsletters and they will be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual news updates covering other Southern Afri can countries,.
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is brought to you by a co-operation between South Africa Contact and Inform, the leading alternative information network in Denmark .
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Stories in this edition:
1. ENVOY ASKS FOR PATIENCE IN REFORM PROGRAMME
2. KIDNAPPED BABY FOUND
3. FLOODS LEAVE 50 000 HOMELESS
4. IN LAW SUES CHIPEMBERE
5. TAX INCREASE THIS YEAR
6. TELEVISION IN MALAWI
7. K500m SWITCHING EQUIPMENT TO IMPROVE TELECOM SERVICES
8. WANDERERS WHITEWASHED IN LESOTHO
STORIES:
1. ENVOY ASKS FOR PATIENCE IN REFORM PROGRAMME
British High Commissioner to Malawi, John Martin, on February 18 asked Mala wian politicians and the general public to be patient and not to expect spe edy results from the police reform programme his government is funding. Mar tin said this in Blantyre during the official closing of a trainers course attended by 52 policemen some of whom have been trained to train other poli cemen in the reform programme.
He advised Malawians to be very patient and to give police enough time to r eform effectively. He said, understandably, a lot of people including poli ticians and the general public, would like to see speedy results from the r eform programme.
22But change, if it is to be anything more than artificial, cannot be achi eved quickly,22 he said.
0A The reform programme, according to Martin has for the past two years been devoted to developing a new democratic culture to the Malawi police person nel. 22Individual police officers must feel empowered to take routine deci sions without referring them up through the hierarchy all the way to the In spector General of Police,22 said Martin.
Out of the 52 policemen, 12 were trained by a team of policemen from Surrey Police in Britain who in turn trained the other 40.
2. KIDNAPPED BABY FOUND
Timothy Funnell, the toddler at the centre of what is believed to be Malawi 's first kidnap case of its kind was found on 18 February, abandoned in the veld, unharmed except for mosquito bites. He was spotted by chance by two passing boys. Malawi police are questioning several suspects in the case.
Fourteen month old Timothy, adopted son of a missionary couple, Barry and J ulia Funnels, was abducted from their home in a Blantyre suburb, Sigerege, adjacent to Chilomoni Township. The kidnap was described as brutal, with th e attackers beating the missionary, then grabbing the baby upside down, ban ging his head against a pot plant as they fled.
The baby, at the centre of an adoption case row which reached the South Afr ican Constitutional Court, was kidnapped on February 15, just a fortnight a fter a major court ruling that the adoption procedures had been unconstitut ional. Timothy was adopted by paraplegic missionary Barry Funnell and his w ife after his biological mother, violinist Adri Naude of South Africa decid ed she did not want the child, fathered by her former boyfriend, Lawrie Fra ser. Fraser wanted custody of the child and took his case to court, winning a decision that adoption laws discriminate against unmarried fathers.
3. FLOODS LEAVE 50 000 HOMELESS
Two weeks of very heavy rains in Malawi have left some 50 000 families home less, the government announced this week.
Over 30 000 Malawians from the Nsanje district on the Mozambique border hav e been joined by some 20 000 Mozambicans trying to escape the floods. The f loods have washed away bridges, hampering relief efforts, and even helicopt ers have been kept back by continuing storms.
Local newspapers report that residents have been sheltering on rooftops and in trees, and have no food. Malawi lacks the infrastructure to provide air drop relief.
4. IN LAW SUES CHIPEMBERE
John Chipembere, a brother to the late Henry Masauko Chipembere, prominent politician who rebelled against the former president's dictatorial rule dur ing a 1964 cabinet crisis, has sued his brother's widow, Catherine, accusin g her of abusing the Chipembere family name.
The High Court in Blantyre started hearing submissions on the case in which John argues that his sister-in-law was abusing their clan name by continui ng to be known as Mrs Chipembere after a part payment of lobola (bride pric e) had been made. John argues that by customary practice, by virtue of the payment, Catherine, who was widowed 21 years ago, has remarried.
Catherine, 61, nee Ambali, from Likoma Island in Nkhata-Bay, north Malawi, is deputy minister of health and population in the present government. She won a parliamentary seat in 1994 in Mangochi on the strength of her late hu sband's name.
Her wedding with Alford Marama, which was supposed to have taken place at C hristmas last year, was put on ice after the Chipembere family cried foul against her continued use of the clan name.
The Chipembere family say they have no objection to her remarrying as long as she refrains from using the family name. Justice Eric Kumitsonyo is pres iding over the case. Both parties have hired private lawyers.
5. TAX INCREASE THIS YEAR
Government intends to introduce new taxes this year in order to finance the implementation of salary increments awarded civil servants. The new taxes, to be introduced during the next budget session of parliament in March, ar e expected to mostly affect local business companies.
According to information leaked from the Finance ministry, the hardest hit will be the transport sector with road hauliers expected to pay high taxes on transportation of all goods. One of the new taxes is the introduction of duty on truck imports which had been duty free. In addition, transporters will now also pay 20 percent of the total cost of the transported goods.
According to ministry sources, government had waived the incentive it gave transporters to bring in trucks, called horses duty free, to boost the tran sport sector in Malawi. Local transporters have been meeting this week to w ork out a strategy to counter the move.
6. TELEVISION IN MALAWI
The Malawi Television, with its launching a year behind schedule, has final ly found a partner from Europe which is expected to acquire at least 40 per cent of the shares in the project.
Chairman of the project, Steve Mijiga, who is also Chief Executive of Malaw i Posts and Telecommunications, said in an interview that the European part ner, whom he could not disclose at the moment because a contract was yet to be signed between the two firms, had vast experience in television broadca sting.
22The contract will be signed in April this year,22 said Mijiga. He said that it would be a useful partnership that would translate as a transfer of technology and knowledge from Europe to Malawi.
Malawi Television was originally scheduled to have started beaming programm es in March last year, in partnership with a Malaysian private television f irm which was also to supply equipment and provide technical expertise and training to the local staff. But TV Malawi later announced it had withdrawn from the partnership because the Malaysian firm wanted to sell Malawi old and substandard equipment. It did, however, say at the time, the project would go ahead with or without a partner.
He said viewers would start tuning in to TVM before June this year in Blant yre and later the service would reach out to other districts.
7. K500m SWITCHING EQUIPMENT TO IMPROVE TELECOM SERVICES
Malawi and Japan on February 11 signed a K500 million (US24 33.3 million) contract aimed at improving telecommunication switching and transmission se rvices in the country. Chief Executive of Malawi Posts and Telecommunicatio ns, Steve Mijiga, speaking at the signing ceremony, said the money would he lp revamp the ageing telecommunications equipment, some of which has been i n use for 50 years. He said the old equipment would be replaced with new ef ficient digital exchange equipment.
Under the contract, Mitsui, a Japanese company, will install 40,000 teleph one lines, 34,000 of them distributed between the capital Lilongwe and Dedz a, Salima Dwangwa and Nkhota-kota in the centre with the remaining 6,000 ea rmarked for installation in Machinga and Zomba in south Malawi. 0A
The contract is being funded jointly by the African Development Bank and Ma lawi Posts and Telecoms. ADB is pumping in US2434 million while MPTC's con tribution is US2410 million. Mijiga said part of the funding will be used for installing radio transmission equipment and optical fibre links for ef ficient radio services between Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba.
22MPTC is planning to install an additional 10,000 telephone lines soon to Thyolo, Mulanje Chikwawa and Nsanje in south Malawi in a move to help boos t the tea, sugar cane and cotton industries,22 he said.
Installation work is expected to start in September this year.
8. WANDERERS WHITEWASHED IN LESOTHO
Telecom Wanderers were on February 16 massacred 5-1 by Lesotho's Roma Rover s in the second leg of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champion s Cup in Maseru.
Bata Bullets, however, playing against Kiyovu of Rwanda in Kigali sailed th rough to the next round of the CAF's Winners' Cup after losing 2-1. Bata's win is based on the strength of an away goal.
Both Bata and Wanderers won 1-0 each against their rivals two weeks ago in Blantyre.
22They have beaten us clean,22 was a better summary of the game from MBC commentator Steve Liwewe Banda about the game between Wanderers and Roma.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (?iso-8859-1?Q?Africa5Fnews_Network?) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 10:38:00 +0100 Subject: MALAWI NEWS ONLINE #24 Message-ID: <1262325599.51384122@inform-bbs.dk>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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