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MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE
A fortnightly update of news from Malawi
Edition # 28 23 April 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 Denmark by South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement, publishers of i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine on Southern Africa.
The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided by our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE and TANZANIA NEWS ONLINE are our latest newsletters and they will be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual news updates covering other Southern African 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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Feature:
ILLITERACY BACK-PEDALS THE DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN
Stories in this weekís edition:
1. CABINET RESHUFFLE IMMINENT
2. STRIKING CIVIL SERVANTS PELT UDF SECRETARY GENERAL
3. MP WITHDRAWS MOTION AGAINST HEALTH MINISTER
4. CUSTOMS UNION THREATENS TO JOIN STRIKE
5. HOSPITALS STICK TO STRIKE THREAT
6. AIRLINE PASSENGERS STRANDED BY STRIKE
7. STRIKE MAY FORCE GOVERNMENT MASS RETRENCHMENT
8. COMESA SECRETARY GENERAL DISMISSED
9. YOUNG BOY FIRST CASUALTY OF HOSPITAL STRIKE
10. RECEPTION FOR MULUZI BRINGS DEATH TO TWO IN TRAFFIC
ACCIDENT
ILLITERACY BACK-PEDALS THE DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN
The high rate of illiteracy in Malawi has played a substantial role in women's inability to advance, some experts say. Only 29% of women, who make up 52% of the country's population, know how to read and write. "This poses a big problem in terms of advancement," says Maureen Kachingwe, a Blantyre-based lawyer and gender activist. "The less educated you are, the less exposure you have." she says. ìMost illiterate women are dependent on men. If women have to be dependent on men, even their participation in society is dependent on others.î
Apart from education, other solutions to the plight of women are civic education to expose women and enlighten them as to what their capabilities could be. Among other things, she said, civic education should be aimed at changing the attitude of those who interact with women to be able to give them a chance. She also suggests that there should be positive discrimination, whereby the constitution would allow government to be able to institute programmes biased towards women. She said that although this is on the statute books, there has not been any deliberate action to speed up the process.
Dr Naomi Ngwira of Vision 2020 says there has been a move from women in development to a gender and development approach. In the women in development approach, there was a tendency to look at women as a problem category, with women having to be targeted and helped. She said the gender approach does not just look at women in a problematic way but at both men and women together. She said the feminist approach has sometimes gone against what women want to achieve. "We have to be sober as women and examine our options clearly."
Ngwira said when you involve women in the development process, you promote economic growth, adding that if you put more resources in women you reduce poverty in society. Women, she says, face many constraints to their effective participation in society. One of the constraints is labeling and stigmatisation. "If a woman comes to a position of power, she is a prostitute or trivialised," she says. She said if women are in positions of power, it is assumed they reached this through selling their bodies.
This results in very capable women shying away from such positions because they want to protect their honour and prevent being labeled as prostitutes. Dr Ngwira said there is need for leadership nurseries for women. There is need to "nurse" girls and encourage those with disabilities to become leaders.
"We should encourage women to lead male/female groups in their societies and schools," she said. She pushed for leadership seminars at district and local levels where such issues could be discussed. "We must equip women through education," she said.
1. CABINET RESHUFFLE IMMINENT
President Bakili is expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle to trim his bloated cabinet from 36 to 19. The reshuffle follows recommendations from three firms engaged by government to conduct a survey on the possibility of combining some ministries in a move aimed at trimming down the number and avoiding duplication of services.
The consultants are said to have recommended a number of ministries for the chopping board along with their incumbent ministers. It appears, however, that no one in the know so far feels comfortable enough to admit that cabinet portfolios are about to be trimmed and some ministers sent packing.
Among those whose responsibilities are seen to duplicate those of others are Youth, Sports and Culture, Irrigation and Water Development and Physical Planning and Surveys.
Deputy Secretary to the President and Cabinet Kamphambe Nkhoma said the essence of the British-funded exercise was in line with the on-going civil service reform programme.
2. STRIKING CIVIL SERVANTS PELT UDF SECRETARY GENERAL
Civil servants. who have been striking since April 7 demanding higher salaries as recommended by the Chatsika Report, on April 8 pelted UDF Secretary General Sam Mpasu with stones in the old capital, Zomba. They also smashed a cabinet minister's vehicle. Mpasu was hit on his jaw while driving his own car to the Parliament Building. The strikers also smashed the rear window of a vehicle belonging to Education Minister, Donton Mkandawire. He escaped unhurt.
On the second day of the strike, on April 8, police charged the chairman of the Zomba district civil servants Committee, Anicent Mtonga with malicious damage. In Blantyre, on the same day, police fired tear gas in the air to disperse civil servants who were allegedly blocking traffic in the city. There were no injuries.
Civil servants want the government to increase their pay by 100%, backdated from January this year. However, government says it can only give an average pay rise of between 10% for the highest paid to 47% for the lowest paid civil servants.
3. MP WITHDRAWS MOTION AGAINST HEALTH MINISTER
Member of parliament for Rumphi Central, Mayinga Mkandawire, who had moved a motion calling for the resignation of former Health Minister, Sam Mpasu for his involvement in the Fieldyork exercise book scandal, has withdrawn the motion.
Mkandawire, who had called on parliament to "take appropriate action" against Mpasu, is one of the six cabinet ministers appointed from the opposition Alliance for Democracy into the UDF government. His withdrawal of the motion is apparently as a result of his appointment to the cabinet.
Mpasu concluded an international contract to procure exercise books for use in free primary education with high contract prices, no contract documents signed, no terms of contract and with no government network or other official involved, including the Central Tender Board. When the scam was uncovered, President Bakili Muluzi dismissed Mpasu from the cabinet.
4. CUSTOMS UNION THREATENS TO JOIN STRIKE The Customs Workers Union has given government a 14-day ultimatum to implement the Chatsika Report, with its recommendations on salaries for civil servants. If not implemented, they say, its members will join the on-going strike.
Civil servants went on strike on April 7 after government rescinded its decision to implement the Chatsika Report that recommends a 300% salary rise and an improvement in working conditions. The strike has paralysed government operations, including the health sector, where only a skeleton staff is dealing with emergency cases.
The Customs Department is the government's biggest revenue collector contributing more than 50% of the government's budget.
5. HOSPITALS STICK TO STRIKE THREAT
Government hospitals have almost closed down as part of the measures of striking civil servants to force the authorities to see things their way. The threat had been issued by the Civil Servants Trade Union CSTU president in the southern region, Thomas Mwafongo, when he addressed hospital personnel in Blantyre on April 15. Mwafongo lashed out at government for continuing to accept people into the civil service, a move that he said was swelling the government's wage bill.
Since the strike started two weeks ago, hospitals have maintained skeleton staff to deal with emergencies. The Union ordered all personnel in hospitals in Malawi to stop working from April 19. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the countryís largest, reports that it has almost come to a complete standstill.
6. AIRLINE PASSENGERS STRANDED BY STRIKE
The country's two international airports of Chileka and Lilongwe closed on April 14 as civil aviation staff joined their striking colleagues forcing international aircraft to land without ground assistance.
International flights had to be diverted as firefighters and air traffic controllers joined their civil service colleagues on strike.
Malawiís national airline has said that it will ask the airforce for assistance in manning the airports.
7. STRIKE MAY FORCE GOVERNMENT MASS RETRENCHMENT
The government has warned that it may have to reduce its staff of almost 120, 000 by 50% to raise funds to pay increased salaries for civil servants.
Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on the Economy, Cassim Chilumpha, said the government will have to raise K1 billion (US$ 660 million) to fully implement the recommendation of the Chatsika Report for full new salaries. He said, however, that pumping this money into the economy will trigger high inflation, rendering useless the whole Chatsika salaries decision as most goods will then be too expensive.
Chilumpha, who is also Minister of Justice and Attorney General, warned that the already overburdened taxpayer and industry will have to shoulder the burden of paying for the borrowed money and the accrued interest. He added that this would also be bound to discourage investments and savings.
He said another alternative could be "mass retrenchment" of the 120,000 civil servants. He noted that the Chatsika Report suggests that the civil service be ìtrimmed to the right sizeî. He said, however, that government's position is that it is better to share the little there is and retain most of its work force.
8. COMESA SECRETARY GENERAL DISMISSED
Comesa Secretary, General Bingu Wa Mutharika, has finally been dismissed for what Commerce and Industry Minister Chakakala Chaziya on April 15 described as ''flagrant abuse'' of Comesa regulations. Chaziya said he could not divulge detailed charges against Mutharika, a Malawian national.
''They (the charges) were very serious. It's all sorts of things hinging on mismanagement of the organisation and misuse of Comesa,'' he said. Chaziya said the investigation panel, comprising Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Zaire, and Zimbabwe, also felt Mutharika lacked the vision to take Comesa into the next century. Mutharika was suspended three months ago pending investigations. He has denied charges of mismanaging and abusing the 20-member grouping.
A Comesa summit held in Zambia on April 10 adopted recommendations of the Council of Ministers to fire Mutharika. It is largely believed that Mutharika came under scrutiny for his alleged involvement in politics in Malawi.
Chaziya said, however, the charge of political meddling in the affairs of a member country did not appear in the report adopted by the Comesa Heads of State. ''The Malawi government position was that Malawi is a democratic country where every citizen is free to aspire to any position in the land,'' he said.
9. YOUNG BOY FIRST CASUALTY OF HOSPITAL STRIKE
A plea by a motorist who had brought a boy seriously injured in a car accident to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, was allegedly ignored by striking staff on April 15.
The motorist whose car had hit the child went running to where CSTU leaders were addressing hospital staff on the on-going strike at the hospital, and pleaded with them to help the child. ''Please help me ... the child is dying,'' he is reported to have said. Afterwards, he said that he had received the shock of his life when he was heckled by the hospital staff and told to go to another hospital some six kilometres away.
The boy was pronounced dead on arrival at the second hospital.
10. RECEPTION FOR MULUZI BRINGS DEATH TO TWO IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT
On April 12, two UDF supporters, returning home from welcoming President Muluzi back to Malawi from his trip to Zambia and Angola, were killed instantly when the truck in which they were travelling collided with another vehicle in Blantyre.
Several other passengers in the vehicle were injured, three of them seriously. The three were admitted to the Central Hospital in Blantyre with arm, leg and rib fractures and concussion.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 11:27:53 +0200 Subject: Malawi News Online #28 Message-ID: <1262325591.54936361@inform-bbs.dk>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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