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In this edition:
Feature: EXTINCTION THREATENS HIPPOS AND ELEPHANTS IN
MALAWI
Articles:
1 MALAWI, FIRST COUNTRY TO BE RID OF LEPROSY
2 MCP TRIAL POSTPONED TO OCTOBER
3 MAIZE PRICES GO DOWN
4 D.E.M.A.T. WORKERS PETITION TO PRESIDENT
5 AFORD'S MONTH OF NOTICE GIVES PROBLEMS TO UDF
6 NO DEBT FORGIVENESS FOR MALAWI
7 HOSPITAL EMERGENCY LOOMS DUE TO LACK OF MEDICAL
SUPPLIES
8 GOVERNMENT TO BUY ESTATE LAND
9 NIGERIAN ON 31 STOLEN PASSPORT CHARGE JUMPS BAIL
Feature: EXTINCTION THREATENS HIPPOS AND ELEPHANTS IN MALAWI
On 13 April this year, shortly after he finished duty, a 38 year-old night guard at the Malawi College of Forestry, Romeo Sadaraki, was killed by a stray elephant bull which he had pelted with stones.
An eye witness, Weluzani Mofati, later said Sadaraki had reacted to the shouts of the people who had tried to scare the elephant bull away. He walked up to within 20 metres of the elephant and started pelting it with stones. The enraged bull trumpeted three times, before charging. Sadaraki took to his heels, tripped and fell. The elephant struck Sadaraki with its tusks, trampling on him killing and him on the spot.
Sadaraki's violent death by an elephant is an isolated case in Malawi, a country which witnesses man's indiscriminate slaughter of game without the slightest regard for their value - economic or ecological.
In Malawi, like in many other countries in Africa, man is the biggest enemy of wildlife, having already rendered some game and fish species extinct and threatening the existence of many others. Rhinos, for example, are extinct in Malawi, except for the two juvenile ones that the government imported from South Africa in 1993. Many other types of wildlife in Malawi face the same fate as that of the rhinos if the present rate at which they are being massacred is left unchecked.
Parks and Wildlife Officer in south Malawi, Leonard Sefu, said in an interview that the most sought-after game in the country is the elephant. These animals are a target for game poachers because of their valuable tusk. The elephant population in all the country's national parks and game reserves is diminishing at an alarming rate.
Kasungu National Park in central Malawi was once home to 2,000 elephants. Today there are only 200 to 300 left - the rest have been killed off and their tusks smuggled out of the country, says Sefu. In the Majete Game Reserve, south Malawi, there was a population of 300 elephants a few years ago. But all of them have been wiped out. He said there are still a few elephants left in Vwaza game reserve in Mzimba, in northern Malawi but they are also under threat of being wiped out.
"The general picture is one of gloom for all types of wildlife in the country," he says. According to Sefu, poachers sneak into the game reserves and kill the elephants with AK47 attack rifles. Elephant tusks are then smuggled out of Malawi to Zambia and Mozambique. From there the ivory finds its way to Europe and Asia. As in many other countries, Malawi's elephants are protected and poachers, once caught, are prosecuted and sentenced. So far prison sentences have been anything from three years upwards but judging by the increasing rate at which poaching is taking place, it is clear the punishments are not severe enough to stop the offences.
Between January and February this year, Sefu says, over 40 hippos have been killed along the Shire River, near the outlet from Lake Malawi. The Shire is Lake Malawi's outlet and the country's biggest and longest river. It drains into the Zambezi.
With Malawi's population growing at a rate of 3.2 % yearly there has been an increased demand for land suitable for cultivation. As a result, people along the Shire River, just like in many other parts of the country, have opened up gardens in places previously not cultivated. Some of these places are long-time natural grazing lands for hippos and they naturally come and graze on the crops.
Sefu says villagers in the area are not happy and so they poison the hippos to protect their crops. The people of the villages believe they have been cheated by their local politicians. These politicians promised to pressure government to relocate the hippos to the nearby Liwonde National Park, once they were elected to parliament.
But wildlife officials contend that removing hippos from the area was an untenable thing since hippos, like other animals, have natural habitats where they must be protected. They say that people should report crop destruction to the authorities, not just kill the animals, and especially not by poisoning as this might be dangerous to other animals and fish, as well as people.
According to a 1990 count, there were 6,000 hippos in Malawi but Sefu however believes that with increased human activities the hippo population has been reduced considerably.
Hippos are one of Malawi's most popular tourist attractions.
They are part of Malawi's "big five" - lion,
elephant, buffalo, hippo and leopard - that people
want to see. The big five used to include the rhino,
not the hippo. But those days are gone in Malawi as
in many other parts of Africa.
1 MALAWI, FIRST COUNTRY TO BE RID OF LEPROSY
Malawi has become the first country in the world to wipe out leprosy and has achieved the feat five years ahead of schedule.
British Leprosy Relief Association(LEPRA), Director Terry Vasey, in announcing the news said Malawi could be happy and proud for beating all other countries in the world. In 1991 the World Health Organisation set the year 2000 for the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem. But Malawi, said Vasey, hit the target five years early.
In Malawi in 1966 there were close to 2000 registered patients. By last year, there were only 764 cases.
Currently LEPRA is supporting a research centre in Chilumba where the organisation is trying to establish if there is a link between leprosy and the human immuno deficiency syndrome. So far, said Vasey, no connection had been found between the two.
2 MCP TRIAL POSTPONED TO OCTOBER
Hearing of the marathon Mwanza murder trial appeal case has once again been postponed. The trial, involving former head of state Kamuzu Banda, his right hand man John Tembo, confidante Cecilia Kadzamira, former police chief McWilliam Lunguzi, and three other policemen, will now take place in October. The appeal case was supposed to be heard in May.
High Court Registrar,Edward Twea, explaining the delay, cited the huge amount of information to be sifted through by lawyers and judges, contained in 400-page volumes. This, he said, would be done in July and August. "We are behind schedule, by now (June) we expected that everything should have been over," said Twea.
3 MAIZE PRICES GO DOWN
Malawi's grain-milling and retailing company, GRAMIL has reduced prices for all maize products effective 10 June. A 20 kg bag of maize flour will now be sold at K98 ($6.5) from a previous price of K119 from ($8).
" I should congratulate Grain and Milling for reducing the prices" President Bakili Muluzi said on June 9 in Lilongwe. This is what we want" he said and asked other companies to emulate the milling company's example by also reducing their commodities.
Muluzi said the government will not hesitate to revoke licences of companies which overcharge without justification. In the rural areas, 50 kgs of maize now sells for K60 ($5).
4 D.E.M.A.T. WORKERS PETITION TO PRESIDENT
Workers for the Development of Malawian Entrepreneurs Trust( DEMAT), have petitioned President Bakili Muluzi to dismiss the organisation's board of trustees for suspending their general manager, Leonad Mangulama, and four other senior officials. They said DEMAT was now in danger of collapsing as activities have come to a standstill as a result of the suspension. Mangulama and the others were suspended on May 20 over alleged irregularities in the organisation. However, DEMAT Chairman, Linneas Msiska, said the suspensions were made to allow auditors to make financial investigations into the trust.
Demat is one of the major organisations participating in the disbursement of a K200 million ($16.78 million) fund from the Reserve Bank of Malawi to help small and medium scale businesses.
5 AFORD'S MONTH OF NOTICE GIVES PROBLEMS TO UDF
Addressing a rally in his home district of Machinga, President Bakili Muluzi indicated that it would be difficult for the UDF to work with AFORD, its coalition partner, as they serve a month long notice.''I wish to tell them to leave immediately, " he said, as though telling the country that AFORD's pull-out was "good riddance".
Muluzi said he had not enjoyed the working relationship with AFORD since the party started making threats to pull out, saying that it was at that time he lost confidence in the party. He said the party's pull-out would not in any way shake the government's proceedings. However, the UDF is now left with only 85 seats in the 177- seat chamber, far short of the two-thirds majority it needs to pass decisions.
6 NO DEBT FORGIVENESS FOR MALAWI
Malawi does not qualify for debt relief, the World Bank representative in Malawi, Mr Arif Zulfiqar said in a recent interview. Malawi wants the international creditors to scrap the country's Mk31.5 billion ($2.1 billion )debt. However, Zulfiqar said Malawi's debt is not serious enough to merit debt forgiveness.
Malawi is among the many African countries that appealed to multi-lateral donor nations at a recent summit in Washington for a 90% debt reduction. The Paris Club of Creditor Nations identified seven African countries: Burundi, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Zaire and Zambia as eligible for debt relief.
7 HOSPITAL EMERGENCY LOOMS DUE TO LACK OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Government has by-passed formal tendering procedures for the procurement of drugs and other medical supplies, as a last minute emergency stop-gap measure to prevent a looming crisis in the health care system.
A high powered four-man delegation left June 8 for Europe to arrange the air-freighting into Malawi of an emergency order of Mk8 million ($ 533,000) worth of medical supplies for the country's major hospitals of Lilongwe, Queen Elizabeth Central and Zomba General Hospital, where the situation is described as desperate.
A senior government official - who asked to remain anonymous - leading the group said in an interview that the measures have been taken to avert a crisis after the government learnt that the stock of medical supplies it had ordered from Europe, and which were expected in the country early or mid May, would not be arriving until end July. " As you know tendering is slow, but without authority the ministry cannot procure anything," the official said.He was accompanied to Europe by officials from the health, treasury and central tender board.
He complained that the public has so far been misled on the issue of drugs in the country. He said the health ministry had now been given authority to procure what is available locally and abroad outside normal tendering procedures, as an emergency.
8 GOVERNMENT TO BUY ESTATE LAND
Lands and Valuation Minister, Peter Fachi, announced June 11 the government is to buy 600 hectares of land from Mandala Properties, in Mulanje southern Malawi, and redistribute it to the landless in the district.
Fachi said the government would buy the land at MK18 million ($1.2 million ). Mandala Estates have a workforce of nearly two thousand. The workforce will be absorbed by the Malawi Tea Company.
9 NIGERIAN ON 31 STOLEN PASSPORT CHARGE JUMPS BAIL
A Nigerian, serving bail on charges of being found in possession of forged Malawian passports, has absconded. Sylvester Chikezi, and two other accomplices, were arrested in Mozambique with 31 stolen Malawi passports.
Chikezi jumped bail on June 7 when he did not report
to police in fulfilment of his bail terms.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Subject: Malawi News Online - 14 June 1996 Date: 16 Jun 1996 09:15:09 GMT Message-Id: <1262342109.1405885@inform-bbs.dk>