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MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE
Edition
No: 14 25 August
1996
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Online
The fortnightly
update of news from
Malawi
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists in Malawi and 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, the quarterly magazine on Southern Africa.
The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided by our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. 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-bbs, the leading alternative information network in Denmark.
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In this edition:
Feature: POLIO SHOT HITS TARGET
Articles:
1 MPs WANT MORE RESPECT ON LOCAL RADIO
2 30 YEARS FOR STEALING K1 MILLION
3 ROAD TOLL IN THE PIPELINE
4 SECOND CHANNEL SWITCHED OFF
5 WORLD BANK READY TO HELP MALAWI
6 MULUZI ANGERS OPPOSITION MCP
7 K70 MILLION YOUTH FUND LAUNCHED
8 MALAWI CONDEMNS BURUNDI'S MILITARY REGIME
9 CONDOMS POSE BIG RISK
10 K225 MILLION FOR POPULATION PROGRAMMES
11 MULUZI BITES THE PRESS
FEATURE:
POLIO SHOT HITS TARGET
Some called it babies week, and others said it was a mothers week. Whatever the term, it was not an unusual sight on August 20 and 21 to see mothers with babies strapped to their backs as they flocked to the nearest hospitals, clinics and health centres.
They were responding to a Ministry of Health and Population programme for toddlers to be immunised against polio and receive Vitamin-A supplement. This was the second phase of the poliomyelitis eradication campaign in which all children under the age of five were required to receive the polio vaccine.
The first phase of the campaign, aimed at eradicating polio as a public health problem by the year 2000, was conducted on 16 and 17 June throughout the country. Nearly one million children under five were immunised against the disease, according to ministry officials. The campaign is targeted at three million children and the ministry is hopeful that this objective will be achieved by the end of the second phase.
A visit to Malawi's largest referral hospital, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, where though figures of those already immunised have not yet been disclosed , long queues of mothers with their babies, told a story of the success of the campaign so far. Organisers of the campaign said the second phase had received a better response from the public than the first one phase.
On average, officials said, only about 65% of the children received the vaccine and Vitamin A supplement during the first phase. A nurse at one of Blantyre's clinics said the campaign was marred by a number of misconceptions. Some of these alleged that the drug being used to immunise the children against polio was aimed at killing the children's fertility so that they should not be able to bear children when they reached adulthood. But the ministry clarified some of these misconceptions on radio and in newspapers which helped to create understanding and hence the increased numbers of mothers appearing during the second phase.
Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus in which the spinal cord becomes inflamed resulting in paralysis. In 1979, a survey was conducted in Malawi which results showed the prevalence of polio estimated at seven per every 1,000 children under five. There were 17,631 children affected by polio of the 2.7 million under fives. Following the findings, the Ministry of Health, together with the British Save the Children Fund, launched what was called the ''attack phase'' of the mass immunisation program against polio in form of a village to village campaign from April 1980 to July 1983.
During this exercise, 80% of the children from birth to two years were immunised and there was evidence that there was a reduction in 1983 compared to 1979. After the attack phase, the polio immunisation programme was extended into ''maintenance phase'' through a network of clinics for children under five. In 1988, the World Health Organisation Assembly set the year 2000 as the global target of polio eradication which was endorsed by the member states including Malawi.
Since then, Malawi has been providing polio immunisation to new born babies through its expanded programme on immunisation. Through this program, Malawi reached the universal child immunisation target of 80% a year, earlier than the targeted year of 1990.
The high levels of immunisation coverage have since been maintained and the just completed polio immunisation campaign, with four years to the year 2000 is one of the ''last touches'' towards the complete eradication of the disease which the ministry says is an achievable goal.
1 MPs WANT MORE RESPECT ON LOCAL RADIO
Members of parliament, in their quest for more honour from the general public, have directed the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation radio to refer to them as Honourable in its broadcasts.
''We started referring to them as honourable following a directive we received from the Clerk of Parliament,'' said Acting Director General of MBC, Sam Gunde.
Senior Assistant Clerk of Parliament, David Bandawe said the decision was made by the MPs themselves who resolved during their May sitting of parliament that they too should be addressed as honourable on MBC radio.
2 30 YEARS FOR STEALING K1 MILLION
The Blantyre High Court on August 22 sentenced a former Malawi Posts and Telecommunications employee to 30 years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing over K1 million (US$ 66,667).
Justice Chimasula Phiri found Dockland Chimberenga, 35, who was a supervisor at the MPTC, guilty of theft by a person employed in the public service contrary to section 278 as read with section 283 subsection 1 of the penal code. He also ordered that Chimberenga's property be seized and sold to make up for the lost money.
3 ROAD TOLL IN THE PIPELINE
Motorists in Malawi may soon start contributing to a road fund to ensure proper maintenance of public roads in the country. Feasibility studies for the road fund are currently being carried out by British and Spanish consultancy firms. The European Union is funding the K20 million (US$1.34 million) project which started on June 1.
Daud Kara, Road Maintenance Initiative Co-ordinator, said government intends to introduce road user charges like fuel levy, toll fees, vehicle licensing and examination fees, and traffic fines among others.
A private firm might be commissioned to manage the road maintenance. Toll gates and weigh bridges would be placed at the country's city boundaries and every truck passing through would pay a certain amount towards road maintenance.
4 SECOND CHANNEL SWITCHED OFF
Malawi's much-talked about second channel on the country's national radio, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation will not take off as anticipated because donors have withheld funding for the project.
A source from MBC, who asked for anonymity, said the German government, which had allocated K99 million (US$6.6 million) for the project had all of sudden decided not to release the money saying that they wanted to give the project more consideration.
The official said all the groundwork for Channel Two, which was scheduled to be operational by December this year, had already started.
The MBC source said the Germans had decided to carry out more research and consultations to find out whether the project was really a priority for the country. This research, said the source, was likely to take one or two years and its findings would determine if the project was worth funding.
The second channel was expected to relieve pressure from the much congested single channel radio.
5 WORLD BANK READY TO HELP MALAWI
The World Bank said on August 16 it was ready to assist Malawi develop alternative strategies for diversifying power supply.
Speaking at the commissioning of Tedzani Three hydro-electric power station, acting World Bank resident representative in Malawi, James Smith said this was an immediate area of concern where his bank may be able to help.
The power station, with a generation capacity of 50 megawatts, was financed by the International Development Association, the Preferential Trade Area, Austria and the Netherlands to the tune of K1.3 billion (US$86 million). The new power station will enable the country's power utility to expand its total generation capacity from 164 to 214 megawatts.
Smith said if necessary the bank would consider helping with an emergency pumping project to maintain flows out of Lake Malawi in the event that the Shire River runs dry. He said WB was currently working with the government to confirm the economic and environmental feasibility of the scheme.
6 MULUZI ANGERS OPPOSITION MCP
Opposition MCP Publicity Secretary, Hetherwick Ntaba said on August 22 his party was concerned about a statement made by State President Bakili Muluzi in which he suggested that he would bar MCP's life president Kamuzu Banda from running for president in the 1999 presidential elections.
Muluzi told a mass rally in Dedza central Malawi, on August 20 that he would not allow the former president to run for the state presidency saying Banda was too old and ailing to run the country. Muluzi was reacting to media reports which quoted some MCP officials as saying that Banda's MCP intends to reinstate its life president to state house.
Muluzi said he would not allow some MCP leaders to use Banda by ruling the country from his back. ''As far as my government is concerned, Dr Banda retired and he is receiving his retirement benefits and there is no way he can run for the presidency again in 1999,'' he said.
But Ntaba challenged Muluzi saying that the Malawi constitution does not bar anyone from standing for the presidency due to old age. ''We might be heading for the Zambian scenario where the ruling party has influenced the amendment of the constitution to bar the former president Kenneth Kaunda from standing as a presidential candidate.''
7 K70 MILLION YOUTH FUND LAUNCHED
President Bakili Muluzi on August 9 launched a K70 million (US$75 million) credit fund for the youth of Malawi to help start small scale businesses.
All unemployed young people aged between 15 and 30 are eligible to borrow from the Youth Development and Credit Scheme.
However, some government critics have said that they feel the scheme lacks proper accountability and warn that many who might be considered most deserving may not have access to the scheme.
8 MALAWI CONDEMNS BURUNDI'S MILITARY REGIME
Malawi has joined the international community and called on the military regime in Burundi to urgently embark on peaceful negotiations with all parties in the country's conflicts for reconciliation and a speedy return to civilian rule.
''Malawi is committed to democratic principles and therefore does not support any government that comes to power through undemocratic means,'' Malawi's Foreign Affairs minister George Ntafu said on August 8 at a dinner hosted in honour of the Organisation of African Unity Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim who was in the country for a four-day visit.
Ntafu said the Malawi government commended the efforts and initiatives undertaken by the OAU and leaders other African countries towards resolving the Burundi conflict. In his response, Salim said he was confident economic sanctions that other African countries had imposed on Burundi would work.
9 CONDOMS BIG RISK
Malawi's Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation are locked in a wrangle over the quality of condoms that the country receives as donations in the fight against the spread of HIV and STD infection.
The ministry says some of the donated condoms are sub-standard and therefore a risk to HIV or STD infection, but WHO insists there is no risk at all.
In the wake of this discovery by the ministry, the government is to set up a condom testing centre at a cost of US 1 million to test all condoms donated to the country to ensure that they are of high quality.
Chief Technical Services Controller in the health ministry, Professor Roma Khonje said some of the condoms being supplied to the country had proved to be sub-standard and were a risk to users who could get infected with HIV and other STDs.
"We have been receiving reports about some condoms being porous when tested with water or air, so we have found it necessary as health authorities to do something about this,'' said Khonje, who emphasised he had personally tested some condoms which proved to be porous. Khonje said a proposal for a condom testing centre has been met with resistance from donors who will have nothing to do with it.
WHO officials say the condoms could not be porous unless the storage conditions were poor.
10 K225 MILLION FOR POPULATION PROGRAMMES
The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has granted Malawi K225 million (US$15 million), to boost the country's programmes on population activities during the next five years, starting next year.
UNFPA resident representative in Malawi, Lalan Mubiala, said on August 11 on return from a population conference in New York where he presented the country's population programmes said that the grant represented a 40% increase over the previous funding.
The programme covers family planning, population education and sexually transmitted diseases. Malawi has one of the world's highest population growth rates at 3.2%.
11 MULUZI BITES THE PRESS
President Bakili Muluzi, who in the past two years has touted his unwavering stance on upholding freedom of the press, has in an unprecedented change of style, sued a local newspaper. This is the first time he has done so since he took over power in 1994.
Muluzi has sued the Tribute newspaper for defamation following an article the paper published alleging that Muluzi grabbed land worth over K500,000 (US$33,334) from his late Blantyre friend, a Mr Duncalo.
Counsel for Muluzi, Viva Nyimba of Legalwise, said he had been asked him to institute the lawsuit because the article contained a lot of malice, lies and insults.
The High Court in Blantyre has all ready issued an injunction on the publishers, Din Akwete Publications, editor Din Balakasi and printers, Uniprint Limited restraining the newspaper from publishing articles with innuendoes or defamatory words with reference to Muluzi.
The suit is a complete about-face by Muluzi who has always insisted that suing the fledgling press was a sure way of stifling the freedom of press the country was enjoying. Last year, he refused to put into law the publications bill passed by parliament, requiring all newspapers to indicate the names of the editor, publisher and printer, making him the darling of the press at that time.
However, with this lawsuit, the writing is on the wall that the media's honeymoon with the president is over.
First Lady, Anne also asked Legalwise to sue a Lilongwe based weekly The Statesman, restraining it from carrying a column, Dear Anne, which used to indirectly deride her and Mulzui without clearly making reference to them. The injunction was granted.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Subject: Malawi News Online - (14) Date: 04 Sep 1996 07:42:13 GMT Message-Id: <1262350302.8495977@inform-bbs.dk>