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MALAWI NEWS ONLINE / MALAWI NEWS ONLINE / MALAWI NEWS ONLINE
This is an EDITED VERSION of Malawi News Online
of 3 June 1996
Malawi News Online
a fortnightly update of news from
Malawi Subscribe to our newsletter and keep up-to-date
on Malawi!
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists
from their point of view. It is assembled and edited
in Copenhagen, 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. They will be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual news updates covering other Southern African countries.
Malawi News Online is sent out via a cooperation between
South Africa Contact and Inform-bbs, the leading alternative
information network in Denmark.
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Three of the articles which appeared in this week's
newsletter:
1 AFORD PULLS OUT OF COALITION
The Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) on 2 June pulled out of the 18-month old coalition government with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and relieved its secretary general, Dr Mapopa Chipeta, of his position.
The party's national convention held on 2 June in Lilongwe also asked all cabinet ministers to resign their positions with immediate effect or face expulsion from the AFORD central executive committee.
2 PRIVATISATION BILL
A privatisation bill has cleared the way for government is to start getting rid of loss-making state-owned enterprises and so improve its precarious finances.
Vice-President, Justin Malewezi said in introducing the bill that apart from fostering competition and efficiency, the programme will promote wider participation by Malawians in the economy, adding that privatisation will help eliminate huge government deficits and allow employees to take part in management, by becoming shareholders.
The bill follows two years of preparatory work under a World Bank Second Institutional Development Project, which helped the government frame its new policy.
3 WITHOLDING TAX ON TREASURY BILLS DESCRIBED AS "STRANGULATION"
The private sector has described the recent introduction of withholding tax on treasury bills as "a strangulation of the capital market before it is born". Government announced a 15% withholding tax on T bill interest during the last budget, effective on all outstanding treasury bills.
Stockbrokers Malawi Limited - currently focusing on treasury bills secondary market trading in the absence of any corporate listings on the Malawi Stock Exchange - says the negative effect of the new tax is that it comes at a time of increased confidence in the MSE. The Chief Executive of SML, Rob Stangroom, says the tax will add an insignificant amount to the government's coffers because the main players in the field, financial institutions, are exempt. He also said government unilaterally announced the tax without any consultation, leaving many areas unclarified.
"The clear lack of consultation or aforethought
before implication of the tax is unfortunate. Secondary
market trading, up to now growing steadfastly, is expected
to be subdued until the market figures out how this
affects them," says Stangroom.
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This is what appeared in this week's newsletter:
Feature: WHY PEOPLE WITH AIDS DO NOT COME OUT
Articles:
1 PRIVATISATION BILL
2 WITHOLDING TAX ON TREASURY BILLS DESCRIBED AS "STRANGULATION"
3 NEW CHALLENGES FOR NGOs
4 MALAWI PULLS OUT OF JOINT TV VENTURE
5 OMBUDSMAN UNHAPPY WITH RESTRICTIVE ACT
6 MALAWI AND KENYA TO JOIN MULTINATIONAL AFRICAN AIRLINE
7 KAWONGA RESIGNS
8 MURDER CHARGE FOR FORMER MALAWI YOUNG PIONEERS
9 CABINET SAYS UNIVERSITY ENTRY EXAMS TO BE SCRAPPED
10 EU ALLOCATES US$235 MILLION TO MALAWI
11 MDC SHEDS ITS SHARES IN PORTLAND CEMENT
12 DEATH PENALTY TO BE RETAINED IN MALAWI
13
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For more Info.
From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Subject: News From Malawi - 3 June 1996 Date: 05 Jun 1996 09:58:08 GMT Message-Id: <1951526909.1514359@inform-bbs.dk>