Category: Politics

By Duncan Mlanjira Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has asked President Lazarus Chakwera to publicly censure and distance himself from the retrogressive and highly insensitive remarks his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) vice-president for the North, Harry Mkandawire made over the weekend at a political rally held in Karonga. CDEDI says it is in receipt of and shocked of Mkandawire’s remarks captured in an audio which has now gone viral on social media, in which he is…

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By Duncan Mlanjira Mayi Roseby Dinala, who died on Tuesday, was one of longest serving members of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and since 1958 when she was one of the crowd that welcomed the country’s founding President, late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda at Chileka Airport she never wavered in her support for the party. She never took top party positions but was always there for moral support and never once was she associated with other political parties. While…

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  Analysis by Mphatso Moses Kaufulu Under former President, late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi was not just a single-party state — it was also a political system anchored in Presidential Supremacy. In general, a presidential system privileges the president in sanctioning and prosecuting the national agenda, and requires of parliaments and judiciaries to conduct their functions deferentially in support of that agenda. Under Kamuzu Banda, this was broadly the Malawian system. However, the 1994 Constitution established a system…

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By Duncan Mlanjira Leader of the Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa’s attack on President Lazarus Chakwera’s address to the nation on Saturday, in which he said the state leader deceived the nation that the DPP government misappropriated and mismanaged a total sum in excess of MK1 trillion has received heavy backlash by the public. Nankhumwa said from the address, he got the impression that Chakwera may not be well conversant with the financial operations of government. He said: “President Chakwera must…

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Maravi Express In his address to the nation on Saturday night, President Lazarus Chakwera said the thieving and corruption that is coming to light is far too devastating and widespread as trillions of kwachas were plundered without mercy and second thoughts. The President said the looters and plunderers should expect no mercy once discovered the law will take its course and deal with all corrupt elements decisively. The president added that his administration will scrutinize current laws on corruption…

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By Duncan Mlanjira London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, whose patron is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, has included three judges of the Constitutional Court of Malawi on the shortlist of nominees for the 2020 Chatham House Prize. A letter from Chatham House’s Director, Dr Robin Niblett CMG, the three are High Court of Malawi Judge President, Justice Healy Potani and Justices Ivy Kamanga, Redson Kapindu, Dingiswayo Madise and Michael Tembo. They have been considered for “the bravery in protecting the…

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Analysis by Mphatso Moses Kaufulu The terms ‘peace’ and ‘peace-loving’ have been repeatedly weaponized by the political and the donor classes in Malawi to sometimes sanitize grotesque human suffering. Politicians, who have robbed us of our very futures either by commissioning unnecessary deaths upon our families through public health denied, or by consigning us to a lack of formal education and therefore a life permanently trapped in poverty, have been quick to remind us of our “peace-loving nature” at…

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