Opposition leaders in Malawi Sunday accused the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika of breaking international trade rules by paying for maize it is exporting to Zimbabwe. But government has since described the allegations as "baseless and lacking on facts".
"(The) Government has take US$300 million from the Reserve Bank of Malawi to pay the National Food Reserve Authority for the maize it is exporting to Zimbabwe," said opposition Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) president Kamlepo Kalua while addressing a public rally alongside former president Bakili Muluzi.
Muluzi, who picked Mutharika as his successor following the end of his official two five-year terms in 2004, is going around the country addressing political allies and drumming up support for his bid for a return to office during the scheduled 2009 presidential election.
Kalua said President Mutharika had "bull-dozed" the central bank into making the "suspicious" transaction. He claimed the president flouted Malawi's fiscal regulations by forcing the central bank to make the payment because Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is "his friend" and that Malawi's First Lady, Ethel Mutharika, is a Zimbabwean. The Mutharikas also run a farm in Zimbabwe.
But the Mutharika administration has dismissed the allegations as "a fabrication and untrue". Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Bintony Kutsaira told PANA Sunday no money was taken from the Reserve Bank of Malawi for the transaction.
"The deal was a normal international trade deal signed between Malawi and Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Central Bank will pay Malawi some US$120 million for the maize," he said.
Kutsaira said in fact the Zimbabwe Central Bank has already made an initial US$6 million payment for "logistics". "As you know, Malawi recorded a surplus in maize (yields) this year and some of the maize has to be sold out to some countries in the region that recorded deficits, such as Zimbabwe," he said. "If we do not sell our maize surplus it will be destroyed and prices on the market will be depressed."
Malawi is currently discussing with the governments of the kingdom of Swaziland and Lesotho- which also had food deficits- for further maize exports, he added. Malawi needs about 2 million metric tonnes of the staple food, maize, to feed its population of 12 million people. But, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the southern African country recorded a surplus of about 1 million metric tonnes.
Kutsaira said Malawi expects to export some 400,000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe where at least a quarter of the population, according to the World Food Programme, is "leaning towards a serious food shortage".
Some 30,000 metric tonnes of maize has already been sent to Zimbabwe, according to the deputy minister.
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Permaculture Network in Malawi
Founded in 1994, the PNM is a network of people who encourage the promotion of Permaculture-related activities throughout Malawi and internationally. It is currently an unregistered network but we are exploring what is needed to register as an organization in Malawi and to evaluate if we have the capacity to do this. As a network, we have been working hard to get the word out about the potential that Permaculture has to help solve many of Malawi’s (and the world’s) current problems such as chronic food shortages, malnutrition, dependency on expensive agricultural inputs, and environmental degradation.
One of the tools that we use to help us spread these messages is a quarterly newsletter, which allows Network Members and others to share ideas, learn about Permaculture principles, inform others about lessons learned, and highlight current activities and trainings. The network has about 100 members in Malawi with an additional electronic readership exceeding 1,000 people.
In the past few years we have been receiving donations from around the world. These funds help us to continue the publication of the newsletter, conduct trainings, and support Network member’s projects. We ask a small membership fee from those who join to help offset some of our costs. Unfortunately, many in Malawi even find this small amount to be more than they can afford, so donations also help us to offer sponsored memberships of individuals or community groups with an interest in Permaculture.
If you would like more information on Permaculture activities in Malawi please visit the network’s newsletter editors (Stacia and Kristof Nordin’s) website at www.NeverEndingFood.org
One of the tools that we use to help us spread these messages is a quarterly newsletter, which allows Network Members and others to share ideas, learn about Permaculture principles, inform others about lessons learned, and highlight current activities and trainings. The network has about 100 members in Malawi with an additional electronic readership exceeding 1,000 people.
In the past few years we have been receiving donations from around the world. These funds help us to continue the publication of the newsletter, conduct trainings, and support Network member’s projects. We ask a small membership fee from those who join to help offset some of our costs. Unfortunately, many in Malawi even find this small amount to be more than they can afford, so donations also help us to offer sponsored memberships of individuals or community groups with an interest in Permaculture.
If you would like more information on Permaculture activities in Malawi please visit the network’s newsletter editors (Stacia and Kristof Nordin’s) website at www.NeverEndingFood.org
Letter from Africa: Africa looks back on its pioneering leaders
KASUNGU, Malawi: A surprising exercise in revisionism is taking place in this quiet country, a southern African democracy tucked away in an obscure corner of Africa’s Rift Valley that is not generally known for surprises or, for that matter, news.
Rival political parties here are competing over ways to honor the country’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a man whose stern and prolonged rule would have to place him near the top of any list of Africa’s most absolutist leaders.
To know the full, official name of this man, who died in 1997, after 31 years of rule is to get the picture. Newspapers were obliged to call him His Excellency The Life President (Paramount Chief) Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the Ngwazi. The unfamiliar last word means conqueror in Chichewa, the national language. For good measure, Banda, who was indeed a medical doctor, also carried the titles of minister of foreign affairs, defense, justice and agriculture.
Despite Banda’s many excesses, including calling political opponents “food for crocodiles,” the Malawian Parliament recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of honoring him. This follows the construction, a few years ago, of an expensive mausoleum in the capital, Lilongwe.
These days, in a country that has managed to democratically elect two presidents in Banda’s wake, the country’s politicians are locked in a contest to claim his mantle, which the current president, Bingu wa Mutharika, summed up simply in a recent speech, saying that Banda had devised a “development agenda for the country.”
Rival political parties here are competing over ways to honor the country’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a man whose stern and prolonged rule would have to place him near the top of any list of Africa’s most absolutist leaders.
To know the full, official name of this man, who died in 1997, after 31 years of rule is to get the picture. Newspapers were obliged to call him His Excellency The Life President (Paramount Chief) Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the Ngwazi. The unfamiliar last word means conqueror in Chichewa, the national language. For good measure, Banda, who was indeed a medical doctor, also carried the titles of minister of foreign affairs, defense, justice and agriculture.
Despite Banda’s many excesses, including calling political opponents “food for crocodiles,” the Malawian Parliament recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of honoring him. This follows the construction, a few years ago, of an expensive mausoleum in the capital, Lilongwe.
These days, in a country that has managed to democratically elect two presidents in Banda’s wake, the country’s politicians are locked in a contest to claim his mantle, which the current president, Bingu wa Mutharika, summed up simply in a recent speech, saying that Banda had devised a “development agenda for the country.”
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