Bill Clinton, the former US president, will today launch a multi-million dollar hospital project in Malawi, where health care is hindered by poor facilities and a brain drain. He will also visit Zambia this weekend to boost a UN-backed HIV/Aids drugs programme which is helping to treat more than 13 000 children.
Yesterday, Clinton launched the Centre of Memory exhibition in Johannesburg, to honour Nelson Mandela, the former president and the late Albert Luthuli. Clinton says the centre should carry on the legacy of the two Nobel Peace laureates for the sake of humanity. The exhibition, entitled Making Peace commemorates Mandela and Luthuli. It explores the relationship between the two former ANC presidents through pictures and text.
Meanwhile Arthur Chaskalson, the retired head of the Constitutional Court, has received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. Chaskalson received the award for his commitment to promoting human rights and for advancing access to justice.
Friday, 20 July 2007
Malawi's ex president denies govt mismanagement
Bakili Muluzi, Malawi's former president, has rubbished reports indicating that he was the architect of the current political crisis rocking the 2007/08 national budget.
This comes after Bingu wa Mutharika, the incumbent president, said that the former president was behind the disruption of the current budget session.
Mutharika spoke in his address to the nation soon after the national assembly was indefinitely suspended by the speaker Luis Chimango.
This comes after Bingu wa Mutharika, the incumbent president, said that the former president was behind the disruption of the current budget session.
Mutharika spoke in his address to the nation soon after the national assembly was indefinitely suspended by the speaker Luis Chimango.
Muluzi dismisses impeachment charges
Malawi former President Dr Bakili Muluzi has said his opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) has no plans on their agenda to oust President Bingu wa Mutharika through an impeachment if Speaker expels lawmakers deemed to have contravened a constitutional provision in Section 65 which forbids ditching sponsoring parties in the National Assembly.
Muluzi was speaking today (Thursday) at Chileka Airport in the commercial city of Blantyre on arrival from United Kingdom where he was on vacation.
“The issue of section 65 is a constitutional matter there is nothing to debate about,” said Muluzi to a cheering crowd.
The UDF National Chairman said it was mere propaganda from government that if Speaker implements section 65 and expels defecting legislators mostly from the minority government, then the opposition would move in to oust Mutharika with an impeachment bid.
“UDF has no any intention whatsoever to impeach President Mutharika, our focus is on 2009 general elections when we will oust him through democratic means of a ballot,” Muluzi enthused.
He blamed the government for political mechanisation of using traditional leaders, pastors and public media to castigate the opposition on section 65 and creating an impression that the budget is at risk.
Muluzi told supporters clad in their yellow party colours that President Mutharika should use his position as a leader to spearhead a process of pacifying the political instability through dialogue with the opposition.
“Bingu (Mutharika) should show that he is a leader and should not be intimidated by threats of impeachment. This is the same way it used to be when I was President. I was told that my government would not last for six months.”
“The onus is on Mutharika to sort out the crisis by dialogue and mediation,” advised Muluzi.
Meanwhile, the former President after arrival went straight to Ntonda, the residence of former minister of economic planning, David Faiti who died earlier in the week. Muluzi in sombre mood joined mourners and offered condolences to the bereaved. He is set to attend burial ceremony tomorrow (Friday).
Muluzi was speaking today (Thursday) at Chileka Airport in the commercial city of Blantyre on arrival from United Kingdom where he was on vacation.
“The issue of section 65 is a constitutional matter there is nothing to debate about,” said Muluzi to a cheering crowd.
The UDF National Chairman said it was mere propaganda from government that if Speaker implements section 65 and expels defecting legislators mostly from the minority government, then the opposition would move in to oust Mutharika with an impeachment bid.
“UDF has no any intention whatsoever to impeach President Mutharika, our focus is on 2009 general elections when we will oust him through democratic means of a ballot,” Muluzi enthused.
He blamed the government for political mechanisation of using traditional leaders, pastors and public media to castigate the opposition on section 65 and creating an impression that the budget is at risk.
Muluzi told supporters clad in their yellow party colours that President Mutharika should use his position as a leader to spearhead a process of pacifying the political instability through dialogue with the opposition.
“Bingu (Mutharika) should show that he is a leader and should not be intimidated by threats of impeachment. This is the same way it used to be when I was President. I was told that my government would not last for six months.”
“The onus is on Mutharika to sort out the crisis by dialogue and mediation,” advised Muluzi.
Meanwhile, the former President after arrival went straight to Ntonda, the residence of former minister of economic planning, David Faiti who died earlier in the week. Muluzi in sombre mood joined mourners and offered condolences to the bereaved. He is set to attend burial ceremony tomorrow (Friday).
Madge 'dreads' marriage grilling
MADONNA and GUY RITCHIE’s private life is going under the microscope as officials test them to see if they are fit parents.
The couple — desperate to formally adopt Malawian tot David Banda — will open their home to the African country’s top child welfare inspector.
The superstars are “dreading” the official grilling, due to take place at their £5.7million pad in London’s Marble Arch in two weeks.
“Very sensitive” questions about alcohol, infertility, divorce and infidelity will be fired at them for up to five days.
Penston Kilembe — director of Malawi’s Ministry of Child Welfare — will also observe them together for up to five hours a day.
Madonna, 48, and Guy, 38, have been dogged by rumours of a rocky relationship and if rifts are spotted, they will be banned from adopting two-year-old David. They will be judged on how loving they are towards each other and to their other kids, daughter Lourdes, ten, and son Rocco, seven.
A source said: “This home study is a big deal — and Madonna and Guy have been absolutely dreading it. Malawi is a conservative country that disapproves of drugs, alcohol, divorce and cheating.
“These assessments are very gruelling and many couples don’t pass.”
The “home-study” is the final legal hurdle in adopting David, who has been living in England with Madonna since she plucked him from a Malawian orphanage last October.
Madonna’s bid to adopt the tot sparked huge controversy last year and some 50 civil rights groups filed petitions trying to block it.
The pop superstar was criticised after it emerged David was not an orphan and his dad, Yohane, gave him up after his mum died when he was just a week old.
Madonna hopes to adopt ANOTHER African baby called Grace.
The couple — desperate to formally adopt Malawian tot David Banda — will open their home to the African country’s top child welfare inspector.
The superstars are “dreading” the official grilling, due to take place at their £5.7million pad in London’s Marble Arch in two weeks.
“Very sensitive” questions about alcohol, infertility, divorce and infidelity will be fired at them for up to five days.
Penston Kilembe — director of Malawi’s Ministry of Child Welfare — will also observe them together for up to five hours a day.
Madonna, 48, and Guy, 38, have been dogged by rumours of a rocky relationship and if rifts are spotted, they will be banned from adopting two-year-old David. They will be judged on how loving they are towards each other and to their other kids, daughter Lourdes, ten, and son Rocco, seven.
A source said: “This home study is a big deal — and Madonna and Guy have been absolutely dreading it. Malawi is a conservative country that disapproves of drugs, alcohol, divorce and cheating.
“These assessments are very gruelling and many couples don’t pass.”
The “home-study” is the final legal hurdle in adopting David, who has been living in England with Madonna since she plucked him from a Malawian orphanage last October.
Madonna’s bid to adopt the tot sparked huge controversy last year and some 50 civil rights groups filed petitions trying to block it.
The pop superstar was criticised after it emerged David was not an orphan and his dad, Yohane, gave him up after his mum died when he was just a week old.
Madonna hopes to adopt ANOTHER African baby called Grace.
Paladin boost from the IAEA on Malawi uranium project
Paladin Resources' progress towards mining uranium in Malawi by the end of next year appears to have received a boost from positive findings by an IAEA team
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sanctioned uranium mining in Malawi after the grouping was impressed by procedures the country took to license Paladin Resources Inc. (TSX, ASX:PDN) which wants to mine uranium at its Kayelekera Uranium mine in the northern region district of Karonga.
IAEA Head of the Africa Section Mulugeta Amha, accompanied by a consultant in International Nuclear Law, Odetta Jankowitsch-Prevor, visited Malawi a fortnight ago and visited Paladin's Kayelekera Uranium project and was impressed with measures the company has put in place to safeguard lives of people surrounding the mine and hinted that the measures were in conformity with international standards.
Malawi's minister of Energy and Mining Henry Chimunthu Banda confirmed with the local press the visit by the IAEA officials.
"Well they were here, yes, but details of their mission were not supposed to be public," Banda told The Daily Times. "I was informed that they commended us for the procedures we followed before we licensed Paladin Africa and the measures that had been put in place to protect communities from effects of uranium."
This is a timely token to Paladin Resources whose mining endeavors at Kayelekera have met stiff resistance from the country's non-governmental organizations who have dragged the company as well as the Malawi government to court. The NGOs are against Paladin progressing with the project unless it re-visits its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which the NGOs allege has shortfalls and does not explicitly say how it would protect the people around the mine from radioactive materials emanating from uranium mining.
The standoff between the NGOs and Paladin forced the company to send its Chairman Rick Crabb and its Australian legal counsel Michael Blakiston into the country to discuss and reach a consensus with the NGOs.
"I have traveled to Malawi with our Australian legal counsel, Michael Blakiston, to meet you and representatives of the other civil society organizations, to complete the open and good faith discussions that have been underway for the past two weeks, to amicably resolve our differences," reads part of a letter Crabb e-mailed Undule Mwakasungura, director of Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, one of the organizations opposed to uranium mining.
However, the NGOs did not grant Crabb and the company's legal counsel an audience arguing they were incensed with the company's lack of seriousness in the matter. The NGOs say Paladin's Managing Director John Borshoff was adversarial when he said development work would continue at Kayelekera without addressing the concerns raised by the NGOs. The statement was made when the two were exploring ways of sorting their differences outside court.
But Crabb said in the e-mail the statement by Borshoff was made before the parties started their dialogue.
"The statement to the effect that the project would proceed was merely reflecting the sentiment also expressed by the civil society that they did not wish to completely stop the project," said Crabb. "Since the honourable members instigated discussions between Paladin and the civil society, Paladin has not made any comment to the press."
He conceded that circumstance surrounding uranium mining at Kayelekera were damaging to Paladin. The miner wants to start operations in the third quarter of 2008.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sanctioned uranium mining in Malawi after the grouping was impressed by procedures the country took to license Paladin Resources Inc. (TSX, ASX:PDN) which wants to mine uranium at its Kayelekera Uranium mine in the northern region district of Karonga.
IAEA Head of the Africa Section Mulugeta Amha, accompanied by a consultant in International Nuclear Law, Odetta Jankowitsch-Prevor, visited Malawi a fortnight ago and visited Paladin's Kayelekera Uranium project and was impressed with measures the company has put in place to safeguard lives of people surrounding the mine and hinted that the measures were in conformity with international standards.
Malawi's minister of Energy and Mining Henry Chimunthu Banda confirmed with the local press the visit by the IAEA officials.
"Well they were here, yes, but details of their mission were not supposed to be public," Banda told The Daily Times. "I was informed that they commended us for the procedures we followed before we licensed Paladin Africa and the measures that had been put in place to protect communities from effects of uranium."
This is a timely token to Paladin Resources whose mining endeavors at Kayelekera have met stiff resistance from the country's non-governmental organizations who have dragged the company as well as the Malawi government to court. The NGOs are against Paladin progressing with the project unless it re-visits its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which the NGOs allege has shortfalls and does not explicitly say how it would protect the people around the mine from radioactive materials emanating from uranium mining.
The standoff between the NGOs and Paladin forced the company to send its Chairman Rick Crabb and its Australian legal counsel Michael Blakiston into the country to discuss and reach a consensus with the NGOs.
"I have traveled to Malawi with our Australian legal counsel, Michael Blakiston, to meet you and representatives of the other civil society organizations, to complete the open and good faith discussions that have been underway for the past two weeks, to amicably resolve our differences," reads part of a letter Crabb e-mailed Undule Mwakasungura, director of Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, one of the organizations opposed to uranium mining.
However, the NGOs did not grant Crabb and the company's legal counsel an audience arguing they were incensed with the company's lack of seriousness in the matter. The NGOs say Paladin's Managing Director John Borshoff was adversarial when he said development work would continue at Kayelekera without addressing the concerns raised by the NGOs. The statement was made when the two were exploring ways of sorting their differences outside court.
But Crabb said in the e-mail the statement by Borshoff was made before the parties started their dialogue.
"The statement to the effect that the project would proceed was merely reflecting the sentiment also expressed by the civil society that they did not wish to completely stop the project," said Crabb. "Since the honourable members instigated discussions between Paladin and the civil society, Paladin has not made any comment to the press."
He conceded that circumstance surrounding uranium mining at Kayelekera were damaging to Paladin. The miner wants to start operations in the third quarter of 2008.
Chiefs in Malawi condemn members of Parliament
Chiefs in Malawi have acacused Members of Parliament(MPs) for insisting for the Speaker of Parliament to invoke section 65 which allows him to declare some seats vacant.
Most government MPs have cross the floor to the government side.
The chiefs from all over the country recently went toParliament while it was in session to reason with the MPs to pass the 2007/2008 budget before invoking the sction to allow the government to buy inputs of farmers.
The opposition ,however, still insist that they will not bow down.
The opposition say the chiefs behave like that because government has increased their salaries .The salaries are in the budget.
Recently government increased salaries of chiefs by 500 percent.
Most government MPs have cross the floor to the government side.
The chiefs from all over the country recently went toParliament while it was in session to reason with the MPs to pass the 2007/2008 budget before invoking the sction to allow the government to buy inputs of farmers.
The opposition ,however, still insist that they will not bow down.
The opposition say the chiefs behave like that because government has increased their salaries .The salaries are in the budget.
Recently government increased salaries of chiefs by 500 percent.
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