The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) said Thursday that an international friendly match it had slated for 22 August with either Mozambique or Kenya may be cancelled following delays by parliament to fund the association.
FAM President Walter Nyamilandu told journalists in Blantyre that in the absence of funding to the association, it would be difficult for the players to camp and start training.
He said the team was supposed to start their normal training by next week, but due to lack of funding to pay them the allowances, the team will not be able to meet,\" he said.
He added that the association was failing to confirm to the visiting teams because of the logistical problems brought about by the lack of funding.
Nyamilandu also doubted if Malawi National Football Team would travel to Zimbabwe to finalise the Africa Cup of Nations against the Zimbabwe Warriors set for 8 September.
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Supreme Court rules for sitting of Malawi Parliament
Supreme Court of Appeal judge, Justice Atanazio Tembo, Wednesday set aside an earlier injunction by High Court judge, Justice Joseph Mwanyungwa, restraining Speaker Louis Chimango from reconvening the suspended budget session of Parliament.
This followed an appeal by Attorney General Jane Ansah who argued before the judge that issues of national interest must be considered in the current political impasse that has seen the country running without a budget for two months.
"The judge [Tembo] has given his ruling to the effect that the order made by Justice Manyungwa is stayed...So basically what it means is that Parliament is free to meet. The Speaker is at liberty to call for the sitting of Parliament," Jane Ansah told PANA after the ruling.
Speaker of Parliament Louis Chimango was forced to suspend proceedings of the budget session of Parliament indefinitely for the fourth time following a political stalemate where the opposition is insisting it cannot discuss the national budget unless MPs who quit their parties to join President Bingu wa Mutharika's newly-formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are expelled from Parliament.
on Sunday, Manyungwa issued an order preventing the Speaker from complying with President Bingu wa Mutharika's directive to reconvene the suspended Parliament to discuss and pass the long-overdue national budget.
This followed an appeal by Attorney General Jane Ansah who argued before the judge that issues of national interest must be considered in the current political impasse that has seen the country running without a budget for two months.
"The judge [Tembo] has given his ruling to the effect that the order made by Justice Manyungwa is stayed...So basically what it means is that Parliament is free to meet. The Speaker is at liberty to call for the sitting of Parliament," Jane Ansah told PANA after the ruling.
Speaker of Parliament Louis Chimango was forced to suspend proceedings of the budget session of Parliament indefinitely for the fourth time following a political stalemate where the opposition is insisting it cannot discuss the national budget unless MPs who quit their parties to join President Bingu wa Mutharika's newly-formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are expelled from Parliament.
on Sunday, Manyungwa issued an order preventing the Speaker from complying with President Bingu wa Mutharika's directive to reconvene the suspended Parliament to discuss and pass the long-overdue national budget.
Malawi upset South Africa
Unheralded Malawi served notice this past week that they should not be under-rated at the 2007 World Netball Championship (WNC) by playing to a 1-1 tie with South Africa in a three-match series in South Africa.
After a tie and a South Africa win in the first two games, Malawi captured the last game at Howard College in Durban to snatch a series draw against the World No.5 South Africans.
Malawi are unseeded heading into the November 10-17 WNC in Auckland, New Zealand, because they missed the 2003 tournament in Jamaica.
Malawi played a tensely fought 45-all draw with the South Africans in game one at Ngoako Ramatlhodi Indoor Sports Centre in Polokwane.
South Africa won the second game 56-35, but Malawi outgunned them 38-34 in the last match.
Malawi will start their 2007 WNC challenge in Auckland against the reigning champions New Zealand in the opening game of the tournament on November 10 in Group A, which also has Wales and Botswana.
South Africa take on Malaysia in Group D in the competition's second match on Sunday November 11 and will also face England and Barbados in their Group D fixtures.
In the other pools, former champions Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa and Scotland will contest Group B, while Jamaica, Fiji, Singapore and Cook Islands will play in Group C.
After a tie and a South Africa win in the first two games, Malawi captured the last game at Howard College in Durban to snatch a series draw against the World No.5 South Africans.
Malawi are unseeded heading into the November 10-17 WNC in Auckland, New Zealand, because they missed the 2003 tournament in Jamaica.
Malawi played a tensely fought 45-all draw with the South Africans in game one at Ngoako Ramatlhodi Indoor Sports Centre in Polokwane.
South Africa won the second game 56-35, but Malawi outgunned them 38-34 in the last match.
Malawi will start their 2007 WNC challenge in Auckland against the reigning champions New Zealand in the opening game of the tournament on November 10 in Group A, which also has Wales and Botswana.
South Africa take on Malaysia in Group D in the competition's second match on Sunday November 11 and will also face England and Barbados in their Group D fixtures.
In the other pools, former champions Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa and Scotland will contest Group B, while Jamaica, Fiji, Singapore and Cook Islands will play in Group C.
Malawi’s Ex-President Prepares for His Imminent Re-Arrest
The lead attorney for Malawi’s former President says Bakili Muluzi is aware of plans by the Anti-Corruption Bureau to re-arrest him for allegedly stealing about 10 million dollars of public. This comes after President Bingu Wa Mutharika reportedly threatened to arrest leaders of the opposition if his government’s budget is not approved by the opposition-controlled parliament. Meanwhile the former president has assembled a team of lawyers to strategize before his imminent arrest.
Fahad Assani is the lead attorney for Ex-President Bakili Muluzi. From the capital, Lilongwe he tells reporter Peter Clottey more about Muluzi’s imminent arrest.
“We too are just gathering this information in the grapevine as well as what has been reported on the Internet the world over that there are plans by the system to arrest again the former president on the allegation that he embezzled or he pocketed monies meant for government, while he was the head of state. These rumors have been very persistent in Malawi and were heightened by the threats that were made by the head of state when he had a mass rally about three Sundays ago,” Assani noted.
He dismissed as non-entities people who are speculating that Ex-President Bakili Muluzi is clandestinely working to bring down President Mutharika’s administration.
“I look at these things as words which are uttered by people who are under siege or they do not have self-confidence because there is no such plot as far as I’m concerned because I’m very closed to the former president. I know that what he is looking at is to challenge him during elections in 2009 when they are due. But as long as the period of elections are not there yet, there is no plan to bring down the government,” he pointed out.
Assani said the government just wants to divert people’s attention from what he called its lack of ideas to effectively rule the country.
“These are just sayings which are made by the government as a way of scaring other people, and at the same time just to divert attention that mistakes were made when the president decided to dump the party that brought him to power, and what is happening now is exactly a direct result of that lack of foresight,” Assani said.
He said former President Muluzi least expected President Mutharika whom he allegedly anointed as his successor to have what Muluzi has described as divisive tendencies.
“It’s a huge disappointment, particularly considering that our constitution mandates any sitting president to provide executive leadership in the interest of national unity. And since our president was elected, he has been a very, very divisive President. And he keeps on dividing society along religious lines, along political lines. And this is not the leadership, which he (Muluzi) feels he could have seen in our current president because in deed as the former president even has said during the campaign, now that politics has really taken its hold in a democracy, which he fought for very hard when he was fighting the one-party state,” he noted.
Fahad Assani is the lead attorney for Ex-President Bakili Muluzi. From the capital, Lilongwe he tells reporter Peter Clottey more about Muluzi’s imminent arrest.
“We too are just gathering this information in the grapevine as well as what has been reported on the Internet the world over that there are plans by the system to arrest again the former president on the allegation that he embezzled or he pocketed monies meant for government, while he was the head of state. These rumors have been very persistent in Malawi and were heightened by the threats that were made by the head of state when he had a mass rally about three Sundays ago,” Assani noted.
He dismissed as non-entities people who are speculating that Ex-President Bakili Muluzi is clandestinely working to bring down President Mutharika’s administration.
“I look at these things as words which are uttered by people who are under siege or they do not have self-confidence because there is no such plot as far as I’m concerned because I’m very closed to the former president. I know that what he is looking at is to challenge him during elections in 2009 when they are due. But as long as the period of elections are not there yet, there is no plan to bring down the government,” he pointed out.
Assani said the government just wants to divert people’s attention from what he called its lack of ideas to effectively rule the country.
“These are just sayings which are made by the government as a way of scaring other people, and at the same time just to divert attention that mistakes were made when the president decided to dump the party that brought him to power, and what is happening now is exactly a direct result of that lack of foresight,” Assani said.
He said former President Muluzi least expected President Mutharika whom he allegedly anointed as his successor to have what Muluzi has described as divisive tendencies.
“It’s a huge disappointment, particularly considering that our constitution mandates any sitting president to provide executive leadership in the interest of national unity. And since our president was elected, he has been a very, very divisive President. And he keeps on dividing society along religious lines, along political lines. And this is not the leadership, which he (Muluzi) feels he could have seen in our current president because in deed as the former president even has said during the campaign, now that politics has really taken its hold in a democracy, which he fought for very hard when he was fighting the one-party state,” he noted.
Celtel Malawi boosts customers after fire repairs
Celtel Malawi, a unit of Kuwaiti cell phone operator MTC, boosted its subscriber base to half a million at the start of August from 350 000 before a fire damaged its network in March, it said on Wednesday.
Managing Director Charles Zouzoua told Reuters Malawi's biggest operator had repaired its network since the fire and had about 68 percent of the mobile phone market compared with some 30 percent five years ago.
Malawi has two mobile network operators, Celtel, the leading mobile phone operator, and its rival Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM), which is partly owned by the Malawian government and the country's Press Corporation Ltd conglomerate.
Zouzoua also said Celtel Malawi would get about $30 million of a $320 million loan to Celtel from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, to help it expand its network in rural areas.
Impoverished Malawi has one of the lowest telecoms penetrations in the world with less than 1 percent of the population having access to a telephone, according to government figures.
Managing Director Charles Zouzoua told Reuters Malawi's biggest operator had repaired its network since the fire and had about 68 percent of the mobile phone market compared with some 30 percent five years ago.
Malawi has two mobile network operators, Celtel, the leading mobile phone operator, and its rival Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM), which is partly owned by the Malawian government and the country's Press Corporation Ltd conglomerate.
Zouzoua also said Celtel Malawi would get about $30 million of a $320 million loan to Celtel from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, to help it expand its network in rural areas.
Impoverished Malawi has one of the lowest telecoms penetrations in the world with less than 1 percent of the population having access to a telephone, according to government figures.
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