Malawi, which broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan last month in favor of Beijing, won't allow Chinese traders into the country, said James Kaphwereza Banda, general manager of the Malawi Investment Promotions Agency.
"It's our duty to promote serious investors, not traders," Banda said yesterday in a telephone interview from Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. "What we're telling Malawian traders is that they shouldn't fear more Chinese selling their wares, because we won't allow them in."
Malawian traders have expressed concern about the influx of cheap goods from China, Banda said. They believe Chinese traders would deprive them of their livelihood if allowed to trade freely.
The government might revise its US$50,000 minimum investment law to ensure that "only serious investors" apply for business licenses, he said.
China's investments in Africa have soared, with bilateral trade rising to US$39.7 billion in 2005.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Campaign for wage justice continues as G4S cuts real wages
Guards working in one of the world's poorest nations, Malawi, showed great courage in standing up to their multinational employer, G4S, during wage negotiations in January this year. Workers threatened strike action when presented with a 12% wage increase, which is lower than the official inflation rate and would have meant a cut in income for workers who already earn poverty level wages of around USD30 per month.
Workers were effectively prevented from striking when a Malawian court issued an injunction in favour of the company. Faced with a battle against Africa's largest employer and one of the most powerful companies on the London Stock Exchange, G4S workers have now accepted a 17% wage rise. In some areas, including Malawi's capital, Blantyre, this still does not meet the increase in the cost of living, which currently measures 23%.
G4S workers continue their battle for economic justice in Malawi, with on-going efforts to organise, supported by UNI Global Union. The union hopes to negotiate its first complete collective agreement with G4S later this year to address critical issues like time off and over time pay.
Workers were effectively prevented from striking when a Malawian court issued an injunction in favour of the company. Faced with a battle against Africa's largest employer and one of the most powerful companies on the London Stock Exchange, G4S workers have now accepted a 17% wage rise. In some areas, including Malawi's capital, Blantyre, this still does not meet the increase in the cost of living, which currently measures 23%.
G4S workers continue their battle for economic justice in Malawi, with on-going efforts to organise, supported by UNI Global Union. The union hopes to negotiate its first complete collective agreement with G4S later this year to address critical issues like time off and over time pay.
MBC, TVM boards to be dissolved in readiness for merger - newspaper
President Bingu wa Mutharika is to announce the dissolution of the boards of state media houses Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Television Malawi to appoint a merged board, Nyasa Times understands. The government formed a task force last year to work out a merger of the national radio and sole television station. The task force completed its report and recommended to government for the merger to take place shortly, according to Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education Mike Kamwendo.
The new organisation born out of the merger will adopt the name MBC and will be re-registered as a public broadcaster with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.
“The boards of MBC and TVM will be dissolved and the President will use his prerogative powers to appoint board members of the new board which will house the two institutions into one entity,” said an official in the Office of President and Cabinet.
Chairperson of the parliamentary media committee Beston Lijenda could not comment on the merger development saying his committee would need to scrutinise the report. Lijenda, formerly an employee of MBC, said however that the national broadcaster needed a “new lease of life”.
The new organisation born out of the merger will adopt the name MBC and will be re-registered as a public broadcaster with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.
“The boards of MBC and TVM will be dissolved and the President will use his prerogative powers to appoint board members of the new board which will house the two institutions into one entity,” said an official in the Office of President and Cabinet.
Chairperson of the parliamentary media committee Beston Lijenda could not comment on the merger development saying his committee would need to scrutinise the report. Lijenda, formerly an employee of MBC, said however that the national broadcaster needed a “new lease of life”.
Malawi drafts law against "healers" of AIDS
Malawi has drafted a law to stop traditional healers from claiming they can cure AIDS and religious leaders from advising their flocks to discard treatment for prayer, a government official said on Tuesday.
Malawi, with a population of about 13 million, ranks among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of those infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
"The draft law is due to be presented on March 4 to parliament and when it passes into law, all those traditional healers claiming to cure AIDS and religious leaders stopping people from taking ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS) will be dealt with," said Mary Shawa, Principal Secretary for Nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the president's office.
"These are desperate times and we need stern action to deal with these people misleading people," she said.
Shawa declined to disclose the details of the draft law, saying that they would be made public when parliament meets.
Last week the Malawi Council of Churches said five AIDS patients on anti-retroviral treatment died after their church pastor advised them to stop take the medication because they had been healed by prayer.
Official estimates show AIDS kills about 10 people an hour in the impoverished southern African nation. Health officials estimate that a million Malawians are infected with HIV and about 640,000 have died of AIDS-related causes since 1985.
Malawi, with a population of about 13 million, ranks among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of those infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
"The draft law is due to be presented on March 4 to parliament and when it passes into law, all those traditional healers claiming to cure AIDS and religious leaders stopping people from taking ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS) will be dealt with," said Mary Shawa, Principal Secretary for Nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the president's office.
"These are desperate times and we need stern action to deal with these people misleading people," she said.
Shawa declined to disclose the details of the draft law, saying that they would be made public when parliament meets.
Last week the Malawi Council of Churches said five AIDS patients on anti-retroviral treatment died after their church pastor advised them to stop take the medication because they had been healed by prayer.
Official estimates show AIDS kills about 10 people an hour in the impoverished southern African nation. Health officials estimate that a million Malawians are infected with HIV and about 640,000 have died of AIDS-related causes since 1985.
Online Donation For Malawi Charity
A community development project established by online casino Slotland.com has received a ‘substantial’ donation from Internet gaming guide Online-Gambling-Insider.com.
Help-Malawi-Children-Charity.org was established to help two communities in the African nation on Malawi by training teachers and farmers and the guide is challenging gambling operators, affiliates and players to make a donation as well.
“When Slotland.com initially announced the building of the school we ran the story on our news network but we felt that a project such as this needs every little bit of support it can get,” said Ryan D, Founding Editor for Online-Gambling-Insider.com.
“To see the dedication of the Slotland.com team and the amazing results they have achieved in what is a challenging environment deserves the utmost respect.”
Malawi is the eighth poorest nation on earth and has been severely hit by the affects of AIDS. Slotland.com said that education is key to ending poverty and funded the constructed a school and community centre in the remote village of Juma two years ago. A maize mill in the nearby village of Kantimbanye to provide a small income for the school and a much-needed service to area farmers has since been built and the school’s teachers have become a resource for teachers in surrounding villages. In addition, farmers in the area are learning new sustainable agriculture methods in the centre’s demonstration gardens.
“We got the idea to produce the website because so many of our players were asking how they could donate personally,” said Martin Smith from Slotland.com.
“Food for the students. Gas for the jeep. Building materials. The project is becoming more and more self-sustaining but they still need help. The beauty of this fundraising site is that donations go directly to the team in Malawi.”
Malawi ruler helps Mugabe to hold on to power
Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika is aiding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to cling on to power with a win in the forth coming March 29 general elections by supplying him with much-needed maize which is being distributed to the electorate to buy votes.
About 300 000 tonnes of maize imported from Malawi have been hoarded by Zanu (PF) at Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots around the country for vote buying.
Eye witnesses accounted four haulage trucks coming from the Nyamapanda border off-loading maize at Murehwa depot, which officials there said had been purchased by the government from Malawi.
"Maize sold by the Malawi government to Zimbabwe has not helped the people of the country fairy. It is being abused by distributing to the electorate in Mashonaland.
“As opposition, if we take over power, we will have difficulties to pay the Malawi government because they have played part in the political aggression by Mugabe and ZANU-PF," said Tendai Biti of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Malawi is running short of maize and is rationing the grain nation-wide exported 300 000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe and is yet to fulfill a 100,000 metric tonnes export to cover the required 400,000 Mt.
Senior officials at the GMB depot in Harare confirmed that close to 100 000 tonnes of maize were ready to be dispatched for Mugabe's campaign. It has also been established that depots in Murehwa, Bindura, Chegutu and Marondera have been hoarding stocks.
"We have stocks of up to 20 000 tonnes and some of them have been coming through Mozambique. We have been instructed to start preparing for dispatching the maize," a GMB source at Murehwa depot told The Zimbabwean.
The United States expressed regret at Mugabe's decision to schedule a general election without an agreement on conditions with the opposition.
"We regret that President Mugabe has insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 without having reached an agreement on conditions that would have leveled the playing field for all parties planning to compete in those elections," read a State Department statement.
UK has also hit at Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe is suffering from an economic, humanitarian and political crisis for which President Mugabe is directly responsible," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
"The conditions for it (the election) are far from free and fair. We are pressing for effective international monitoring and for states in the region to require the election to meet international standards...," he told parliament.
However, defiant Mugabe told his supporters on Saturday that his party would win the elections "resoundingly" and he was ready for a fight with those who criticized his presidency, including President Bush and British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
Malawi leader of opposition, John Tembo demanded government to stop the exporting of maize to Zimbabwe with the world's highest inflation rate, over 100,000 percent.
Mutharika who has Bineth, a personal farm in Zimbabwe guarded by state security agents, signed the contractual agreement with the Zimbabwe Government that offered a US$10 million line of credit.
About 300 000 tonnes of maize imported from Malawi have been hoarded by Zanu (PF) at Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots around the country for vote buying.
Eye witnesses accounted four haulage trucks coming from the Nyamapanda border off-loading maize at Murehwa depot, which officials there said had been purchased by the government from Malawi.
"Maize sold by the Malawi government to Zimbabwe has not helped the people of the country fairy. It is being abused by distributing to the electorate in Mashonaland.
“As opposition, if we take over power, we will have difficulties to pay the Malawi government because they have played part in the political aggression by Mugabe and ZANU-PF," said Tendai Biti of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Malawi is running short of maize and is rationing the grain nation-wide exported 300 000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe and is yet to fulfill a 100,000 metric tonnes export to cover the required 400,000 Mt.
Senior officials at the GMB depot in Harare confirmed that close to 100 000 tonnes of maize were ready to be dispatched for Mugabe's campaign. It has also been established that depots in Murehwa, Bindura, Chegutu and Marondera have been hoarding stocks.
"We have stocks of up to 20 000 tonnes and some of them have been coming through Mozambique. We have been instructed to start preparing for dispatching the maize," a GMB source at Murehwa depot told The Zimbabwean.
The United States expressed regret at Mugabe's decision to schedule a general election without an agreement on conditions with the opposition.
"We regret that President Mugabe has insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 without having reached an agreement on conditions that would have leveled the playing field for all parties planning to compete in those elections," read a State Department statement.
UK has also hit at Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe is suffering from an economic, humanitarian and political crisis for which President Mugabe is directly responsible," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
"The conditions for it (the election) are far from free and fair. We are pressing for effective international monitoring and for states in the region to require the election to meet international standards...," he told parliament.
However, defiant Mugabe told his supporters on Saturday that his party would win the elections "resoundingly" and he was ready for a fight with those who criticized his presidency, including President Bush and British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
Malawi leader of opposition, John Tembo demanded government to stop the exporting of maize to Zimbabwe with the world's highest inflation rate, over 100,000 percent.
Mutharika who has Bineth, a personal farm in Zimbabwe guarded by state security agents, signed the contractual agreement with the Zimbabwe Government that offered a US$10 million line of credit.
Zimbabwe: Food for votes
anu PF, desparate to win the March 29 election at all costs has resorted to its tried and tested tactic of using food to buy votes. With the Southern African nation facing another drought, despite a good rainfall season, it is importing tonnes and tonnes of grain from neigbouring countries.
Malawi is one of them together with Zambia and South Africa. But instead of the grian being distributed to all needy Zimbabweans, Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF is using grain as a political tool to woo voters. Maize from Malawi is such a tool for Zanu PF. Withholding food from opponents is nothing new for the Zanu PF.
About 350 000 tonnes of maize imported from Malawi is been kept at Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots around the country. Six haulage trucks came through the Nyamapanda border post at the weekend from Malawi.
Tendai Biti, Secretary General, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change faction says maize from Malawi is being distributed to Zanu PF supporters only instead to all Zimbabweans. "Maize sold by the Malawi government to Zimbabwe has not helped the people of the country fairly. It is being abused by distributing to the electorate countrywide.
"As opposition, if we take over power, we will have difficulties to pay the Malawi government because they have played part in the political aggression by Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Malawi, itself is running short of maize and is rationing the grain nation-wide, exported 300 000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe and is yet to fulfil a 100,000 metric tonnes export to cover the required 400,000 Mt.
Senior officials at the GMB depot in Harare confirm that close to 200,000 tonnes of maize is ready to be dispatched for Mugabe’s campaign. It has also been established that depots in Karoi, Murehwa, Bindura, Chegutu and Marondera have been hoarding stocks.
However, defiant Mugabe told his supporters on Saturday that his party would win the elections "resoundingly" and he was ready for a fight with those who criticised his presidency.
Malawi leader Bingu Mutharika who has Bineth, a personal farm in Zimbabwe, signed the contractual agreement with the Zimbabwe Government that offered a US$10 million line of credit. In Karoi, John Mafa, a senior ruling ZANU PF party politician has directed GMB to sell maize-meal through councillors. All are members of his party.
Mafa, a chairman of ZANU PF in Mashonaland West province under which Karoi falls and is also provincial GMB manager, confirmed ordering the company to sell the staple food through ward councillors. He said the move was not meant to buy support for ZANU PF but rather to ensure that all hungry people got a chance to buy cheaper priced maize-meal from the GMB.
’’Councillors have well known structures so that undeserving elements in the wards cannot take advantage of our sincerity. We have many people who are just cropping up in these wards but councillors know who is who there and who deserves what,’’ he said.
Mafa, insists that everyone would get a chance to buy maize-meal regardless of which party they supported. MDC officials in Karoi say ZANU PF councilors are busy compiling lists of people to receive maize-meal during campaign meetings of the ruling party, leaving supporters of the opposition in the cold. MDC provincial treasurer Biggie Haurobi said ’’Our members are being denied maize-meal by ruling party councillors as the lists are drawn up during their ward party rallies,”
Malawi is one of them together with Zambia and South Africa. But instead of the grian being distributed to all needy Zimbabweans, Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF is using grain as a political tool to woo voters. Maize from Malawi is such a tool for Zanu PF. Withholding food from opponents is nothing new for the Zanu PF.
About 350 000 tonnes of maize imported from Malawi is been kept at Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots around the country. Six haulage trucks came through the Nyamapanda border post at the weekend from Malawi.
Tendai Biti, Secretary General, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change faction says maize from Malawi is being distributed to Zanu PF supporters only instead to all Zimbabweans. "Maize sold by the Malawi government to Zimbabwe has not helped the people of the country fairly. It is being abused by distributing to the electorate countrywide.
"As opposition, if we take over power, we will have difficulties to pay the Malawi government because they have played part in the political aggression by Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Malawi, itself is running short of maize and is rationing the grain nation-wide, exported 300 000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe and is yet to fulfil a 100,000 metric tonnes export to cover the required 400,000 Mt.
Senior officials at the GMB depot in Harare confirm that close to 200,000 tonnes of maize is ready to be dispatched for Mugabe’s campaign. It has also been established that depots in Karoi, Murehwa, Bindura, Chegutu and Marondera have been hoarding stocks.
However, defiant Mugabe told his supporters on Saturday that his party would win the elections "resoundingly" and he was ready for a fight with those who criticised his presidency.
Malawi leader Bingu Mutharika who has Bineth, a personal farm in Zimbabwe, signed the contractual agreement with the Zimbabwe Government that offered a US$10 million line of credit. In Karoi, John Mafa, a senior ruling ZANU PF party politician has directed GMB to sell maize-meal through councillors. All are members of his party.
Mafa, a chairman of ZANU PF in Mashonaland West province under which Karoi falls and is also provincial GMB manager, confirmed ordering the company to sell the staple food through ward councillors. He said the move was not meant to buy support for ZANU PF but rather to ensure that all hungry people got a chance to buy cheaper priced maize-meal from the GMB.
’’Councillors have well known structures so that undeserving elements in the wards cannot take advantage of our sincerity. We have many people who are just cropping up in these wards but councillors know who is who there and who deserves what,’’ he said.
Mafa, insists that everyone would get a chance to buy maize-meal regardless of which party they supported. MDC officials in Karoi say ZANU PF councilors are busy compiling lists of people to receive maize-meal during campaign meetings of the ruling party, leaving supporters of the opposition in the cold. MDC provincial treasurer Biggie Haurobi said ’’Our members are being denied maize-meal by ruling party councillors as the lists are drawn up during their ward party rallies,”
Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
Sickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.
Kirana is one of 250 million children across the world involved in work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Some 57 million of these endangered children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. And with an estimated 1.4 million child laborers, the small, southern African nation of Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa, according to the Olso, Norway-based, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science.
Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields. Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village, Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.
Kirana's mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.
Now 12, Kirana has never been to school. For the past six months, his health has been failing and he can no longer work as hard as he used to. His mother says her little boy is malnourished and therefore contracts different infections easily. The family often goes without a proper meal for up to three days.
“Just in the past two months, Kirana has been afflicted by malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia,” Jane Kapito said. “He's my only child and I am so scared of losing him.”
This family's struggle is repeated throughout Malawi's tobacco industry, where poverty ensures that every member must contribute to the workload.
Virginia Import Now Main Malawi Export
Malawi's sprawling tobacco estates are not only a source of national economic pride, but of lovely pastoral vistas as well. Up close though, the sight of child laborers in the hot fields exposes the ugliness at their core.
Commercial production of tobacco in Malawi goes back as far as 1889, when settlers from the U.S. state of Virginia introduced the crop. In those days “foreign masters” forced the native people and their children to work in the farms for little or no pay. Over a century later, this exploitation continues -- with no end in sight.
Increasingly, critics are demanding that the tobacco companies take responsibility for ending the abuses. Given their key role in Malawi's economy, they wield significant clout. Malawi derives up to 70 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from agricultural crops, and the tobacco industry makes up 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Malawi’s exports account for five percent of the world's total tobacco exports and two percent of the world's total production.
But the wealth generated by this resource is not spread evenly across the country. The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog for the tobacco market, estimates that it takes $1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco , which they usually sell at $.70 for a loss of $.30 per kilo. Hardworking farmers who cannot make a living turn to child labor. TCC's 2008 campaign is demanding that farmers get a profit at least 15 percent above production costs.
Despite the TCC campaign, farmers and their families are still at risk of losing money on their crops. And this year the farmers' plight may be further exacerbated by heavy rains that are predicted to cut the country's tobacco production by about 3 percent.
Tenant Farmers’ Dilemma
Up to two million Malawians, mostly poor, depend on tobacco and related industries for their income. Virtually all of the up to 900,000 adult growers are “smallholder farmers, tobacco tenants and casual farm workers,” according to a 2006 research paper by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE), an independent center based at the University of California, San Francisco.
Tenant farmers are allocated a plot of land by the estate owner and required to produce a specific yield. The owners loan the tenants inputs including seed and fertilizer and deduct the debt from future profits -- if any.
The owners are also supposed to supply food rations, but when monthly allocations run out, workers and their children go hungry. Many also lack such basic necessities as medication, proper housing and safe drinking water. Not surprisingly, workers on tobacco estates and their dependants are among the poorest and most oppressed people in Malawi, according to a survey released last December by the Center for Social Concern, a Catholic organization that monitors the welfare of the people.
A minimum of “78,000 children are working on a full- or part-time basis in the tobacco fields, according to the CTCRE study. “Forty-five percent of the child workers are 10-14 years old,” the study found. Meanwhile, the tobacco companies have received nearly US$40 million in revenues over four years through the use of unpaid child labor in Malawi.
In 1995, the Malawi government, through the Ministry of Labor in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, started drafting a Tobacco Tenancy Labor Bill to regulate the relations and transactions between the tenant farmers and the landlords.
The bill has been taken through a number of revisions but it has not yet been taken to Parliament.
Supporting Children or Exploiting Them?
Multinational tobacco companies are aware of the public relations implications of profiting not only from tobacco itself, but doing it through the cycle of poverty and child labor. Tobacco companies in Malawi including Alliance One, Africa Leaf (Malawi) Limited, Premium and British American Tobacco (Malawi) are sponsoring the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT). The project, which includes other agricultural industries, is run by Together Ensuring Children Security (TECS), a registered trust set up in 2001 by tobacco exporting corporations operating in Malawi: Africa Leaf, Dimon, Limbe Leaf and Stancom Tobacco.
In 2001, ECLT budgeted US$2 million for a four-year effort to combat child labor. Six years later, in October 2007, the 20 companies within the supply chain of the tobacco industry had ponied up somewhat less than $100,000 of that amount, according to TECS'S corporate newsletter.
The University of California researchers are skeptical of the inherent conflict of interest in having tobacco companies influence social policy. They concluded that in Malawi, transnational tobacco companies are using child labor projects to enhance their corporate reputations and distract public attention away from how they profit from low wages and cheaply produced tobacco .
Others argue that even when useful, the TECS program is a drop in an ocean of poverty. Up to 45 percent of the population is poor, according to the 2007 Malawi Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report. Registered as a Trust under the Trustees Act of Malawi, TECS projects have taken what it calls “a poverty reduction strategy approach” to improve food security, water safety and HIV/AIDS intervention and education.
The trust has built schools, planted trees and constructed shallow wells to address the use of child labor in tobacco farming, according to TECS Programs Director Limbani Kakhome.
While not directly undermining child labor, these programs will eventually bear fruit in better social conditions that will diminish the problem, Kakhome said.
“We are also addressing health issues to ensure that the children don't skip school because of illnesses,” says Kakhome. Once they stay home because they are ill, they are easily taken up by child labor.” It is difficult, he said, to supply the market for child labor once the children are absorbed into the school system, have safe water and are financially secure.
Too Little, Too Late?
It is too late for children like 15-year-old Martha Kalima who dropped out of school at 12 years old to work in the tobacco fields. Pregnant at 14, she continued working in the fields until she gave birth. The father was the 16-year-old son of another tenant farmer.
“There is nothing like maternity leave for tobacco workers,” Kalima said. “No one is entitled to sick leave nor is there transport to hospital. I gave birth at home because it was too late for me to get to hospital.”
Martha is back in the tobacco fields carrying the baby on her back. Chances are slim that she will return to school.
Some 15 percent of girls and 12 percent of boys drop out of school, according to Malawi government statistics. Around 22 percent of primary school age girls never attend school at all, while 60 percent of those enrolled do not attend regularly.
The TECS corporate newsletter confirms that children with few options are pulled from school. Some are “coaxed from the poverty-stricken homes to work in order to keep body and soul together. They are exposed to hazardous environments where they work long hours and do jobs not befitting their ages and they are often beaten and abused.”
That was the fate of 16-year-old Ekari Maliwasa, says she has just returned to her village in the south of Malawi after working for five years in the tobacco estates in the northern part of the country.
“My parents took me with them to work in the tobacco estates in the north [when I was 11] and I only escaped back to my village two months ago after realizing that I was being abused. I am now staying with my elderly grandmother,” says Maliwasa. She says the estate manager beat her whenever he found her resting from the hard work in the tobacco fields. Ekari also went without food or drink for long hours, she said, and was not allowed take a break until she had worked for five hours.
Enforcement of Labor Standards Difficult
Maliwasa's treatment, like that endured by many of Malawi's child laborers, violated not only international standards but also legally binding treaties. Malawi is a signatory to a number of conventions against child labor including the 1973 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 138 which sets a minimum working age of 18, and the 1999 ILO Convention 182 which outlaws child labor.
The country also ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (ILO has set 2016 as the deadline for countries around the world to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.)
Child labor cannot be ended overnight says TECS Executive Director Bobby Maynard. “You can manage the supply chain to a certain degree but you can't control it fully,” he says. “The problem is that over 80 percent of tobacco is grown with no contracts from the tobacco companies -- as such it is difficult to intervene directly.”
Tobacco companies note that they are involved in policing child labor violations at estates where they have direct control, and that they subscribe to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), whose first principle is “no child labor.” But their results in curbing the practice have not been impressive.
Relying on British American Tobacco's own internal documents, the University of California study found that, “rather than actively and responsibly working to solve the problem of child labor in growing tobacco , the company acted to co-opt the issue to present themselves over as a 'socially responsible corporation' by releasing a policy statement claiming the company's commitment to end harmful child labor practices, holding a global child labor conference with trade unions and other key stakeholders, and contributing nominal sums of money for development projects largely unrelated to efforts to end child labor.”
International agencies are also involved. Kusali Kubwalo, communications officer for UNICEF Malawi, said the United Nations has joined Malawi's government and several non-governmental organizations to fight the problem from several fronts.
A national “Stop Child Abuse Campaign” aims to break the silence shrouding all forms of child abuse, including child labor.
“The campaign aims to mobilize leadership and a commitment at all levels to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse,” says Kubwalo. “Violations of children's rights take place every day in Malawi and are extensive, under-recognized and underreported.”
She insists that Malawi, as a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obligated to respect, protect, facilitate and promote the fulfillment of the rights it guarantees.
“This instrument must therefore be translated into concrete legislation, interventions and development programs,” says Kubwalo. “Ratification alone is not enough.”
Kirana is one of 250 million children across the world involved in work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Some 57 million of these endangered children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. And with an estimated 1.4 million child laborers, the small, southern African nation of Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa, according to the Olso, Norway-based, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science.
Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields. Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village, Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.
Kirana's mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.
Now 12, Kirana has never been to school. For the past six months, his health has been failing and he can no longer work as hard as he used to. His mother says her little boy is malnourished and therefore contracts different infections easily. The family often goes without a proper meal for up to three days.
“Just in the past two months, Kirana has been afflicted by malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia,” Jane Kapito said. “He's my only child and I am so scared of losing him.”
This family's struggle is repeated throughout Malawi's tobacco industry, where poverty ensures that every member must contribute to the workload.
Virginia Import Now Main Malawi Export
Malawi's sprawling tobacco estates are not only a source of national economic pride, but of lovely pastoral vistas as well. Up close though, the sight of child laborers in the hot fields exposes the ugliness at their core.
Commercial production of tobacco in Malawi goes back as far as 1889, when settlers from the U.S. state of Virginia introduced the crop. In those days “foreign masters” forced the native people and their children to work in the farms for little or no pay. Over a century later, this exploitation continues -- with no end in sight.
Increasingly, critics are demanding that the tobacco companies take responsibility for ending the abuses. Given their key role in Malawi's economy, they wield significant clout. Malawi derives up to 70 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from agricultural crops, and the tobacco industry makes up 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Malawi’s exports account for five percent of the world's total tobacco exports and two percent of the world's total production.
But the wealth generated by this resource is not spread evenly across the country. The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog for the tobacco market, estimates that it takes $1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco , which they usually sell at $.70 for a loss of $.30 per kilo. Hardworking farmers who cannot make a living turn to child labor. TCC's 2008 campaign is demanding that farmers get a profit at least 15 percent above production costs.
Despite the TCC campaign, farmers and their families are still at risk of losing money on their crops. And this year the farmers' plight may be further exacerbated by heavy rains that are predicted to cut the country's tobacco production by about 3 percent.
Tenant Farmers’ Dilemma
Up to two million Malawians, mostly poor, depend on tobacco and related industries for their income. Virtually all of the up to 900,000 adult growers are “smallholder farmers, tobacco tenants and casual farm workers,” according to a 2006 research paper by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE), an independent center based at the University of California, San Francisco.
Tenant farmers are allocated a plot of land by the estate owner and required to produce a specific yield. The owners loan the tenants inputs including seed and fertilizer and deduct the debt from future profits -- if any.
The owners are also supposed to supply food rations, but when monthly allocations run out, workers and their children go hungry. Many also lack such basic necessities as medication, proper housing and safe drinking water. Not surprisingly, workers on tobacco estates and their dependants are among the poorest and most oppressed people in Malawi, according to a survey released last December by the Center for Social Concern, a Catholic organization that monitors the welfare of the people.
A minimum of “78,000 children are working on a full- or part-time basis in the tobacco fields, according to the CTCRE study. “Forty-five percent of the child workers are 10-14 years old,” the study found. Meanwhile, the tobacco companies have received nearly US$40 million in revenues over four years through the use of unpaid child labor in Malawi.
In 1995, the Malawi government, through the Ministry of Labor in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, started drafting a Tobacco Tenancy Labor Bill to regulate the relations and transactions between the tenant farmers and the landlords.
The bill has been taken through a number of revisions but it has not yet been taken to Parliament.
Supporting Children or Exploiting Them?
Multinational tobacco companies are aware of the public relations implications of profiting not only from tobacco itself, but doing it through the cycle of poverty and child labor. Tobacco companies in Malawi including Alliance One, Africa Leaf (Malawi) Limited, Premium and British American Tobacco (Malawi) are sponsoring the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT). The project, which includes other agricultural industries, is run by Together Ensuring Children Security (TECS), a registered trust set up in 2001 by tobacco exporting corporations operating in Malawi: Africa Leaf, Dimon, Limbe Leaf and Stancom Tobacco.
In 2001, ECLT budgeted US$2 million for a four-year effort to combat child labor. Six years later, in October 2007, the 20 companies within the supply chain of the tobacco industry had ponied up somewhat less than $100,000 of that amount, according to TECS'S corporate newsletter.
The University of California researchers are skeptical of the inherent conflict of interest in having tobacco companies influence social policy. They concluded that in Malawi, transnational tobacco companies are using child labor projects to enhance their corporate reputations and distract public attention away from how they profit from low wages and cheaply produced tobacco .
Others argue that even when useful, the TECS program is a drop in an ocean of poverty. Up to 45 percent of the population is poor, according to the 2007 Malawi Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report. Registered as a Trust under the Trustees Act of Malawi, TECS projects have taken what it calls “a poverty reduction strategy approach” to improve food security, water safety and HIV/AIDS intervention and education.
The trust has built schools, planted trees and constructed shallow wells to address the use of child labor in tobacco farming, according to TECS Programs Director Limbani Kakhome.
While not directly undermining child labor, these programs will eventually bear fruit in better social conditions that will diminish the problem, Kakhome said.
“We are also addressing health issues to ensure that the children don't skip school because of illnesses,” says Kakhome. Once they stay home because they are ill, they are easily taken up by child labor.” It is difficult, he said, to supply the market for child labor once the children are absorbed into the school system, have safe water and are financially secure.
Too Little, Too Late?
It is too late for children like 15-year-old Martha Kalima who dropped out of school at 12 years old to work in the tobacco fields. Pregnant at 14, she continued working in the fields until she gave birth. The father was the 16-year-old son of another tenant farmer.
“There is nothing like maternity leave for tobacco workers,” Kalima said. “No one is entitled to sick leave nor is there transport to hospital. I gave birth at home because it was too late for me to get to hospital.”
Martha is back in the tobacco fields carrying the baby on her back. Chances are slim that she will return to school.
Some 15 percent of girls and 12 percent of boys drop out of school, according to Malawi government statistics. Around 22 percent of primary school age girls never attend school at all, while 60 percent of those enrolled do not attend regularly.
The TECS corporate newsletter confirms that children with few options are pulled from school. Some are “coaxed from the poverty-stricken homes to work in order to keep body and soul together. They are exposed to hazardous environments where they work long hours and do jobs not befitting their ages and they are often beaten and abused.”
That was the fate of 16-year-old Ekari Maliwasa, says she has just returned to her village in the south of Malawi after working for five years in the tobacco estates in the northern part of the country.
“My parents took me with them to work in the tobacco estates in the north [when I was 11] and I only escaped back to my village two months ago after realizing that I was being abused. I am now staying with my elderly grandmother,” says Maliwasa. She says the estate manager beat her whenever he found her resting from the hard work in the tobacco fields. Ekari also went without food or drink for long hours, she said, and was not allowed take a break until she had worked for five hours.
Enforcement of Labor Standards Difficult
Maliwasa's treatment, like that endured by many of Malawi's child laborers, violated not only international standards but also legally binding treaties. Malawi is a signatory to a number of conventions against child labor including the 1973 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 138 which sets a minimum working age of 18, and the 1999 ILO Convention 182 which outlaws child labor.
The country also ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (ILO has set 2016 as the deadline for countries around the world to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.)
Child labor cannot be ended overnight says TECS Executive Director Bobby Maynard. “You can manage the supply chain to a certain degree but you can't control it fully,” he says. “The problem is that over 80 percent of tobacco is grown with no contracts from the tobacco companies -- as such it is difficult to intervene directly.”
Tobacco companies note that they are involved in policing child labor violations at estates where they have direct control, and that they subscribe to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), whose first principle is “no child labor.” But their results in curbing the practice have not been impressive.
Relying on British American Tobacco's own internal documents, the University of California study found that, “rather than actively and responsibly working to solve the problem of child labor in growing tobacco , the company acted to co-opt the issue to present themselves over as a 'socially responsible corporation' by releasing a policy statement claiming the company's commitment to end harmful child labor practices, holding a global child labor conference with trade unions and other key stakeholders, and contributing nominal sums of money for development projects largely unrelated to efforts to end child labor.”
International agencies are also involved. Kusali Kubwalo, communications officer for UNICEF Malawi, said the United Nations has joined Malawi's government and several non-governmental organizations to fight the problem from several fronts.
A national “Stop Child Abuse Campaign” aims to break the silence shrouding all forms of child abuse, including child labor.
“The campaign aims to mobilize leadership and a commitment at all levels to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse,” says Kubwalo. “Violations of children's rights take place every day in Malawi and are extensive, under-recognized and underreported.”
She insists that Malawi, as a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obligated to respect, protect, facilitate and promote the fulfillment of the rights it guarantees.
“This instrument must therefore be translated into concrete legislation, interventions and development programs,” says Kubwalo. “Ratification alone is not enough.”
Malawi Millennium Project
self-help and sustainability
The Project, set up to mark the Millennium, builds on Malawi's historical links with Scotland and the University through explorer and missionary David Livingstone, who studied at Strathclyde in the 1830s.
The main aims of the Malawi Millennium Project - based on self-help and sustainability - are to assist in educating the personnel necessary to train future generations of Malawian teachers, nurses, scientists, technicians and engineers to deal with some of the health and education problems in Malawi, one the 10 poorest countries in the world. The Project is a collaborative venture between the University of Strathclyde and the University of Malawi, with which Strathclyde has had academic links going back to the early 1990s.
The Project initiated a campaign to formalise links between Scotland and Malawi which led to a Co-operation Agreement between the two countries in 2005. Signed by Scotland's First Minister and the President of Malawi, the Agreement allows increased collaboration in the areas of Civic Governance and Society, Sustainable Economic Development, Health and Education. The Agreement was signed when the President of Malawi visited the Scottish Parliament to attend a major conference organised by the Scotland Malawi Partnership, set up in 2005 to provide a networking forum for individuals and organisations in Scotland with an interest in supporting Malawi. The Malawi Millennium Project is a founding member of the Partnership.
It takes very little to make a difference in Malawi
The Malawi Millennium Project has enjoyed widespread support inside and outwith the Strathclyde community. Many University staff, students and alumni donate time and effort to the Project by lending their expertise and organising fundraising events. Events range from the 'Move for Malawi' event in the University Sports Centre early in 2006 to balls and fashion shows in the University's Barony Hall.
The Project is proud of its record of careful financial management. Every penny counts and a network of contacts in Malawi allows the Project to target the money directly to those in need.
The Project, set up to mark the Millennium, builds on Malawi's historical links with Scotland and the University through explorer and missionary David Livingstone, who studied at Strathclyde in the 1830s.
The main aims of the Malawi Millennium Project - based on self-help and sustainability - are to assist in educating the personnel necessary to train future generations of Malawian teachers, nurses, scientists, technicians and engineers to deal with some of the health and education problems in Malawi, one the 10 poorest countries in the world. The Project is a collaborative venture between the University of Strathclyde and the University of Malawi, with which Strathclyde has had academic links going back to the early 1990s.
The Project initiated a campaign to formalise links between Scotland and Malawi which led to a Co-operation Agreement between the two countries in 2005. Signed by Scotland's First Minister and the President of Malawi, the Agreement allows increased collaboration in the areas of Civic Governance and Society, Sustainable Economic Development, Health and Education. The Agreement was signed when the President of Malawi visited the Scottish Parliament to attend a major conference organised by the Scotland Malawi Partnership, set up in 2005 to provide a networking forum for individuals and organisations in Scotland with an interest in supporting Malawi. The Malawi Millennium Project is a founding member of the Partnership.
It takes very little to make a difference in Malawi
The Malawi Millennium Project has enjoyed widespread support inside and outwith the Strathclyde community. Many University staff, students and alumni donate time and effort to the Project by lending their expertise and organising fundraising events. Events range from the 'Move for Malawi' event in the University Sports Centre early in 2006 to balls and fashion shows in the University's Barony Hall.
The Project is proud of its record of careful financial management. Every penny counts and a network of contacts in Malawi allows the Project to target the money directly to those in need.
Netball Association Boss gets continental appointment
The Chairman of the Netball Association of Ghana, Rev Emmanuel D. Nikoi has been elected Director of Marketing and Publicity of the Confederation of Africa Netball Associations (CANA).
He was elected recently during the Congress of CANA in Johannesburg, South Africa to serve a four year term of office from 2007 – 2011.
A statement issued from the Association copied to GNA Sports said Rev. Nikoi was among six officials sworn into office at the congress facilitated by the Council of Ministers of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa Zone VI.
The officers elected included Madam Carol Garoes of Namibia as President, Edith Kaliati of Malawi, Vice President; Sharifa Kh. Salim of Tanzania, Secretary General; David Thwala of Swaziland, Treasurer and Rebecca Kavulu of Uganda, as Africa Representative to the Board of the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA).
The congress was attended by delegates from eleven countries made up of Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia, Ghana, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, Lesotho and Kenya.
Madam Garoes in her acceptance speech pledged on behalf of her colleagues to raise Africa netball to the highest pinnacle and therefore called for support from all members to ensure the success of CANA’s activities.
He was elected recently during the Congress of CANA in Johannesburg, South Africa to serve a four year term of office from 2007 – 2011.
A statement issued from the Association copied to GNA Sports said Rev. Nikoi was among six officials sworn into office at the congress facilitated by the Council of Ministers of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa Zone VI.
The officers elected included Madam Carol Garoes of Namibia as President, Edith Kaliati of Malawi, Vice President; Sharifa Kh. Salim of Tanzania, Secretary General; David Thwala of Swaziland, Treasurer and Rebecca Kavulu of Uganda, as Africa Representative to the Board of the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA).
The congress was attended by delegates from eleven countries made up of Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia, Ghana, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, Lesotho and Kenya.
Madam Garoes in her acceptance speech pledged on behalf of her colleagues to raise Africa netball to the highest pinnacle and therefore called for support from all members to ensure the success of CANA’s activities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
