March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Malawi, Africa's biggest producer of burley tobacco, raised the minimum price of the crop by 46 percent after production costs increased.
Merchants must pay at least $1.61 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) for the crop, compared with $1.10 last year, Frank Mwenefumbo, the nation's deputy agriculture minister, said in an interview today from the capital, Lilongwe. The government also introduced a minimum price of $2.20 a kilogram for its flue-cured tobacco.
``Factors like the cost of production and fertilizer have been taken into account, as has a reasonable margin of profit for farmers,'' Mwenefumbo said.
Malawi introduced minimum prices for its tobacco last year after growers boycotted auctions in 2006 and President Bingu wa Mutharika accused merchants of paying too little for the crop. Richmond, Virginia-based Universal Corp. and Morrisville, North Carolina-based Alliance One International Inc. are traditionally the biggest buyers of Malawi's tobacco.
Tobacco farmers are ``pleased'' with the new price, Felix Mkumba, general manager of the Tobacco Association of Malawi, said in an interview today.
``The new prices should ensure growers remain committed to the crop,'' he said.
The Tobacco Exporters Association of Malawi's spokesman Patrick Chishala wasn't immediately available for comment. The association represents merchants in the southern African nation.
The minimum price of corn, which is mainly bought by the state-owned Agricultural Development and Marketing Corp., will rise to 20 kwacha (14 U.S. cents) a kilogram, from 17 kwacha last year, Mwenefumbo said.
Malawi last month began rationing corn after stocks ran low even after the biggest harvest in 10 years of 3.4 million metric tons. The country accepted orders for 400,000 metric tons of corn from Zimbabwe and 45,000 tons from Swaziland last year.
The price of cotton will increase to 65 kwacha a kilogram, from 45 kwacha last year, Mwenefumbo said.
Monday, 10 March 2008
Malawi issues birth certificates
Malawi is to introduce compulsory birth certificates in an attempt to combat a growing child trafficking problem.
Malawian citizens have not been required to have birth or death certificates before.
The government now plans to issue the documents not only to new born children, but also to all of the country's 12 million citizens.
Officials say the move will also reduce confusion in adoption cases - such as Madonna's adoption of a Malawian boy.
Madonna adopted a one-year-old Malawian boy from an orphanage but it was later discovered that his father was still alive.
Labour Minister David Katsonga will kick off the process by issuing certificates to children in the southern district of Mwanza this week.
Malawi lacks comprehensive child protection laws, and the International Labour Organisation says there is a lot of child trafficking for sex and labour in Malawi.
There have been cases of children - especially girls - being taken to Europe to work in the sex trade.
Authorities hope the new birth certificates will offer children some degree of protection, and make them less vulnerable to exploitation as child labourers.
Malawian citizens have not been required to have birth or death certificates before.
The government now plans to issue the documents not only to new born children, but also to all of the country's 12 million citizens.
Officials say the move will also reduce confusion in adoption cases - such as Madonna's adoption of a Malawian boy.
Madonna adopted a one-year-old Malawian boy from an orphanage but it was later discovered that his father was still alive.
Labour Minister David Katsonga will kick off the process by issuing certificates to children in the southern district of Mwanza this week.
Malawi lacks comprehensive child protection laws, and the International Labour Organisation says there is a lot of child trafficking for sex and labour in Malawi.
There have been cases of children - especially girls - being taken to Europe to work in the sex trade.
Authorities hope the new birth certificates will offer children some degree of protection, and make them less vulnerable to exploitation as child labourers.
OPSEU Leader to Tour South Africa, Malawi in Support of AIDS Projects
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 10, 2008) - The president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union will embark on a tour of southern Africa AIDS/HIV projects, trade unions and community organizations.
Warren (Smokey) Thomas will visit projects in South Africa and Malawi funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which OPSEU supports through the union's Live and Let Live charitable fund. Thomas will also deliver OPSEU-donated solar-powered lights to a rural village in need of electricity.
"I'm proud that OPSEU has extended our union's reach beyond our borders to help those attempting to cope with the terrible AIDS/HIV pandemic in Africa," Thomas said. "I hope to bring back a better understanding of their problems."
Thomas will also meet with a number of South African union leaders and tour a Workers' College in Durban.
Itinerary
Thursday, March 13: Kwezana, South Africa: AIDS/HIV village project
Friday, March 14, Durban: Workers' College
Saturday, March 15, Umdoni: Vulamehlo HIV/AIDS Association - a home based care project
Wednesday, March 19, Johannesburg: Big Shoes project - supporting AIDS widows and orphans
Friday, March 21, Kasungu, Malawi: Makupo village electricity project
Warren (Smokey) Thomas will visit projects in South Africa and Malawi funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which OPSEU supports through the union's Live and Let Live charitable fund. Thomas will also deliver OPSEU-donated solar-powered lights to a rural village in need of electricity.
"I'm proud that OPSEU has extended our union's reach beyond our borders to help those attempting to cope with the terrible AIDS/HIV pandemic in Africa," Thomas said. "I hope to bring back a better understanding of their problems."
Thomas will also meet with a number of South African union leaders and tour a Workers' College in Durban.
Itinerary
Thursday, March 13: Kwezana, South Africa: AIDS/HIV village project
Friday, March 14, Durban: Workers' College
Saturday, March 15, Umdoni: Vulamehlo HIV/AIDS Association - a home based care project
Wednesday, March 19, Johannesburg: Big Shoes project - supporting AIDS widows and orphans
Friday, March 21, Kasungu, Malawi: Makupo village electricity project
Malawi to combat child trafficking
Malawi is to introduce compulsory birth certificates to help combat child trafficking, the government announced on Monday.
"Malawian children have no document to show when they were born. We can hardly tell who is a child," Lawrence Hussein, a senior official of the national registration bureau in the president's office, said.
"With the issuance of birth certificates, we will go a long way in addressing problems in the areas of child trafficking, child labour and child adoption," Hussien said.
Under a registration system conducted by the national statistics office and sponsored by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), nine of Malawi's 28 districts will be the first to introduce birth certificates.
Labour Minister Davis Katsonga will officially issue the first certificates to scores of children in the southern district of Mwanza on Thursday.
Malawi, which lacks comprehensive child protection legislation, has been using a 1904 act which does not require citizens to be registered at birth nor report death to authorities.
Population experts say half of the country's 12 million citizens are children under 16.
In 2007, UNICEF launched a major new study to determine the scale of the problems, after the local International Labour Organisation office said there was "a lot of child trafficking for sex and labour in Malawi."
Officials at UNICEF in Malawi said the study would be used to build up the case for a comprehensive child protection legislation.
"Malawian children have no document to show when they were born. We can hardly tell who is a child," Lawrence Hussein, a senior official of the national registration bureau in the president's office, said.
"With the issuance of birth certificates, we will go a long way in addressing problems in the areas of child trafficking, child labour and child adoption," Hussien said.
Under a registration system conducted by the national statistics office and sponsored by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), nine of Malawi's 28 districts will be the first to introduce birth certificates.
Labour Minister Davis Katsonga will officially issue the first certificates to scores of children in the southern district of Mwanza on Thursday.
Malawi, which lacks comprehensive child protection legislation, has been using a 1904 act which does not require citizens to be registered at birth nor report death to authorities.
Population experts say half of the country's 12 million citizens are children under 16.
In 2007, UNICEF launched a major new study to determine the scale of the problems, after the local International Labour Organisation office said there was "a lot of child trafficking for sex and labour in Malawi."
Officials at UNICEF in Malawi said the study would be used to build up the case for a comprehensive child protection legislation.
Malawi grain production to fall this year
Heavy rains and a four-week dry spell in southern Malawi will cut maize production by 3.4 percent this growing season but output will not fall below the country's annual needs, an official said on Monday.
Output is expected to fall to about 3.28 million tonnes from last year's level of 3.4 million tonnes, said Patrick Kambambe, principal secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.
"But despite the fall, this year's harvest will still be above the annual requirement of 2.2 million tonnes," he told Reuters.
Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world, started rationing maize in early February following a report in parliament that the country's stocks were dwindling as heavy flooding wiped out many crops.
The floods could trim expected economic growth of more than 7 percent after years of strong expansion fuelled largely by good maize harvests, economic reforms and an increase in aid.
Last month, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika denied the country was running out of maize despite a report that two people starved to death, and opposition claims that the government sold too much of its maize to Zimbabwe.
Malawi harvested 3.1 million tonnes of maize in the last planting season, its biggest in 10 years. The government exported 400,000 tonnes to neighbouring Zimbabwe, which is battling a chronic economic crisis.
U.N. agencies in the country estimate that a million or more people may need food aid following rains that have displaced 70,000 people and killed six in southern Malawi.
Output is expected to fall to about 3.28 million tonnes from last year's level of 3.4 million tonnes, said Patrick Kambambe, principal secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.
"But despite the fall, this year's harvest will still be above the annual requirement of 2.2 million tonnes," he told Reuters.
Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world, started rationing maize in early February following a report in parliament that the country's stocks were dwindling as heavy flooding wiped out many crops.
The floods could trim expected economic growth of more than 7 percent after years of strong expansion fuelled largely by good maize harvests, economic reforms and an increase in aid.
Last month, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika denied the country was running out of maize despite a report that two people starved to death, and opposition claims that the government sold too much of its maize to Zimbabwe.
Malawi harvested 3.1 million tonnes of maize in the last planting season, its biggest in 10 years. The government exported 400,000 tonnes to neighbouring Zimbabwe, which is battling a chronic economic crisis.
U.N. agencies in the country estimate that a million or more people may need food aid following rains that have displaced 70,000 people and killed six in southern Malawi.
Malawi starts elections preparations
Malawi has engaged a serious gear in the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary elections slated for May 19 next year.
Lars_malawi1.jpg
The Malawi Electoral Commission has since released the elections calendar endorsed by its Chairperson Justice Anastasia Msosa which shows that voter registration commences on June 2 and winds up on September 14 this year.
Msosa said the registration will be held in six phases each taking 14 days and those eligible will have to be 18 year old and above.
Between January 6 and 9 next year contestants will submit their nomination papers while inspection of the voters’ roll will be three months later between March to April 3.
Through out the country, the calendar says actual polling will be on May 19 from 600 hours to 1800 hours.
Malawi Electoral Commission has come up with tentative budget of K5.6 billion (US$40 million) for the 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections to be used for the creation of a new voter registration among others.
Malawi Electoral Commission spokesperson Fergus Lipenga said Lipenga said the tentative figure was subject to negotiations between the pollster, donors and the government of Malawi.
“We intend to use the money to process a new voters’ roll, buy new equipment including digital cameras fro registration of voters and recruit poll experts as consultants among others,” he said.
Lipenga said they are trying to avoid the 2004 elections mess with voters’ roll which failed other voters to cast the ballot as they names had disappeared.
“A good voters’ roll is the basis for a credible elections,” he said.
Lipenga also said they have invited political parties to inspect the electoral the body’s its Information Communication Technology Centre to vent the new voters’ roll system.
He said the parties had also been given seven days, starting from March 1, 2008 to contribute on the better strategies on civic and voter education campaigns as they had earlier on rejected the one MEC had come up with.
As usual, the opposition has dismissed calls by MEC to inspect the Information Communication Technology Centre as mere lip service.
Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) described the invitation as a casual approach to a serious matter and told MEC to appraise the parties first.
“How do we find ourselves in a process of hardware and software?” wondered UDF Director of Research Humphrey Mvula “the invitation should not just be some window-dressing to appear if they were doing everything possible to ensure free and fair elections.”
Recently the Malawi High Court ruled in favour of President Bingu wa Mutharika over nine people he had appointed to the electoral body as Commissioners in March last year whom the opposition rejected.
However, only seven have taken up their posts while two have refused to be sworn-in saying they were not comfortable to work in positions that were embroidered in controversy.
The opposition which has said it will be working with the commissioners of the electoral body under protest due to the nature of their appointment said it wanted to submit names of its representatives in the electoral commission as was the practice during the reign of Mutharika’s predecessor Bakili Muluzi.
According to Lipenga one unique feature of the 2009 elections will be the acquisition of a facility to track fingerprints at a cost of K5 billion which will be used to catch anybody intending to register twice.
The European Union, GTZ, NORAD, USAID and DfID are some of the donors contributing towards the elections through a UNDP coordinated elections funding basket.
Zimbabwe: Comment
THIS year's election is remarkable for the unashamed manner in which the State, bereft of a plausible election campaign platform, has decided on outright vote-buying.
President Robert Mugabe leads his party in offering inducements of computers to schools throughout the country. Ordinarily such support to the educational sector would not raise eyebrows. However, when this is done in order to rally voters to a political cause and to garner votes, it raises serious questions about the extent to which State resources can be abused for purposes.
It is cynical that the government can purport on one hand to be concerned about education -- by donating computers to schools -- when on the other it completely ignores the plight of teachers over poor salaries. Consequently teachers are entering the third week of their strike with no immediate solution in sight.
Desperation belies the government's vote-buying agenda. In most of the areas where beneficiaries of the President's largesse are located there is no electricity to power the computers. But that is just one small aspect of the paradox.
There just aren't enough computer teachers and equally there is a shortage of technicians to maintain them.
Yesterday saw the launch of the so-called third phase of the farm mechanisation programme. We know what the first two phases were about, so this one is no different: it is a desperate attempt at vote-buying. The timing is blatant. This is what happens when an electoral management body opts to play the observer and allows an interested party -- the ruling party -- to get into the driving seat of the electoral process.
Running parallel to this exercise is another in which urban voters are being
offered stands by an organisation that promotes the interests of the ruling party. And it hasn't been shy about who the recipients of the stands should support during the 29 March elections.
In Harare alone the ruling party has been offering stands to residents in Harare North and South constituencies on condition that they produce party membership cards.
Rural voters are being enticed with offers of grain that is being imported from Malawi and Zambia, while the military has been awarded hefty salary increases -- this at a time when government is ignoring the plight of teachers, nurses and doctors.
While it may be difficult to end the practice of vote-buying during the current campaign, there must be an agreement among Zimbabweans and political parties that outlaws vote-buying. Penalties could include outright barring from seeking office of candidates guilty of the exercise.
The problem with entrenching vote-buying is not only its abuse of resources bought by taxpayers' money to further the interests of a particular political party, but it demeans the essence of political parties going out to voters on the basis of their programmes. Vote-buying is a dangerous process. It belittles the voter.
For the purpose of the 29 March polls, voters should go ahead and accept whatever they are offered, but they must then proceed to vote for the party they believe demonstrates the determination -- as opposed to the rhetoric -- to rescue the country from the crisis it has been subjected to during the past decade.
There are a select few who will vote for those dispensing such largesse, but the fruits of the struggle for democracy are not for the few. The benefits must cascade to all citizens of Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe leads his party in offering inducements of computers to schools throughout the country. Ordinarily such support to the educational sector would not raise eyebrows. However, when this is done in order to rally voters to a political cause and to garner votes, it raises serious questions about the extent to which State resources can be abused for purposes.
It is cynical that the government can purport on one hand to be concerned about education -- by donating computers to schools -- when on the other it completely ignores the plight of teachers over poor salaries. Consequently teachers are entering the third week of their strike with no immediate solution in sight.
Desperation belies the government's vote-buying agenda. In most of the areas where beneficiaries of the President's largesse are located there is no electricity to power the computers. But that is just one small aspect of the paradox.
There just aren't enough computer teachers and equally there is a shortage of technicians to maintain them.
Yesterday saw the launch of the so-called third phase of the farm mechanisation programme. We know what the first two phases were about, so this one is no different: it is a desperate attempt at vote-buying. The timing is blatant. This is what happens when an electoral management body opts to play the observer and allows an interested party -- the ruling party -- to get into the driving seat of the electoral process.
Running parallel to this exercise is another in which urban voters are being
offered stands by an organisation that promotes the interests of the ruling party. And it hasn't been shy about who the recipients of the stands should support during the 29 March elections.
In Harare alone the ruling party has been offering stands to residents in Harare North and South constituencies on condition that they produce party membership cards.
Rural voters are being enticed with offers of grain that is being imported from Malawi and Zambia, while the military has been awarded hefty salary increases -- this at a time when government is ignoring the plight of teachers, nurses and doctors.
While it may be difficult to end the practice of vote-buying during the current campaign, there must be an agreement among Zimbabweans and political parties that outlaws vote-buying. Penalties could include outright barring from seeking office of candidates guilty of the exercise.
The problem with entrenching vote-buying is not only its abuse of resources bought by taxpayers' money to further the interests of a particular political party, but it demeans the essence of political parties going out to voters on the basis of their programmes. Vote-buying is a dangerous process. It belittles the voter.
For the purpose of the 29 March polls, voters should go ahead and accept whatever they are offered, but they must then proceed to vote for the party they believe demonstrates the determination -- as opposed to the rhetoric -- to rescue the country from the crisis it has been subjected to during the past decade.
There are a select few who will vote for those dispensing such largesse, but the fruits of the struggle for democracy are not for the few. The benefits must cascade to all citizens of Zimbabwe.
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