Malawi’s HIV/Aids rate down to 12 %

Malawi's National Aids Commission (Nac) has pegged the HIV/Aids prevalence for the year 2007 at 12 percent, down from 14 percent in previous years.

Nac’s board chairman Nicholas Chitimba said the prevalence of those aged between 15 and 49 years was now estimated at 12 percent.

Chitimba also told the Friday’s edition of the country’s local daily of the Daily Times that so far 2.8 million people had undergone HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) against about 7 million Malawians who were sexually active.

The Board chairman also disclosed that the southern African country’s Ministry of Health and other partners would set another national HTC campaign in August, which would extend to at least two weeks.

Chitimba also cited the increase in the percentage of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) who were receiving free basic care from 32.5 percent in 2005 to 53.3 percent in 2007.

Malawi with a population of about 13 million people has been hardly hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic which has claimed a lot of lives.

University of Malawi challenges Strathmore

One of the delights in watching the Celtel Africa Challenge is seeing an underdog like the University of Malawi beat an overconfident opponent like Kenya’s Strathmore University.
Malawi had the game rule that has the university with fewer points go first in each subsequent round of play.

Come the Ultimate Challenge, a speed round in which 10 questions worth 50 points each are played in under 60 seconds, and Malawi was in on the kill.

Clever choice of category (they went for United Nations over Sixth Letter-Six Letters, Abbreviations and Geometry “C” Words) earned Malawi an additional 450 points onto their 250-point third round tally. That gave them 700 points. Malawi only failed to name “Group of 77” as the collective term for the UN’s least developed countries.

Strathmore could have bettered their 260-point third round score had they racked up as many points as Malawi in the Ultimate Challenge.

Lady luck was not on their side though and they threw the game away after managing only six correct answers in the “Abbreviations” category. After racking up only an additional 300 points in this round, Strathmore made a quarterfinal exit with 560 points. One cannot berate them much for not knowing that the web acronym URL means “Uniform Resource Locator”, BBL is “Barrel”, AU is “Astronomical Unit” and GPS is “Global Positioning System.”

For the most part of the earlier three rounds of play, Strathmore was on top of the game stealing buzzer moments from Malawi but they failed to bring on that aggressive streak other Kenyan teams have employed to create sizeable point leads over competitors. Malawi, which had mostly medical students on its team managed to keep the point difference narrow mostly due to apt categories like “Bones and Teeth”.

No one expected them to fail to name “canines” as the teeth also known as “cuspids” that got their name because they are large in dogs. Our own Nkumba University plays Tanzania’s Sokoine University for the last semi-final place this Sunday on UBC TV at 7.30p.m.

Malawi: Will Bakili Muluzi be Recycled?

What is wrong with Muluzi and Malawians? Bakili Muluzi, the former President of Malawi, has been elected to be a flag bearer for his party! He won 1,950 votes against the 30 won by Vice-President and protégé-cum-consigliore, Cassim Chilumpha - his only challenger for the United Democratic Front ticket. This, for Muluzi and his cronies, is a sure way to re-run for Presidency in the 2009 general elections.

How can such abuse be allowed to happen! What’s wrong with asthenophoic Muluzi and other African rulers contemplating this sacrilege? Will Malawians really stomach this insult to their democracy and constitution? What shame and defeat for democracy! It is not forgotten how Muluzi shamelessly attempted to amend the constitution in his favour. However, brave Malawians blotted the genie from getting out of the bottle. They foiled bunkum.

Now that the selfsame Muluzi has stumbled on a loophole in the misconstrued constitution averring he can run again; he wants some more? What new thing will he do for Malawi that he failed to do for two terms in office? If anything, Muluzi seems to be day dreaming. Perhaps, he thinks: Malawi can be deceived by his argle-bargle of ousting Bingu wa Mutharika, current president. Will they commit this deadly sin by swallowing his hook, line and sinker just as the members of his party who voted him? As former President, one would expect him to become a Pan-Africanist contributing to the revamping of Africa from the enemies she’s facing.

Media reports indicate how Muluzi has been manipulating his party’s members to endorse him so as to face off wa Mutharika. His United Democratic Front (UDF) has succumbed to his machinations. When Malawians booted Banda out in a bid to break free from the trauma of dictatorship, the situation, by then, forced Malawians to vote for incompetent Muluzi. Muluzi became a liability and fatal political accident.

We learn through mistakes. But repeating the same mistakes is not learning but committing a sacrilegious sin. Will brave Malawians be this blind? Human rights activists need to go back to the drawing board to bar power-sick Muluzi from destabilizing Malawi.

Muluzi’s attempt has one lesson: corrupt retired rulers who abused their offices fear that anytime, they can be brought to books. They therefore try to destabilize the country in order to busy the government of the day so as to forget their sins. Muluzi must thank God that Wa Mutharika, apart from showing political tolerance and maturity, is a liberal. This civility and maturity should not be mistaken for chicken-heartedness or taken for a ride.

Wa Mutharika has proved to Malawi that he has a mission-cum vision. The economy that Muluzi squandered is now recovering; democracy is shriving. What else does Muluzi, his cohorts and yo-yos want to offer to Malawians? Shall Muluzi succeed to stand, let alone win, the humiliation Malawi will suffer will never recover for centuries. Again, this will be a very nefarious precedent for the whole continent. For this reason therefore, Africans must chip in to help the people of Malawi to navigate and sail through this tumultuous sea.

If UDF is impotent this much to lack presidential material in other persons, it should disband itself and let its members join other competent parties. Ask Muluzi what his mission is. Isn’t it nothing but to unseat Wa Mutharika? Can such bulimia really convince any voter in the first place? Look at Kaunda, Chissano, Nujoma and others. Instead of fanning chaos, they are helping new leaders to brace themselves to power.

One thing that Muluzi needs to know is this: Malawians know how he squandered their economy and they will not stomach this second mockery. How can Muluzi who used to dish money out to every sycophant be allowed even to pick the forms! He should be ordered to return back the monies he stole from public coffers. Have Malawians easily forgotten his concerted efforts to superimpose himself on them by tampering with the constitution? Does he think they have already forgotten the beatings and brutality from his police during demonstrations? Or may be Muluzi wants to be crowned a king of Malawi! Never.

Off the cuffs: Tanzanian government in its desperate face-saving efforts issued a formal note that it will probe former president, Benjamin Mkapa on allegations he abused his office. When will Daniel arap Moi face the music? The wisdom of today is, “It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.


By Nkwazi Mhango
Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He is a Journalist, Teacher, Human Rights activist and member of the Writers' Association of New Foundland and Labrador (WANL)

Britain Commits Millions of Dollars to Malawi Budget

Britain will commit US$180 million towards budgetary support during Malawi’s 2007/08 fiscal year, the head of Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Malawi, Nick Dyer, said here Friday.

The funding, Dyer said, will reinforce his country’s commitment to helping Malawi build a better future.

“Our support will help the government make the economy stronger, thereby bring more Malawians out of poverty,” he said, adding that the funding will directly fund the development of agriculture, including the fertilizer subsidy program and maize markets, health services and the country’s response to HIV and Aids.

Malawi's alternative: bicycles for hire

NAMITETE, Malawi (Reuters) - Bernard Banda makes $5 a day carrying people on his bicycle, good money in a country where more than half the 13 million people live below a dollar a day.

"I charge MK70 (50 U.S. cents) per trip and on a good day I make about MK700 or more," Bernard says.

Banda is not the only one cashing in on a bicycle transport industry now booming because of the rising costs of fuel pushed up by strong global oil prices.

Along Mchinji road -- the highway linking Malawi to Zambia's eastern province -- colourfully decorated bicycles are neatly parked, waiting to transport students to a nearby government college, nursing staff to a hospital and visitors around the area.

The bicycles are remodelled to suit the business. A second seat is attached to the bicycle behind the driver's seat. The passenger seat is finished in colourful but cheap leather, comfortably sized to accommodate any size of passenger.

Stand by the roadside for just a few minutes and you can see how important the bicycles are to the area.

Bernard is hired to transport a bag of maize. Another driver picks up a new passenger and cycles off.

"To do this you have to be strong because sometimes we ride uphill carrying a passenger or hired to transport a bag of maize," says Langiton Sitima.

This form of transport is fast-becoming a common sight across Malawi. In each province the bikers are called by different names.

"This form of transport is our future. I can no longer afford to pay K150 a day for a one-way trip using public transport," says Maggie Yotamu, a student at the College of Natural Resources which is along the route the bicycles service.

In the capital Lilongwe and its surrounding districts they call the bikers "Kabadza", which means hard worker. In the Northern Province they call them "Sacramento", named after the Brazilian buses that ply the long routes across the country.

To underscore the importance of the bicycle, police have been organising identity cards for these bikers.

"In most cases police have moved in because we recognise that they are giving a very important service to the public and therefore we give them identity cards for security purposes," police spokesperson Willie Mwaluka told Reuters.