Malawi authorities have seized the passport of former President Bakili Muluzi, who faces corruption charges, and barred him from leaving the country, a senior official said Saturday.
Muluzi was scheduled to leave for the United Kingdom for a medical check-up next Wednesday, but Saturday was informed he must not go abroad, his lawyer Jay Banda told Reuters.
"We have seized his passport because there are some things we have to look into before he leaves for the UK," Anti-Corruption Bureau director Alex Nampota told Reuters.
Banda said the bureau had received anonymous calls last night that Muluzi did not plan to come back after traveling to Britain. He said the claims were politically motivated and unfounded.
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Muluzi has been under investigation for the last two years on suspicion of siphoning money from Taiwan, Morocco, Libya and other donors. He was arrested in February and charged with 87 counts of diverting money into his private account. He denies any wrongdoing.
Muluzi, who ruled the southern African nation for 10 years, stepped down in 2004 after unsuccessfully trying to change the constitution to allow him to stand again.
He was barred from contesting in this years' May presidential elections, but backed his former rival John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party. The alliance lost the election to Bingu Wa Mutharika.
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Mzuzu University students riot
Mzuzu University students riot June 20, 2009
Filed under: Aid, Malawi teachers wages, NEW, education — wellsforzoe @ 11:55 am
Tags: Education in Malawi, Free education in Malawi, Student riots in Malawi, University education in Malawi
Mzuzu University students riot
By Nyasa Times
Published: June 19, 2009
Students at Mzuzu University protest over unpaid allowances
Malawi’s Mzuzu University students on Friday evening rioted and blocked roads to the institution’s campus demanding payment of their allowances.
Lectures had been blocked from leaving their offices and some escaped from the campus.
The students are claiming that they have not received their allowances for nine weeks and demand immediate payment.
“This is what we call peaceful standstill,” said one student Cedrick Kwelani.
“We want our stationary allowance,” he said.
Speaking before students chanting solidarity songs denouncing management and Government over the strike,, Kwelani said authorities in the finance department at the University were behaving in a suspicious manner for holding on their allowances describing them as “tricksters”.
“Today when we checked our bank account we found out there is no money. The Director of Finance has refused to give our money,” said Kwelani as some students shouted names which cannot be printed.
“We asked them to deposit our allowance before banks were closed but they did not heed our call. We need our money today,” said Kwelani speaking on behalf of the rioting student.
He said the matter has been discussed for longer time but the authorities were adamant not to honour the payment.
“As students we believe in diplomacy we tried all means of dialogue including sending students union leaders but they have refused to address us,” he said.
Police said they would remain there overnight to ensure no violence was poured onto the streets.
Vice Chancellor Prof Landson Mhango and Register Reginald Mushani were not immediately available for comment.
Mzuzu University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1997 as Malawi’s second national (public) university in Malawi. The first students were admitted in January 1999.
In July 1994, former President Bakili Muluzi, decided that a new University should be established and that it should be located in the Northern Region after the government had studied the problems inherent in the delivery of tertiary education in the country.
It seems to be that time of year again; student unrest.
When one thinks of student riots, one thinks of concerned principled young people striking a blow against tyrannical regimes for the rights of others. Not so in Malawi. It always seems to be the most privileged looking for more.
In one of the poorest countries in the world, which is seriously dependant on foreign aid, at a time where this aid might be drying up, this group of the elite, want more and the want it now. (and maybe there are reasons). I’m sure there are excellent young people involved, but they really are the privileged in getting third level education free.
Many of them will leave the country, when they graduate, and from what I see, give little back to the country which spends so much scarce resources on them.
All my comments are based on my experience, of working in remote rural areas: Primary education is almost non existant, with poor buildings and facilities and poorly trained teachers. Secondary education is distant, often poor quality and expensive. BUT third level education is free. AND finally a large number of these graduates leave the country and give nothing back. It makes me sad to be questioning education, having been a teacher with a firm belief in the potential of education all my life, and having seen what it has done for IRELAND in a post famine context.
Of course our primary education was, from the beginning, of a very high standard and delivered by very driven and well trained individuals who were respected and valued by the community, our second level schools were provided by religious, who may have had their failings but they were also driven.
Third level education was expensive and also for the few, when we were at Malawi’s stage of development.
My advice to them is to get back to work, take a bit of pain in solidarity with your disadvantaged neighbors, stay in Malawi when you graduate and make a contribution.
Filed under: Aid, Malawi teachers wages, NEW, education — wellsforzoe @ 11:55 am
Tags: Education in Malawi, Free education in Malawi, Student riots in Malawi, University education in Malawi
Mzuzu University students riot
By Nyasa Times
Published: June 19, 2009
Students at Mzuzu University protest over unpaid allowances
Malawi’s Mzuzu University students on Friday evening rioted and blocked roads to the institution’s campus demanding payment of their allowances.
Lectures had been blocked from leaving their offices and some escaped from the campus.
The students are claiming that they have not received their allowances for nine weeks and demand immediate payment.
“This is what we call peaceful standstill,” said one student Cedrick Kwelani.
“We want our stationary allowance,” he said.
Speaking before students chanting solidarity songs denouncing management and Government over the strike,, Kwelani said authorities in the finance department at the University were behaving in a suspicious manner for holding on their allowances describing them as “tricksters”.
“Today when we checked our bank account we found out there is no money. The Director of Finance has refused to give our money,” said Kwelani as some students shouted names which cannot be printed.
“We asked them to deposit our allowance before banks were closed but they did not heed our call. We need our money today,” said Kwelani speaking on behalf of the rioting student.
He said the matter has been discussed for longer time but the authorities were adamant not to honour the payment.
“As students we believe in diplomacy we tried all means of dialogue including sending students union leaders but they have refused to address us,” he said.
Police said they would remain there overnight to ensure no violence was poured onto the streets.
Vice Chancellor Prof Landson Mhango and Register Reginald Mushani were not immediately available for comment.
Mzuzu University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1997 as Malawi’s second national (public) university in Malawi. The first students were admitted in January 1999.
In July 1994, former President Bakili Muluzi, decided that a new University should be established and that it should be located in the Northern Region after the government had studied the problems inherent in the delivery of tertiary education in the country.
It seems to be that time of year again; student unrest.
When one thinks of student riots, one thinks of concerned principled young people striking a blow against tyrannical regimes for the rights of others. Not so in Malawi. It always seems to be the most privileged looking for more.
In one of the poorest countries in the world, which is seriously dependant on foreign aid, at a time where this aid might be drying up, this group of the elite, want more and the want it now. (and maybe there are reasons). I’m sure there are excellent young people involved, but they really are the privileged in getting third level education free.
Many of them will leave the country, when they graduate, and from what I see, give little back to the country which spends so much scarce resources on them.
All my comments are based on my experience, of working in remote rural areas: Primary education is almost non existant, with poor buildings and facilities and poorly trained teachers. Secondary education is distant, often poor quality and expensive. BUT third level education is free. AND finally a large number of these graduates leave the country and give nothing back. It makes me sad to be questioning education, having been a teacher with a firm belief in the potential of education all my life, and having seen what it has done for IRELAND in a post famine context.
Of course our primary education was, from the beginning, of a very high standard and delivered by very driven and well trained individuals who were respected and valued by the community, our second level schools were provided by religious, who may have had their failings but they were also driven.
Third level education was expensive and also for the few, when we were at Malawi’s stage of development.
My advice to them is to get back to work, take a bit of pain in solidarity with your disadvantaged neighbors, stay in Malawi when you graduate and make a contribution.
Madonna's adopted daughter said to leave Malawi
Madonna's new daughter has flown out of her native Malawi on a private jet headed for London, an airport employee and a person familiar with Madonna's adoption proceedings in this southern African country said Saturday.
The airport employee, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James left late Friday headed to London, with a stop in neighboring South Africa. The girl, the second child Madonna has adopted from Malawi, was reportedly accompanied on the flight by a nanny, a child nurse and a third aide.
The person familiar with the adoption, who also was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the girl known as Mercy should have reached London on Saturday morning. Madonna has homes in England and in the United States.
Malawi's highest court had granted the adoption June 12, overturning an April lower court ruling that Madonna had not spent enough time in Malawi to be given a child.
The high court said the first judge had imposed too narrow a definition of residency, and lauded Madonna for her work with children in a poor country where half a million have lost a parent to AIDS.
Madonna's Raising Malawi, a charity founded in 2006, helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's orphans.
Madonna adopted a son, David, from Malawi last year.
Children's welfare groups had expressed concern that rules meant to protect children were being bent because of Madonna's celebrity, and perhaps out of gratitude for what she has done for Malawi.
Madonna met Mercy in 2006 at Kondanani Children's Village, an orphanage in Bvumbwe, just south of Blantyre. It was the same year she began the process of adopting David, whom she found at another orphanage in central Malawi.
The girl's 18-year-old mother was unmarried and died soon after she gave birth. Since Madonna moved to adopt the girl, a dispute has arisen between the girl's maternal relatives, who agreed to the adoption, and a man who says he is the father and wants to care for the girl himself, but acknowledged he had never seen Mercy.
Madonna first traveled to Malawi in 2006 while filming a documentary on its devastating poverty and AIDS crisis.
In addition to David, the 50-year-old Madonna has two other children: Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, 8.
Reports that Madonna would in the next few days visit her charity's projects in Malawi could not be confirmed.
The airport employee, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James left late Friday headed to London, with a stop in neighboring South Africa. The girl, the second child Madonna has adopted from Malawi, was reportedly accompanied on the flight by a nanny, a child nurse and a third aide.
The person familiar with the adoption, who also was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the girl known as Mercy should have reached London on Saturday morning. Madonna has homes in England and in the United States.
Malawi's highest court had granted the adoption June 12, overturning an April lower court ruling that Madonna had not spent enough time in Malawi to be given a child.
The high court said the first judge had imposed too narrow a definition of residency, and lauded Madonna for her work with children in a poor country where half a million have lost a parent to AIDS.
Madonna's Raising Malawi, a charity founded in 2006, helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's orphans.
Madonna adopted a son, David, from Malawi last year.
Children's welfare groups had expressed concern that rules meant to protect children were being bent because of Madonna's celebrity, and perhaps out of gratitude for what she has done for Malawi.
Madonna met Mercy in 2006 at Kondanani Children's Village, an orphanage in Bvumbwe, just south of Blantyre. It was the same year she began the process of adopting David, whom she found at another orphanage in central Malawi.
The girl's 18-year-old mother was unmarried and died soon after she gave birth. Since Madonna moved to adopt the girl, a dispute has arisen between the girl's maternal relatives, who agreed to the adoption, and a man who says he is the father and wants to care for the girl himself, but acknowledged he had never seen Mercy.
Madonna first traveled to Malawi in 2006 while filming a documentary on its devastating poverty and AIDS crisis.
In addition to David, the 50-year-old Madonna has two other children: Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, 8.
Reports that Madonna would in the next few days visit her charity's projects in Malawi could not be confirmed.
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