Kondwani Munthali -Malawi

When late Kate Kainja Kaluluma passed on to glory, I said the day was so remarkable as she was buried the birth day of late First Lady Ethel Mutharika. But I said the two could be well remembered if we did something against cancer. Aleke Banda or AKB as many prefer to call him is not an ordinary Malawian. He is also a rare African. He has just announced his retirement from politics and that he will be engaged in raising cancer awareness. AKB was offered a Havard Scholarship and it was late Kamuzu Banda who denied him such an opportunity as the country needed him more. There is his biography coming out, very soon it should be worthy reading it. It can easily be said to be the History of Malawi with one of the very few politicians that have stood the test of times. He was detained for 12 years without trial, he was jailed and expelled by the federation. He however was a distinction in whatever task he set to achieve. I pray that the country will find the right place for him to tap his en...

I have never laughed so hard and felt sad the next moment. Politics can turn anybody into a caricature or simply a cartoon. I have had a chat with Dr. George Chaponda about many things, the worst I expected this seasoned Internationalist is to dramatise the alleged biting of Village Headman Sosola whom MBC has found a new story in him to demonise the UDF. I have been doing research on ethics and other forms of Journalism but I deliberately ignored MBC because there is nothing there to analyse. Everyday the station sinks to its worst form of what used to be the pride of the nation. Working for MBC was a pride, everywhere people knew you, announcers such as late Mwala Moyo and my teacher Davies Mussa made their own names and were household celebrities. I happened to live in Nkolokosa when Mussa and Mwala were in the township. I still cherish the waves we got from them every time they knocked off. I can recall their programmes and words uttered some 27 years ago. Mussa used ‘kumeta maliro...

Definately a day in politics can be a year. Thabo Mbeki was being praised the other day for brockering the yet to be announced Zimbabwe deal and the following day he was back in South African papers after a judge in his former deputy and now political rival Jacob Zuma's case named his office as having intefered in the National Prosecutions Office decision to prosecute Zuma. Of course Zuma is a living example to many of those that believe they can abuse their offices to deter people's will. That reminds me of Comrade Robert Mugabe, a man whose legacy as a liberator is now lies in ruins of history and many will choose to remember his role in the Zimbabwe destruction. Only the few smile in the great Zimbabwe. We pray that Monday 15th September Simba Makoni's prophecy of a new Zimbabwe dawn will come to reality. One common attribute is how Governments decide to work out on denying opposition chances to exist in a multi-party democracy. Elsewhere, Africa is the only continent fo...

There was 40-40 celebration in Swaziland this week. My President attended the celebration in Mbabane together with Mugabe, Museveni and even Namibia's Pohamba. I think an American Assistant Secretary for African Affairs was there too. The good side of the commemoration was over shadowed by a demonstration by an estimated 2,000 people in Mbabane. Now I do love Swaziland, it will be my honeymoon destination and also probably my home when I start big investments of my life time. I have to Swaziland for more than four times and I have good freinds, fortunately I only have to say Dhlamini for the surname, one Ntokozo Nzabulewako and a few other with different surnames. But the first names are either Sizwe, Melusi and Clement. The other time while driving from WHY NOT? a must for anyone who loves dating the world at night, we engaged into a serious discussion with a colleague who is a lawyer for Truworths or something else in Mbabane. They gave me some traditional brew-Malula if I remem...

As I said it before, I find ti difficult sometimes to comment on some current affairs because of the perceptions it sometimes generate. Especially the political side. With seven months of returning to print media, I have been labelled all sorts of parties from the DPP, UDF and MCP and even PPM. One thing that keeps me going, is hope and the sense that I have done better as a Journalists. I write without flinching an eye on whose toe I will be stepping. I have been offered funny jobs within the same months, I have had threats, suspicious break-in and more importantly some body went to town to threaten me that I will be arrested. Harrassment has been more visible in services I cant mention here and I know with elections, it will be a real and great time for Journalists. But of course, I have experience of two elections-1999 and 2004, so I have learnt that only professionals survive the ride and mantain their dignity. I can confidently say I have never exchanged a story for money, nor bee...

In politics you have no permanent freinds and enemies-late Chakufwa Chihana once told a local paper in an interview justfying his return to Bakili Muluzi's administration after accusing of being "very corrupt that it cannot change." The past months, unfortunately quite busy for me that I could not even write here, have been very interesting. Of course we lost Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, a lawyer par excellence who returned Zambia to the rule of Law and real democracy and observance of human rights and dignity. For the first time, Zambia experienced very few politically motivated arrests unlike the times when John Chinula and William Banda were deported to Malawi wrongly, Kenneth Kaunda was accused of being a Malawian. Micheal Sata who changed tune on Mwanawasa after his medical treatment supported by late Mwanawasa, aslo has a story to tale of how the opposition was being managed under the other Presidents. However, leby's death is one of those important signals...