Kondwani Munthali -Malawi

The cash-gate report is out and analyzing all the stories Malawians will not want to hear anything but who is involved. They have their own theories and gossip-our prime trademark- about what really happened. Its sad that some credible institutions are even resubmitted the same evidence taken from ACB to ACB and claiming to be discoveries. In a country which strives on conspiracy theories, no amount of legal work, rhetoric or explanation will convince anyone, especially those eagerly waiting to be in State House that anything tangible is being done. The audit was done by a British firm and the results were all coordinated and released by them, nothing seem to have been the case, everyone now is accusing everyone of tampering because the theories are that are circulated by others we tend to believe are not proven. The amount looted is K6.8 billion (US$15million) much lower than the trumpeted US$100 million the world was meant to believe. Even if I chose the higher K13 billion (US$...

There is something wrong and conspicuously unappetizing about the flair, looks and even body language of our politicians. They look angry, very angry and in most cases detached from the same people they are trying to convince to vote for them. Almost the whole lot of our 11 Presidential candidates for May 20, 2014 lack charisma and warmth that will show us they are human enough to be our leaders. Seriously all image makers should tell our candidates to smile a lot, joke and pretend with their election things will be better. They look like angry grand fathers and mothers. Ask those that attended rallies this weekend will agree with me, nobody is telling Malawians anything new, just like lack of any good news. They are so detached some of them will be telling people that there is no maize in Admarc at a rally when a stone throw away maize vendors are angry that over supplied Admarc maize has killed their businesses. Yes maize now is selling at K5000 it never hit the desired and p...

Many Malawians are dying to know what happened. This report as sanctioned by the National Audit office and presented to Parliament represents one of the most rare cases of transparency on the African continent. Malawi will never have someone still our money again, thanks to the political will of our time: Follow this link to get scanned report:    13.pdf< https://drive.google. com/file/d/ 0B9oRQ70gxIIybHlPTVhGcklIcmM/ edit?usp=sharing >   

This week I promised a closer scrutiny of the three youthful Presidential ticket candidates and how they meet or fail to meet the aspirations of this generation. What I will never say is if at all they fit the cap. But in the many discourses that I participate within seven days preceding this write up, something interesting happened. WhatApp, a sms free application was being bought off for USD16 billion by Facebook. These two initiatives represent young people thinking outside the box. It is the story of WhatsApp Co-Founders, both rejected by Facebook years ago that I found stimulating enough as a challenge to our young generation. Sometime back I wrote how the Youth were the biggest losers despite engineering most of the Arab spring revolutions. After each revolution, the old guard were quickly recognized as representatives of the people and not the youth who fought the cause. That is the same reason why the Youth today are demanding the resignation of Libyan Parliament, brought d...

Well the week’s carnival is over, so too is our sheer love of pomposity, gluttony and admission that our politics need a lot of fresh thinking. I wrote somewhere how the opposition keep criticising Government wastefulness on Presidential convoys and ferrying of people, and this week, they fell right into the same trap. I have very little optimism of seeing these blitz loving leaders changing, if at all they make it to State House. Gwanda Chakuamba as Minister of Agriculture in 2005 spent K10 million of a BMW X5 and when chided that Malawi was experiencing food shortage he answered bluntly: “Even if you asked Kamuzu, that’s the car I love, a BMW” later there was an attempted purchase of May Bach and finally a jet, whose controversies seem not to die, even when it is no longer in our possession. Dr. Bakili Muluzi left us many vocabulary to last a century, one of it is that the opposition first agenda is to go into State House, look at speeches made by celebrated new comers, they se...