Kondwani Munthali -Malawi

America votes tomorrow  Sometime in 2006 when I was settling down at Harvard's Cabot House, we were having the usual meet and greet with African students that I had just met at Harvard-African Students Association. The three would be my closest team until I left the place. There was a Zimbabwean, a Tanzanian and a summer school student from Benin who was just hanging around. Out of the many topics we spoke of a Harvard graduate, a black senator Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan and wanted to run for Democrats in 2008. Some Professors at Kennedy School of Government were said to be hosting him somewhere near the Square for some influential in Cambridge and Boston area. The following day at Kennedy School someone pointed at the Senator, but very few paid attention. Here was another black man trying to do the impossible. As the primaries started and he triumphed, everything had changed, even some of the students on campus who were always presumed Republ...

The time I worked for Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), yes the State Broadcaster- I spent six years there- was the time I knew President Bakili Muluzi's home, a distance from Liwonde, very hot and somewhere where facilities were sprouting up all the time. That was Kapoloma area near Nselema in Machinga. Alongside my colleague and best friends Chancy Muloza, we could spend Christmas week at Liwonde when President Muluzi would be on short leave and we could be waiting for any news. President Muluzi's house at his home village has a small gate to the left opposite the parking lot. This gate faces a brick house he built for his mother and has a small cement pavement towards it from the house. Whenever we were broke after enjoying Liwonde night outs, we could just drive to Kapoloma and strategically place ourselves around this area, for sure President Muluzi either in the morning or any part of day, would never miss to see his mother, now late Gogo Nalikusika. As he went...

Dates for Mzimba central and southwest constituency bye elections will be here from 6am on 9 October 2012 until the official results are announced

President Joyce Banda and Vice President Khumbo Kachali have voluntarily cut down their salaries by 30 percent as part of their support to the current austerity measures, the Vice President has announced. The Vice President made the announcement during he launch of the Malawi Growth and  Development Strategy II and Economic Recovery Plan at the Bingu International Conference Centre in  Lilongwe. “In support of the austerity measures, the President and the Vice President have voluntarily decided to reduce their monthly salaries by 30 percent with immediate effect. Government is also actively considering other cost cutting measures and these will be announced in due course,” said Kachali. On the Economic Recovery Plan, the Vice President said it has identified five strategic sectors that can quickly that can quickly turn around the economy for export led growth and foreign exchange generation. “These are Energy, Mining, Tourism, Agriculture, Transport infrastructure...

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, Excellencies Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen Mr. President, allow me to congratulate you, on your well-deserved election to the Presidency of the Sixty-Seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. My delegation and I would like to assure you of Malawi’s full support during your tenure of office. It is an honour today to address this assembly for the first time in my capacity as President of the Republic of Malawi. As the assembly may be aware, I took office in April of this year after the death of my predecessor, His Excellency Professor Bingu wa Mutharika. On behalf of all Malawians, I appreciate the support that the world gave us during the difficult time in our country. I would like to also particularly acknowledge the support that I received from leaders from Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the entire African continent when I ascended into the Presidency. The support that I received is a mark that Africa has i...

JOYCE BANDA, President of  Malawi , said that while joining the world’s leaders and addressing the Assembly as only the second-ever woman to lead an African nation was “a moment of pride”, hers was not a story of individual success but of the achievement of a people who had shown courage and determination in ushering her into office through a peaceful constitutional transfer of power just a few months ago.  “The people of Malawi have made a decisive choice:  they have chosen democracy; the have chosen peace; and they have chosen to work together to realize their destiny,” she said. Turning to the work of the United Nations, she agreed with the Secretary-General that achieving sustainable development for all was the best way to ensure a peaceful and stable world.  Indeed, the greatest threats to peace were poverty, lack of opportunity and lack of hope.  It was unacceptable to her — and should be so for all leaders — that children still suffered from malnutr...

"Right Honourable Khumbo Kachali, Vice President of the Republic of Malawi, sincerely regrets his recent remarks on travels by the Presidency, that he made in Karonga on Wednesday, 12th September, 2012, The Vice President would like to apologise for the pain and distress the remarks have caused to Malawians. The remarks are fully and unconditionally withdrawn."