Right to Write

REMEMBERING JOHN ZENUS UNGAPAKE TEMBO  Tembo: Contributed a lot to national  development (Photo Credit: Internet) John Tembo: I don’t change dogma Nobody should steal MPs right in Parliament by inducing them with monetary gifts or appointments to positions in government. By JOSEPH KAYIRA | 27 SEPTEMBER 2023 This interview was first published in The Lamp magazine (Number 74 of November – December 2008). This interview with Honourable John Zenus Ungapake (JZU) Tembo, who at the time was president of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was conducted at his Nyambadwe residence in Blantyre. Honourable Tembo died Wednesday, 27 September 2023 aged 91 and this interview has been republished in honour of this veteran politicians who served his constituents and nation with dignity and dedication. May his soul rest in peace. JK: The Electoral Commission (MEC) is in the process of registering voters in some parts of the country. are you happy with ...

Malawi’s laissez faire attitude to ‘everything’ is dangerous By JOSEPH KAYIRA | 25 SEPTEMBER 2023 Operating under panic and in chaos is becoming a new normal for some government institutions in Malawi. Most of us have come across a situation where government officials behave as if the Ministry, Department or Agency (MDAs) they are working for is a family business or worse still, a personal estate. MDAs have become sleepy places where it is business as usual at the expense of Malawi’s ailing economy.  That is why no one wants to talk about progress in these offices. It is this laissez faire attitude to issues of national importance that is perpetuating corruption, poverty and derailing development. At a time when development partners, donors and well-wishers think we shouldn’t be going down that dangerous path, those who benefit from this chaos are dragging us down by their inefficiencies for us to remain in the vicious cycle of poverty. What is particularly disturbing is how ther...

Who should police noise polluters? By JOSEPH KAYIRA | 17 SEPTEMBER 2023 Noise pollution refers to harmful or annoying levels of noise. We must therefore underline ‘harmful’, ‘annoying’, ‘noise’ and the word ‘pollution’ itself. Anything harmful, causes or is likely to cause harm. And anything annoying causes irritation or annoyance. While noise is a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance. Pollution is the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. All these explanations allude to the cardinal point that noise pollution should not be condoned in human habitat. Yet, in the name of democracy and the rights that come with it, no one wants to act responsibly when it comes to combating noise pollution. It is even worse when the polluters are religious or moralistic in nature. There is this sense of entitlement that no one should question these institutions if they decide to make noise all night l...

 The unending battle for the soul of the DPP By JOSEPH KAYIRA | 8 SEPTEMBER 2023 Whoever put a curse on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must be very dangerous in modern day witchcraft.  Considering calls to stand again: Mutharika  (Photo Credit: Internet) When Bingu wa Mutharika formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) back in 2005, he dreamt of a political party that would be democratic and progressive – and one that would promote prosperity, justice and security. Thus, under Bingu the DPP flourished and Malawi’s economy grew at an average of 6.5 percent. That said, the DPP leadership has not done well in many ways, one of them being failure to uphold democratic tenets and values. In short, lack of intra-party democracy has been the DPP’s biggest problem. Currently, the party is embroiled in a vicious power struggle, with Bingu’s brother Peter Mutharika [DPP president] on the one hand, and several other prospective candidates on the other. They are fighting f...

 Malawi’s refugee problem BY JOSEPH KAYIRA | 4 SEPTEMBER 2023 The Chakwera government’s populist decision to bus all refugees into a notorious camp is fuelling xenophobia behind thinly-veiled legalities.    President Chakwera's administration  wants all refugees in camp At the height of the upheavals in the Great Lakes region in the mid-2000s, Burundian John Karumba [we will hide his identity for security reasons], fled first to Tanzania before ending up at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district, 50 kilometres north of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Once a notorious prison where political prisoners were detained, this camp is home to over 50,000 refugees and asylum seekers, largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi, Ethiopia and Somalia. Karumba eventually left Dzaleka to seek his fortune in Lilongwe. Non-Malawians – mostly Burundians, Congolese and Rwandans – have opened businesses that range from supermarkets to smaller grocery shops and b...

Muluzi walks to freedom BY JOSEPH KAYIRA | JULY 15, 2023 Now a free man: Muluzi Muluzi’s long-awaited freedom from his corruption case has raised queries with lawyers and political commentators wondering whether or not it points to failure to prosecute or it is the new administration’s way of wooing a sympathy vote at the 2025 polls. Former president Bakili Muluzi is off the hook in the K1.7 billion ($12 million) corruption case after the High Court of Malawi in Blantyre discharged him on 29 May this year. The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) issued an order to discontinue the case which has dragged for over 14 years. The funds, which came to the impoverished southern African nation of 18 million as aid from Taiwan, Morocco and Libya, ended up in Muluzi’s personal bank account, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said. The discontinuance of the case has divided legal minds and rights activists – with some saying it points to the country’s failure to prosecute high profi...