A Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Soldier has become the seventeenth person to die of Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Joshua Malango confirmed the development on Saturday Morning.
Malango said the Soldier Major Chiumia who was the deputy principal of MDF Army secondary school died this morning at Kameza Covid-19 Quarantine Centre in Blantyre.
Meanwhile, the country has a total number of 1498 confirmed cases of Covid-19 including 317 recoveries.
President Chakwera has urged Malawians to be cautious to prevent the spread of the virus. His government has put on new measures that promotes social distancing including limiting number of people that will attend his inauguration ceremeony
All 28 districts in Malawi now have confirmed coronavirus (Covid-19) cases after Rumphi registered its first two cases this week.
In an interview yesterday, Rumphi District Health Office (DHO) spokesperson Bwanalori Mwamlima said the two cases involve a 70-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman.
He said both cases are locally transmitted infections which were identified at Rumphi Boma and Mhuju in the district, and that contact tracing of the two is underway
Said Mwamlima: “The male patient is said to have travelled to Mzuzu where he contacted a relative who is a confirmed Covid-19 patient. This male patient had been taking antibiotics for some time. He tested positive to Covid-19 on June 25 2020.
President Dr Lazarus Chakwera donating Covid19 protective equipment a few months ago
“The other patient tested positive on June 26 2020. Currently, both patients are self-isolating in their homes where they are being followed up by health workers accordingly.”
He said 11 Covid-19 tests have been conducted on the contacts of the two and that all health workers who previously attended to the patients have been put on quarantine while their samples are being tested.
“We are currently following up on more people who could have been in contact with the two patients,” said Mwamlima.
He has since urged people to strictly observe Covid-19 preventive measures as stipulated by the Ministry of Health.
On Tuesday, epidemiologist Dr Titus Divala asked government to urgently institute measures to halt the further spread of the pandemic, whose figures continue soaring.
He said: “There is need to formulate a Covid-19 Bill, containing the key evidence-based approaches, finances, epidemic management structures up to community level, relationship to government departments, among others, and seek parliamentary mandate for the management of the pandemic.”
Malawi Health Equity Network executive director George Jobe also asked government to reinforce the Covid-19 guidelines set up by the Ministry of Health so that the country’s fight against the pandemic is effective.
He said: “When the first case was reported, people took it seriously, and followed the rules, but this changed because a minister was given mandate to be announcing cases and some people thought it was political. Let technocrats continue handling the response.”
Last month, Chitipa district commissioner (DC) Humphrey Gondwe became the first prominent public servant to have died of coronavirus. Six other civil servants who had been in contact with the DC also tested positive.
On 20 March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a National Disaster in Malawi and on April 2 2020, the country registered its first three cases of coronavirus. This was followed by a lockdown announcement which was challenged in court.
The cumulative number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Malawi as of yesterday was 1 265, including 16 deaths and 260 recoveries. Out of these, 639 are imported infections and 581 are locally transmitted, while 45 are still under investigation meaning the total number of active cases is 989.
Malawi national football team Coach Meke Mwase has described Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) rescheduling of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals as a setback.
With just two of the six qualifying rounds played, Caf has moved the finals, which will be hosted by Cameroon, to 2022.
The continental football governing body made the decision through a zoom conference.Advertisement
Caf said the decision had been made due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has killed many people across the globe.
The finals were scheduled for January but the meeting noted that it was impossible to conclude the qualifying matches in time.
Meke Mwase
Elsewhere, the African Nations Championship (Chan), which should have been played in April, will now take place in January 2021.Advertisement
“Health is our number one priority. We must remain vigilant,” Caf president Ahmad Ahmad said in a news conference announcing the move.
The decision means the biannual tournament will now be in the same year as the 2022 World Cup-something that last happened in 2010.
Mwase described the change as a big setback.
“It is unfortunate that things have gone that way due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Already, we have stayed for so long without football and continuing with this period of inactivity will not help matters as players will need time to gain match fitness when games resume
“Of course we had a team before the suspension of games and it will be easier to maintain the same squad, but loss of form and injuries[of players] will definitely come into play. Anyway, there is nothing we can do about it. We will just go by what Caf says,” Mwase said.
The qualifiers were suspended in March as the Flames were due to face Burkina Faso in home-and-away matches in a space of one week.
One of the country’s coaches, Thom Mkolongo, said the rescheduling could be a blessing in disguise.
“My take is that Caf has made a good decision. Moving the tournament to 2022 will give teams ample time to prepare,” Mkolongo said.
The Flames are third in Group B of the Afcon qualifiers with three points having beaten South Sudan 1-0 courtesy of a Gabadinho Mhango strike at Kamuzu Stadium.
Uganda lead the group with four points from two games, at par with second-placed Burkina Faso but the Cranes have a better goal difference.
South Sudan anchor the group with no point.
The Caf Executive Committee also made a decision on the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederations Cup that both the semifinal and the final will be staged on a one-legged basis unlike the previous format of home and away.
Caf also announced that Cameroon and Morocco will host the semifinal and final of the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederation Cup, respectively.
There was a boost for the women’s game however with the launch of a new Women’s Champions League for Africa in 2021.
Blantyre Synod Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) has expressed concern with the rise of reported cases of violence against children in Mwanza as schools remain closed due to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Program Manager for Securing Children’s Rights through Education and Protection (SCREP) project under Blantyre Synod’s education department, Geoffrey Kamanga made the observation during training for child protection committees drawn from the areas of traditional authorities (T/As) Govati and Kanduku in Mwanza.
Kamanga observed that the rising cases in violence against children may affect enrollment once schools open, saying: “We want to give them support on coordination among child protection structures in the communities so that they work together more vigilantly than before to protect the rights of children in their areas.”
Geoffrey Kamanga
He said a recent assessment conducted by the Synod upon closure of schools due to the pandemic, established that children, especially girls around Thambani and Futsa in the two T/As were facing a lot of challenges.
Kamanga cited child marriage, defilement, early pregnancies and child labour as some of the abuses children were facing, expressing fear that the development may lead to an increase in number of school dropouts in the district.
He said it was necessary that issues of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect of children be eliminated in communities because they are a violation of child rights.
Secretary for Futsa Primary School Mother Group in the area of T/A Kanduku, Liness Jeluwasi commended Blantyre Synod for organizing the refresher training, saying it will go a long way in revamping the community structures.
“The orientation has given us more strength of sensitizing communities on the dangers of child abuse and encourage them to report to us when such incidents happen in the communities,” said Jeluwasi.
Mwanza District Social Welfare Officer, Aaron Macheka said the district has since registered 27 cases of violence against children from January this year, noting that the trend was worrisome.
“There are so many cases of this nature happening but some people in the community choose not to report them to relevant authorities for fear that the perpetrators may be jailed,” Macheka said.
Macheka said the orientation of the child protection committees would help in creating an amiable environment for reporting of such cases unlike before in the two T/As.
He, therefore, called on communities in the district to take a leading role in combating violence against children by reporting such cases to relevant authorities despite the victims not being their biological children so that perpetrators are brought to book.
The organisation conducted a similar training in December 2019 which attracted all local structures including school governance structures, patrons of child lead clubs and child protection workers.
The SCREP project is being implemented in Mwanza and Neno under the Blantyre Synod with support from NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) through Save the Children.
The Modecai Msisha SC debacle is not just a silly mistake; it strikes at the core of the problem in Malawian politics, especially in the understanding of the powers of the presidency. By all accounts, it appears that the senior counsel wasn’t informed before hand about his pending appointment, wasn’t given time to think about the offer and, upon accepting it, to think about when he turns up at the Ministry of Justice. He was treated as a means to an end — an instrument.
This is something that no other credible employer would do, especially for senior positions like that. Just ask what it takes to appoint a chief executive of a company, a judge, dean, vice chancellor or even any academic appointment elsewhere.
Everything is wrong with the Malawian ministerial appointment practice. One, it assumes that everyone who does something to advance democracy and the rule of law, or supports a cause championed by a political party, is interested in a ministerial post. Many are but not all.
Modecai Msischa
Two, the practice encourages the most desperate — and often dubious — individuals to take up critical appointments like this, with disastrous consequences. Credible people will always have responsibilities they cannot walk away from at the beckon of a President. Take Msisha as an example. He’s an accomplished lawyer who has satisfied all his material needs. He’s in no need of power. He has long-standing clients to whom he owes duties. Even if he was interested in public service, it would take some time for him wind up his affairs.
Critical appointments like these ought to be made following a credible vetting process that involves the submission and careful consideration of CVs, security checks, credit checks, criminal record checks, integrity checks, and evaluation of competence and vision. Candidates ought also to be given an opportunity to interrogate the appointing authority on some issues. I personally would be interested in knowing the vision of the appointing authority, their working methods and expectations, an assurance about independence and debate within cabinet, etc.
When ministerial appointments are made on the spur of the moment as we have seen, the relationship between the appointing authority and the appointee is turned into that of master and servant, from that of peers. The appointee is expected to accept whatever terms are imposed on the appointment. He’s expected to jump when told to, bend on his knees when approached, or laugh even when a bad joke has been told.
That very first act reduces the appointee to the status of a sycophant who must worry day and night for her job security, and must hence follow the President to every lousy presidential function or congratulate the President for every achievement, no matter how obscure or ridiculous.
It’s not just the un-procedural and chaotic appointing process that is a problem; the firing process is also notorious irrational. While ministerial appointments are at the whim of the appointing authority, Malawi probably holds the record in the regularity of cabinet reshuffles. This gives undue power to the presidency, with the consequence that ministers can be said to be in bondage.
Ministerial appointments are the most important public positions after the presidency and vice presidency. Appointees must be men and women who have distinguished themselves in their career and have the capabilities to serve the country with distinction. Possessed with these qualities, the appointing authority has a duty to treat them with respect and recognize their sacrifice to the nation. Once appointed they have to be accorded the independence and respect deserving of the office and time within which to fulfill their vision. Only then can we have ministers who are free to concentrate on their respective portfolios rather than on contriving endless appeasement gimmicks; ministers who take risks and bold actions; ministers who can speak freely; and ministers who have dignity, respect themselves and serve Malawians — not the master.
It is sad that we shall never have Minister Modecai Msisha. The debacle surrounding his appointment brings to light a fundamental problem in the understanding of presidential powers and the abuse that attends this misunderstanding.
The new government must start to do things differently in every way possible, not repeat the same old malpractices.
***The Author Professor Danwood Chirwa wrote this article on his Facebook page***
