Zambia National Football Team coach Avram Grant has named a very strong 24-member provisional squad for a Four-Nations tournament set for March 18 to 26 FIFA international window in Lilongwe.
The squad is made up of players who competed at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cote d’Ivoire and some new faces.
Avram Grant
Among the big names that Grant has called up are Patson Daka (Leicester City-England), Lameck Banda (Lecce-Italy), Emmanuel Banda (Club Rijeka-Croatia), Benson Sakala (Mlada Boleslav-Czech Republic) and Stoppilla Sunzu (Cangzhou Mighty Lions-China).
Also on the list are Lubamba Musonda (Sikebord IF-Denmark), Frankie Musonda (AYR United- Scotland), Gift Mphande (Hapoel Rishon Lezion FC-Israel) and Miguel Chaiwa (Club Schaffhasen-Switzerland).
Zambia will use the tournament to prepare for 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Morocco and Tanzania between June 3 and 11.
Besides Malawi and Zambia, the two other teams to participate in the four-nations competition are Zimbabwe and Kenya.
President and Commander in Chief of Muvi wa Chilungamo Revolutionary Party (MRP) Bantu Saunders Jumah, says once he and his party are voted into government in 2025, he will trim presidential powers so that all Malawians are equal under one law.
Jumah has observed that section 91 of the Republican Constitution gives powers to the President to enjoy immunity that he cannot be taken to court until the end of a five- year term in office observing that this law is continuing putting Malawians on slavery.
Jumah
He said the Malawi laws are favoring the President and the political party in government saying as such, people do not see the difference between government and a political party in government resulting to the president shielding his party loyalists from arrests and prosecutions after committing offenses.
Speaking through his face book page widely read by millions of Malawians and Africans on the continent, Jumah said in 7 months after the new government has been elected, the Republican Constitution will be reviewed, revisited and amended for new inputs.
Jumah said he would have loved if the Republican Constitution be reviewed every after two years for the citizens to weigh out if the laws are being followed by all or not and what should government and citizens do for the sustainability of the laws other than waiting after 5 years.
He observed with a great concern that the country’s laws are there to punish and chain the poor people claiming that people who have committed minor offenses are the ones that are filling up prisons to their fullest capacity while the big fishes are allowed to swim outside prisons.
“Those that have destroyed the country through looting of public resources and corruption are still enjoying taking a cup of coffee outside while those that stole chickens are in prisons,” said Jumah.
He said Muvi wa Chilungamo Revolutionary Party (MRP) will introduce for the first time after many years of absence-the House of Chiefs (Senate) sitting in Zomba whose duty will be to review all the laws passed by Parliament, removing draconian laws before the President signed into law.
He said Members of Parliament (MPs) will be meeting at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe mandated to deliberate and pass laws saying instead of the laws passed go to the President, the House of Senate will have their word on it saying this will strengthen democracy in Malawi.
Jumah has appealed to all Malawians regardless of their party affiliations to be reading MRP Manifesto for informed choice and mindset change that their country is not poor as labelled by politicians for 60 years saying Malawi is a beautiful country and has everything to make itself rich and not its leaders go global trotting begging money for projects.
Illegally imported Zambian-White Spoon sugar has finally found its way in Malawi’s markets with thanks to shortage of sugar in the country besides having two sugar manufacturing Companies-Salima Sugar and Illovo Sugar.
Even though the Zambian sugar is in most of the markets across the country, its price K3,200 as sold in Lilongwe and surrounding areas is not cheaper as expected but a little bit better than Malawi sugar which is k4,000 a packet of one Kilogram.
Sugar shortage in Malawi has resulted to the commodity to become exorbitant and is beyond the reach of the poor who already are struggling to buy a pale of maize flour at K3,600 in Mgona township and surrounding areas in Lilongwe.
A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala, has called on President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera to address the nation on the scarcity of sugar in Malawi and the reasons that has made the commodity to be sold at K4,000 per one Kilogram packet.
Kamphangala said it is sad that the price of sugar which has gone up beating Illovo Sugar company’s factory price of K1, 912 per one Kilogram packet lamenting that this has again come at a time when most citizens in Malawi are failing to meet their everyday life situations.
He said sugar price of K4,000 per packet has frustrated many Malawians regardless of their political party affiliations saying this is giving opposition parties chance to de-campaign President Chakwera so that he doesn’t bounce back in 2025.
The MCP diehard has claimed that many people in Dowa district have painted Chakwera’s leadership style being black with no hope that he can do better following the implementation of Affordable Input Programme (AIP) in the district that it was far from the people’s expectations.
He said many people in the district thought that President Chakwera would reward the Dowa people with fertilizer coupons for massively vote for him in the June, 2020 fresh presidential elections resulting to an all MCP Dowa District Council. He noted with a great concern that eight village heads received only 8 fertilizer coupons, in some villages not even one benefited reducing the Dowa people to beggars while they are hard-working making Dowa a food basket district feeding other regions in Malawi.
“I am pleading with you President Chakwera to intervene in the sugar crises, continued silence on the issue, is resulting to many people insulting and castigating you who was voted on trust that you will turn around the country’s economy,” said Kamphangala.
_”With rampant nepotism, appeasement policy, tribalism and regionalism practised by the Tonse Alliance regime in accessing opportunities, Malawians are not united contrary to MCP Hi 5 slogan.’_
My teachers and fellow pupils in primary and secondary always chose me to read a passage in English or vernacular because I was exceptionally very good. I read to impress myself and everyone listening to me. They chose me based on merit but my secret was always to try hard and read just like Ben Kangwa of Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.
When I was in college, I was at the top. One day, I was called at the college administration and told my assignments and projects were simply the best. Even after graduating from college, I have continued to work very hard and be at the top of my job performance. I recently got an award in 2023 on merit. I was recognised for doing a great job.
From Favouritism, Nepotism To Merit
Merit means “worthiness or excellence.” If you receive a certificate of merit in college, you are being recognized for doing a great job. Merit means “deserve. If you judge something or someone on merit or on their merits, your judgment is based on what you notice when you consider them, rather than on things that you know about them from other sources. Everybody must be selected on merit. Each case must be judged on its merits. The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system.
Spoils system
In politics and government, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward for working towards victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded or promoted on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity.
In memoriam civil service as it was, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast showed a statue of Andrew Jackson on a pig, which is over “fraud”, “bribery”, and “spoils”, eating “plunder”. Included in Harper’s Weekly on April 28, 1877.
The term “spoils system” was used particularly in politics of the United States, where the federal government operated on a spoils system until the Pendleton Act was passed in 1883 due to a civil service reform movement. Thereafter the spoils system was largely replaced by nonpartisan merit at the federal level of the United States.
The term was derived from the phrase “to the victor belong the spoils” by New York Senator William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, with the term spoils meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory.
Similar spoils systems are common in other nations, such as Malawi, that traditionally have been based on tribal organization or other kinship groups and localism in general. In one of the write ups, Bashir Al Bashir says,”When Chakwera came, we thought its the end of nepotism considering how bitterly he preached against it only to be proved wrong. Chakwera wasn’t bitter about nepotism, he was just jealousy that the beneficiaries were not his children nor his relations. Today, Nick’s wife is Director in the Office of the First Lady, Violet has a government job in UK, his other daughter’s husband is Director of Communication. Every house of a child of Chakwera there is one earning salary from Malawi government and or driving a government vehicle. Devastating nepotism.”
Another writer, Twinkspurgej Jones Gadama argues, “President Chakwera’s administration has faced severe criticism for its alleged practice of nepotism. The appointment of close relatives and associates to key government positions has fueled public discontent. Chakwera owes it to the people to explain why such blatant favoritism exists within his administration and how this aligns with his promises of meritocracy and fair governance.”
Social and political commentator Rick Dzida says, “With rampant nepotism, appeasement policy, tribalism and regionalism practised by the Tonse Alliance regime in accessing opportunities, Malawians are not united contrary to MCP Hi 5 slogan.
It is true that regionalism has taken the centre stage under the tutelage of Reverend Dr Lazarus Chakwera. Most cabinet ministers, Principal Secretaries, Board Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of Statutory Corporations come from the Central region.”
Civil service, also known as the merit system, was created to assure that the recruitment and retention of a qualified work force, and, the selection and promotion of employees providing public services and compensated by tax is conducted in a fair and impartial manner and in a competitive fashion.
A merit system is a type of civil service system designed to reward and recruit talented individuals based on their abilities and qualifications, not only only just qualifications but *abilities,* rather than through patronage or nepotism.
We’re talking about the group of people who run the show in government. Collectively, the Ministers are the cabinet. Each minister is responsible for a specific area of government such as Finance, Justice or Foreign Affairs. They oversee everything that happens in their particular governmental department and they drive the agenda of the government.
Together, they can even pass certain regulations that do not need the approval of Parliament. It’s pretty important stuff. So this cabinet business matters to all of us as Malawians.
Who gets to be in cabinet?
The President, who is the leader of the political party that won the most amount of seats in Parliament, determines which Members of Parliament will be in the cabinet. Typically most cabinets will have around 30-40 ministers. These ministers are simply called cabinet ministers.
Once the President has chosen who will be in the cabinet, they will be sworn into their cabinet position. Cabinet ministers must be sworn in and take an oath because they both wield a great deal of political power, but also deal with state secrets that are not revealed to the public due to a potential effect on national security.
What does cabinet do?
Collectively the cabinet will meet often (usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis) and discuss how their government departments are doing. Think of the cabinet as the board of directors of a large corporation and the President as the chair of the board.
In 2023, President Dr Lazarus Chakwera announced a new cabinet with a reduced number of cabinet ministers to 27 as other ministries were removed or got combined.
Reverend Chakwera and Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima are not holding any ministerial positions. Ministries of Local Government, Unity, and Culture were combined and the number of deputy ministers was reduced. Zikhale Ng’oma, Uchizi Mkandawire, and Moses Kumkuyu are the new faces in the cabinet.
Findings from Afrobarometer’s 2022 survey show that citizens overwhelmingly see their government as failing on economic issues and believe that their country is going in the wrong direction. Few are optimistic that things will improve in the near future.
Police have arrested Chancy Chirwa, a 23-year-old sales lady at Simama General Dealers in Ntchisi.
The arrest follows complaints from a business person, Chikumbutso Kapanda, who alleged to have ordered one bale of sugar at MK57,500 instead of the recommended price of MK37,500.
Malawi Sugar
Investigations indicated that Chirwa had been independently overcharging customers, resulting in significant financial losses, estimated at K2 million, for Kapanda.
Chirwa will soon face theft charges in court in connection with the alleged overpricing scheme.
The incident caused a demonstration by other business people led by councilor Mark Mphezi Mtengo, expressing worries over puffed up commodity prices at the shop.
