President Lazarus Chakwera in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) has appointed Major General George Alexander Jaffu as Deputy Commander of MDF.
In a statement signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, the President has also promoted Jaffu to the rank of Lieutenant General.
President Chakwera
The position of Deputy Commander has been vacant for about 10 months after General Paul Valentino Phiri who was holding the position, got promoted to Commander in July last year.
Again, Zamba says the President has also made Major General Saiford Kalisha, the Chief of Staff of the MDF.
The highest rank in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps is General (four star), followed by Lieutenant General (three star), Major General (two star) and Brigadier General (one star).
Major general is a commissioned officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who ranks above a brigadier general and whose insignia is two stars.
Lieutenant general is a three-star general officer rank in the Indian Army. It is the second-highest active rank in the Indian Army. Lieutenant generals rank above the two-star rank of Major General and below the four-star rank of General, which is held by the Chief of the Army Staff.
A lieutenant general ranks above a major general and below a general.
The mission of the Chief of Staff (CoS) to serve as the Commandant’s principal assistant for directing, coordinating, supervising and training the staff. The Chief of Staff exercises executive management authority as delegated by the Commandant.
AHL Group executive board chair Dan Makata says AHL has taken additional measures in its bid to deal with delays in payment of daily tobacco purchase invoices by some tobacco buyers, which is contributing negatively towards AHL capacity to pay tobacco growers and transporters.
Addressing scores of farmers senior Government officials at Mzuzu Auction Flours during the commissioning of this year’s Tobacco Marketing season, Makata said AHL relies on funds from its stakeholders to do its business.
“
AHL relies on funds received from tobacco buyers to pay for tobacco growers, transporters and all who receive payments in the tobacco sales value chain,” he said.
Makata said inherent delays in bank clearing systems for the United States Dollar denominated payments from Buyers has negative impact on the overall supply chain.
He said it takes an average of two to three days after a buyer pays, for AHL to see the credits in its Clearing Account and the situation is worse especially when done during weekends.
Investigations undertook hours after the suspension of Tobacco market at AHL has revealed multiple multifaceted factors which are contributing to the lated delivery of funds of funds to the tobacco farmers.
Chief among the reasons is that some banks are delaying disbursements of funds deliberately for no apparent reasons
Our investigations has revealed that AHL Commenced release of payments and related electronic files to banks on 17th April 2023 two days after commencement of sales.
We have further gathered that first Farmers got their proceeds from 22nd April 2024 due to inherent delays in the banking clearing systems.
Our reporters have on record that delays are caused by delays by some banks to process and credit tobacco sales’ payments into growers’ and transporters’ accounts after AHL Tobacco Sales Limited has paid the banks, due to own internal challenges.
We can also reveal that as of 6th May 2024, other banks did not have serious challenges except NBM that had system and file compatibility issues with the AHLpayment files.
We can put on record that this was an isolated challenge but unfortunately itaffected many farmers as NBM is the main disbursement bank to otherbanks.
Other factors causing the delay include payment of daily tobacco purchase invoices by some tobacco buyers, which consequently affects AHL Tobacco Sales Limited’s capacity to pay tobacco growers and transporters.
The other thing that we have noted is that AHL relies on funds received from tobacco buyers to pay tobacco growers, transporters and all who receive payments in the tobacco sales value chain.
Our investigations have further indicated that inherent delays in clearing USD payments from Buyers since buyers are expected to settle payments within 24 hours.
What it means is that due to inherent banking system delays, it takes two to three days after a Tobacco Buyer hasissued a payment instruction for AHL to see the credits in its Main Clearing Account used to pay growers.
Now the other thing is that Dollar transfer instructions by buyers go through RBM and foreign correspondent banks mostly CITI Bank in New York and this makes AHL to wait until the credits reflect for it to release growers’ payments to local banks.
Another factor is the delay in changing the currency since under a Directive by the Tobacco Commission which came into effectin the 2023 tobacco season, Nyasa Tobacco Company buys tobacco inDollars on the Floors but pays in Malawi Kwacha.
We can also reveal that a grower whose tobacco is bought partially by NyasaTobacco Company and other tobacco buyers is paid in Dollars forpurchases by all other buyers and in Kwacha for what Nyasa buys.What it meant is that AHL was only holding Foreign Currency Denominated Accounts on such growers’ files resulting in the Kwacha payment delays as the grower is only paid the Kwachaportion after he/she has provided AHL with a secondary Malawi Kwacha account.
We have also observed that AHL has been individually calling farmers with FCDA accounts to furnish AHL with a secondary Malawi Kwacha account to accommodate Nyasa Tobacco Company Kwachapayments for those with FCDA accounts causing a delay in the payments for these farmers.
We managed to talk to Jacob Banda a farmer from Kapiri Mchinji who urged AHL to resolve the technical aspects being faced.
“We are farmers whatever these people are facing we cant even understand what we are saying resolve all your issues and give us money. We are also urging the National Bank to resolve their issues as well,” he said.
A First half goal from Francisco Madinga helped Mighty Mukuru Wanderers to win the 2024 Kamuzu Cup as they beat capital city giants Silver Strikers 1-0 at Kamuzu Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
The two sides made changes to their regular starting line ups by giving chances to the youthful players and those that have not yet featured in this year’s season.
It was the game of equal chances with both teams playing a beautiful passing game to the excitement of the huge crowd that filled the stadium.
Madinga scored the only goal of the match with a strike that was deflected into the net by a Silver Strikers defender, 17 minutes into the match.
The match which was played for a limited time of 50 minutes, was part of the Kamuzu Day Commemorations, as the country united to celebrate the life of Malawi’s first President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
The two team are expected to meat again in the TNM Super League on Sunday at Silver Stadium in what promises to be another exciting encounter.
Nomads Posing with Chakwera Silver posing with President Chakwera
Kamuzu Day celebrations are underway at the historic Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre City, with participants describing the day as a day of reflection on the life and the foundations that Kamuzu Banda laid for the development of the nation.
Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda underlined the significance of the day, stating that it is important for the nation to celebrate the foundations that the Founding Father of the Malawi nation laid for the transformation of the country.
“It is important that we look back and learn from our founding father’s long-lasting foundations of development that he established for us which we are building on now,” she stated.
On his part, Minister of Defence, Harry Mkandawire, stated that he fondly remembers Kamuzu Banda for implementing transformative development projects in Malawi.
Citing the transformative effect of the road projects, Mkandawire said transportation projects such as the M1 road transformed the socio-economic lives of many Malawians.
He also applauded the Chakwera-led government for renovating and upgrading some of the critical infrastructures which were established by the late leader, citing government’s upgrading of the M1 road.
National High Priest of Rastas in Malawi, Rasta Nimrod Chilambe described the day as a special day for the rastafarian community for it reminds them that Kamuzu Banda once hosted His Imperial Majesty Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia to Malawi in 1965, which he said was an honor to the rastafarian community.
Concurring with other speakers, Chilambe said for the country to move forward, it has to reflect on the foundations built by Kamuzu Banda, also noting that the day has unified Malawians from all walks of life.
He then urged Malawians to continue working with President Dr Lazarus Chakwera, stating that Malawi as a country has the will and drive to build on Kamuzu’s long term and impactful socioeconomic development.
A pacesetter according to dictionary dot.com is a person, group or organization that is the most progressive or successful and serves as a model to be initiated a person or organization that is first to do something so as to set an example.
Kamuzu was the first President of the Republic of Malawi.
Let me from the outset state that I will not labor you to tell you who Kamuzu was, for a lot of literature has been written about him suffice to say he ruled Malawi from 1964 to 1993/94.
Dr.Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who led Malawi to independence in 1964 and was in power for 30 years, died in 1997 at Garden City Clinic in South Africa.
Kamuzu Banda
This article would like to recognize Kamuzu as a pacesetter a man of standards.
Despite Britain’s aid of about $25 million, independence revealed a Malawi economy so stagnant that it yielded an individual annual income of only $17.50 for a large segment of the black population.
The few available manufacturing jobs were hotly contested, and there was little domestic mining activity outside of lime quarrying for cement.
Malawi then Nyasaland was under British protectorate under the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (There was south and North Rhodesia) It was Kamuzu Band who set the pace by weaning itself from the federation, by becoming the first country from the three to gain independence.The two gained it later. As a pacesetter Banda constructed foundations to shore up the teetering economy, establishing parastatal organizations, or state-run corporations.
The Malawi Development Corporation, formed in 1964, that promoted manufacturing operations and kept a close watch on all foreign companies by means of obligatory government partnerships.
ADMARC, founded in April 1971, is an agricultural cooperative with a national monopoly on fertilizer and seeds. Partly as a price-setter, the organization also handles export crops of tobacco, groundnuts, cotton, and maize; by the early 1980s it had burgeoned enough to boast shares in such profit-spinners as the Bata Shoe Company, Lever Brothers, and the Portland Cement Company.
A third important organization, regarded as a quasi- parastatal, was President Banda’s own Press Holding.
Initially set up in 1969 to print the party newspaper and finance the MCP, Press Holding also financed his tobacco-farming estates.
Profits from Press Holding and ADMARC were often mingled to finance the president’s petty schemes. One big beneficiary is the elite Kamuzu Academy, founded in 1981 which was established to provide a liberal arts education for the country’s top students.
The academy was was nicknamed the Eaton of Africa.During the commemoration on Kamuzu day at the CCAP Church in Kasungu on May 14 2019 Malawi Congress Party president, Lazarus Chakwera, said “people must appreciate that Kamuzu was beyond the party, but a national hero who had vision for this country.
Some of the things, that he stood for and set pace, is that we had the best civil service in this country and perhaps in Africa. Everybody wanted to work in the civil service.
The other area was the education system, agricultural system that was fully functioning and serving Malawians and everybody and prospering but services have deteriorated “ he said. As a pacesetter in the field of education Kamuzu was a highly educated man who instilled in his people a sense of aiming high. In this regard he established the university of Malawi.In order to avoid brain drain in the medical field he established the Malawi College of Medicine.
In the area of visible Leadership, Kamuzu also set a pace in the agriculture field as he established his own farms, Press farming and Agriculture were also established where he encouraged his people to go and learn modern agriculture methods and to this end he established the Natural Resources College and Bunda College of Agriculture in the hope of steering the economy through Agriculture.
To ensure that the masses were abreast with this philosophy of hard working spirit for self-reliance.
Kamuzu also set the standards in terms of youth development when he established the Malawi Young Pioneer. The aim was to provide the youth with skills so that they could be self-reliant and be disciplined and responsible youth. MYP (Malawi Young Pioneers) Training bases were established and spread across the country where the youth would be trained in various aspects of body, mind and soul, humanity with emphasis on hard work and commitment in all undertakings.
Hard work in simple terms is giving one’s all [Time, commitment, will, energy, in order to achieve a desired goal or objective] by using zeal and intelligence. “I want my people to work hard in the fields “Kamuzu would always say at every opportunity. Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda had several philosophies, however as we commemorate this day on 14 May popularly known as Kamuzu day it is high time we reflect on standards set by Kamuzu.
When Dr.Hastings Kamuzu Banda landed at Chileka airport way back in 1958, he openly and publicly declared that he had come to Malawi then Nyasaland to do several things among them. 1. Break the stupid federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and give his people freedom 2. Make sure his people had three essential things {food, shelter and clothing}.
He continued to say he wanted people to have bumper yields, houses that do not leak when it is raining and decent clothing not nyanda. In order to achieve this he laid down a framework in form of a foundation for people to help him achieve the number two agenda.
The foundations were dubbed as four corner stones. Loyalty ‘Discipline, Unity and Obedience He believed that if the masses followed the four corner stones they would achieve greatness.
Malawi was a one-party state with Malawi congress party as the only party. Whether there was separation of powers between Government and the party is a subject for another day.
He further instilled a culture of hard work in the Civil service for excellent service delivery and those who were hard workers were rewarded and motivated. He did not tolerate laziness and complacency.
It was no wonder that the philosophy later turned into quantifiable aspect when Malawi at that time through the process of hard work and commitment was dubbed /rated a star performer by the World Bank and was a model country to be followed and emulated.
Public sector reforms have been on going with an aim of ‘making huge efforts to improve the performance of the public sector through various reform initiatives. Anchored by the new public management (NPM) paradigm and demands for good governance, the reform initiatives have sought to reduce the core functions of the state, foster fiscal stability, emphasize managerial efficiency within the public sector, redefine relations between public and private sectors, promote economic development”.
There has been population growth in Malawi. In 1978 there were 7.2 million people while 2018 there were 19.16 million people and it is projected that by 2050 there shall be 45 million people scrambling for the same piece of land and natural resources that were being used by 3.963 people in the year 1964.
It is pleasing to note the Kamuzu made all efforts to control over population through several health initiatives at that time.
In infrastructure he was a pace setter by building the Lilongwe Capitol Hill where government sits probably the best government seat in Africa at that time.
He set the pace in unifying the nation by reminding Malawians that they were all Malawians and not Lhomwe, Tumbuka, Yao , Chewa etc.
In conclusion it is undoubtedly impossible for a country to progress without hard work, self-sacrifice and commitment hence all Governments emphasis on the same and we cannot deny the fact that Kamuzu set the pace and the predecessors are striving to beat the standards so set by the pace setter Kamuzu. As a pace setter the virtues of hard work and commitment that culminates into values and beliefs as a nation would instill a culture that would see a nation prospering together with its people regardless their color, creed.
In the final analysis the citizenry benefits from their sweat.Even Kamuzu for himself to reach the level he was (a man of high standards) had to endure a lot, sacrificed a lot, did a lot of hard work in Malawi, South Africa, America and the UK in his quest for a better life. May his soul rest in peace as we remember his day on 14 May.
*Stevie M Kauka is a fellow of the IPMM who likes to write on several issues in his own capacity*
