Member of Parliament for Kasungu North East Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima has on Sunday donated K10 million to Thumba CCAP in the area of Senior Chief Wimbe in Kasungu for the construction of a new church house.
Presenting the donation, Wirima who is also Minister of Education said she felt obliged to donate after being impressed by the effort Christians at the church have made towards the project.
Among other things, the Christians mobilized bricks and start up cement for the project.
Kambauwa handing over the cheque
“As someone who comes from this area, I felt obliged to help in the project, to seek the blessings of God and we will keep supporting them until their dream of a new church house is accomplished,” said Wirima.
She urged people to alway invest in churches because they are a key stakeholder in human development and the society.
Receiving the donation, the resident minister of Thumba CCAP, Reverend Berson Magombo, thanked the MP for fulfilling her pledge.
“We thank you, and may God bless you. We have been trying but due to financial constraints, the project was delayed so this is a huge boost,” said Reverend Magombo.
The project is estimated to cost slightly over K100 million.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) seems to be leaving no stone unturned as far as winning 2025 elections is concerned, strategically concentrating on rallies in all the three regions of the country.
With the 50%+1 enactment of the law to determine the winning President during elections, political parties need to grab vital votes in regions they have never been popular while focusing on keeping intact the votes in their strongholds.
Recent strategy by Malawi Congress Party to strengthen the central region while intensifying its rallies in the South and North, spelling out government projects Chakwera-led administration is initiating across the country seems to positively favor the party.
Taking the MCP brand to Migowi in Phalombe on Sunday, 7th January 2024, it was clear that Phalombe which is among the districts that have been difficult for MCP to penetrate is gradually becoming a darling for the party and its leadership.
Speaking during the rally at Migowi Primary School ground for the people of Phalombe to appreciate the servant leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera, Director of Strategic Planning in MCP, *Ken Zikhale Ng’oma* told the gathering that withstood the rains to hear for themselves the message from MCP that *President Lazarus Chakwera* has moved the country’s politics away from being regionalistic to national for development of the country.
“President Chakwera is distributing developments in all parts of the country because he is not practicing the politics of regionalism and would like to see every Malawian including you from Phalombe being beneficiaries to government initiated projects. This is why Phalombe District Hospital was quickly completed as one of the priorities when he won the Presidential election in 2020, after a long time of the project failing to be completed” Said Ng’oma who is also Minister of Homeland Security.
Further, Ng’oma applauded people of Migowi for their determination to hear what government has for them regardless of heavy rains that fell during the rally.
In her remarks, Senior Chief Kaduya commended Zikhale Ng’oma and MCP for conducting the rally at Migowi, saying it gives hope and encouragement that President Chakwera is promoting unity and has the welfare of the people for the area at heart.
She then requested the government to consider elevating other chiefs in her area for easy discharging of duties and quick spread of developments that President Chakwera is championing in the area and across the country.
Among senior officials who attended the rally include the party’s National Deputy Publicity Secretary, Kondi Msungama, Deputy Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs, Fredrick Mkalangiza, and MCP’ Regional Chairman for South, Peter Simbi.
Karonga district based human rights activist Lyton Mangochi, has appealed to Malawians living outside the country to come back home and fight together with their fellow Malawians in the battle to liberate their country from the hands of the MCP led government.
Mangochi said MCP senior Ministers are busy addressing rallies using their slogan “Kwacha” saying to them there is light while Malawians are living and walking in darkness encouraging all not to lose hope that they should not vote in 2025.
He said the diaspora community must join Malawians that are on the ground feeling pain and suffering assuring patriotic Malawians that the MCP led government under President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has already been escorted to the grave and will never resurrect from the dead forever.
Mangochi
Speaking through an audio clip circulating in various social media platforms, Mangochi said he is aware that many Malawians regardless of their political party affiliations are regretting to have voted President Chakwera into government.
He said it was the wish of each and every Malawian to see change which President Chakwera and his MCP led government promised but the change is not there claiming that Malawians are suffering more than before.
The activist has encouraged Malawians that 2025 will be a year of blessings, the MCP which is seen boasting of being in government bringing untold miseries, pain and sufferings to millions of Malawians, will never be seen claiming that God will punish them.
He said this is 2024 and the country is remaining with a few months to go to the General Elections encouraging Malawians to register in their large number to vote out the MCP and its leader President Chakwera without mercy.
“We will walk and live with hunger in all the households, school fees and transportation challenges, this should not bar us from voting in 2025, let’s join hands to remove the MCP for it not come back forever,” said Mangochi.
He warned senior MCP members that some have started changing ownerships of property and account numbers for stolen taxpayer’s money, assuring them that Malawians are not sleeping and are watching and they will not leave them scot-free.
Mangochi has also warned individuals who will be shouldering responsibilities of using their account numbers to harbor stolen money by Ministers, that Malawians will make sure that they face imprisonment in 2025 as a lesson to the would-be offenders.
It is very sad and unfortunate that Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM ) has fired some of its employees for exercising their freedom and right to protest against a 10% salary increase following the 44% devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha.
Firstly, it is wrong for ESCOM to fire employees just like that because the constitution of Malawi provides Freedom of Assembly and protest. Every citizen is entitled to assemble and protest therefore, nobody can take away those rights from the people, not even ESCOM can do that. Unfortunately, sometimes employers, government departments and statutory organizations break the laws in the course of executing their duties because the people working in those offices are not conversant with the law itself, let alone the implications that arise after making unlawful decisions. The victimized employees must take legal action when such human rights are abused and not respected.
Secondly, it is wrong for ESCOM to fire employees carelessly because every citizen is entitled to economic freedom. Employees must be paid salaries that will bring meaningful economic development to their personal lives and families. If employees are paid less than the buying power and what they are working for, they will not develop economically and that is just as good as slavery, now everyone must realize that slavery was abolished a long time ago. Statutory companies must avoid tendencies that are oppressive and undemocratic in nature.
Thirdly, it is wrong to carelessly fire employees because employers may, in the end, lose billions of Kwacha in compensation to the same employees if they take legal action against ESCOM for unfair dismissal. Already, Malawi government has lost a case in court of similar nature in which it is required to pay K103 million to Brian Banda of Times 360 for unfair dismissal. The government must avoid these things at all costs.
In conclusion, Malawi government departments and statutory bodies must avoid firing employees without any legal backing. They must first of all seek legal opinion from government lawyers to avoid lawsuits and save money for development projects and not unnecessary compensation for metal bands which can easily be avoided.
The Attorney General must advise the government on legal actions which may cost billions of Kwacha to compensate for wrongly fired employees because of silly unlawful decisions. The Attorney General should also be quick to come in when wrong decisions have been made by government and statutory organizations such as ESCOM to correct the situation before such issues go to court.
Finally, I would wish to advise ESCOM management to withdraw their administrative action which appears to be dictatorial and intimidating and allow the fired employees to get back to work.
All those employees who have been fired by ESCOM should take the matter to court for appropriate legal redress, if they are not called back to work. They should involve the ombudsman or legal aid Department and their voices will be heard. The fired employees should also make sure that they receive letters of termination of employment which can later be used as evidence against ESCOM in court.
In a latest ruling by the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) on December 23rd, Deputy Chairperson Mike Kandulu mandated that State House must pay former President Lazarus Chakwera’s spokesperson Brian Banda K103,316,418 for unfair termination of employment.
Additionally, the Times Television presenter has been granted a severance allowance of K1,251,418.50.
First of all, in all fairness, I would like to congratulate Brian Banda for taking this matter to court and finally winning the case. I would have complained if Brian dropped this matter without fighting against the injustice because I knew this was wrong right from the beginning. However, the Times radio presenter went to court quietly without making any noise about it and it was as if there was nothing happening in the ground until just now because I never saw it anywhere in the media.
Brian Banda
Secondly, I have liked how smart Brian has handled himself throughout this matter. He would have chosen to say something on times radio when Mwayi za ndebvu sorry, ndebvu za Mwayi, Wonder Msiska first welcomed him back from State House or even on his Facebook page but he didn’t. I remember, there were so many thought provoking questions which Wonder Msiska asked Brian to clarify but he smartly answered and dodged mentioning that he was going to take or had already taken legal action against State House. To that point, he has proven to be very smart indeed and there’s no doubt about that.
Thirdly, Brian Banda is courageous. He has just shown and demonstrated that courage by going to seek legal redress from the court. Many people would leave injustices done to them unresolved by not taking the matter anywhere. It takes only courageous people to wage a legal battle like this one and I see great courage in this man.
Fourthly, the radio and TV presenter is a journalist and not a lawyer but he knew that he was unfairly dismissed from his job so he went to court and sued the State House. That demonstrates to me he is knowledgeable about the labour laws of this country and his rights. People must know their employment service regulations anywhere they go to work if they don’t, they must ask around for legal opinion because only knowledge is power.
Finally, State House could have avoided all this embarrassment of firing Brian Banda at the time which has backfired today. The President should have saved these millions of Kwacha government is compensating Brian today for something else because he made himself a champion of rule of law in his Hi-5 but this is abuse of law by State House and not rule of law. Infact tax payers are going to pay double the price for this administrative error because while government is compensating Brian Banda for unlawful dismissal, there’s someone else who is being paid for the same job at State House in place of Brian Banda. This could have been avoided.
And again, The Attorney General must have failed his job of advising President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera of the legal implications on this matter. Probably, he simply avoided advising the President in order to save his job because he might have seen how Attorney General Silungwe, who had strictly advised the President got fired. Silungwe was a very strict Attorney General and could not bow down to lawlessness which he didn’t want to be part of.
On the other hand, if the Attorney General did his job, then President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera must have refused to listen to his legal advisor, the Attorney General, in the likeliness of losing this unlawful dismissal case. I think our president must be a very arrogant President who would like to disrespect the same laws which he ignorantly would like to defend.
