Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) has appointed former Malawi National netball team captain Joana Kachilika as the team’s head coach.
According to a statement released by the association on Wednesday evening, Kachilika who is currently coaching Imosys Netball Club will be assisted by Eleanor Mapulanga while Beatrice Mpinganjira will be working as Malawi Queens’ physical trainer.
Joana Kachilika
Samuel Kanyenda who has been in charge of the team in the last two competitions, has been maintained as the team’s Technical Director.
Malawi Queens has been without a head coach after partying ways with Peace Chawinga Kalua in a controversial circumstance.
In the ongoing National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) fuel contracts case, defence lawyer Wapona Kita has described former NOCMA Deputy Chief Executive officer (CEO) Helen Buluma as a law breaker.
In court today, Kita said the court already found Buluma to be a law breaker in relation to the NOCMA fuel supply contracts case that Buluma is a witness.
The defense lawyer said court found Buluma to have violated the law by recording conversations with former presidential advisor Chris Chaima Banda and former Minister of Energy Newton Kambala without their knowledge.
Wapona Kita
Kita said the court declared that Buluma violated the right to privacy of Chaima Banda and Kambala who along Alliance for Democracy president Enoch Chihana are accused of attempting to influence Nocma in awarding of fuel contracts.
He said the ruling has not been challenged up to date.
“Now we are listening to a law breaker,” said Kita.
Responding to the matter, Buluma said she also had the right to protect herself.
She added that as a witness she was only giving evidence and it is for the court to decide on the evidence.
Kita reminded Buluma that she was talking about evidence that she obtained illegally.
He went further to remind Buluma that her appointment as deputy chief executive officer was also illegal.
Kita also said the former NOCMA Deputy CEO is a person who has a tendency of disobeying court orders.
He asked her if she remembers facing contempt of court in the commercial court.
Buluma said she could not remember.
Kita reminded her that she once faced contempt of court for disobeying an injunction that restricted NOCMA on methods of procurement of fuel.
Kambala, Chaima Banda, and Chihana face accusations of influencing fuel supply contracts at NOCMA.
They were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in August 2021 before releasing them on bail.
Karonga based rights activist Lyton Mangochi, has described the remarks which were made by MCP Secretary General Eisenhower Mkaka on the MCP-UTM Alliance on Times Television as very unfortunate.
Mkaka told the world that the MCP does not know that there is an Alliance with the UTM claiming that if there was an Alliance, it was during the run up to the 23rd June, 2020 fresh presidential elections that saw President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera the winner.
Mangochi has asked God the Almighty to visit Mkaka so that he can repent for the remarks made and come back to the house of the Lord for him to start saying the truth and not used to telling Malawians lies.
Mkaka with host Brian Banda on Times TV
Speaking through a video clip circulating in various social media platforms, Mangochi has claimed that Mkaka is one of the people who has made President Chakwera to lose trust of the people claiming that he has been telling President Chakwera lies.
Mangochi said President Chakwera has failed to run the country in the interest of all because he is being surrounded by people who don’t want to wish the country well saying had President Chakwera knew in advance that Mkaka and Chimwendo Banda are confusing him, he would have dropped them before things have turned soar today.
He said Malawians from all walks of life witnessed the signing of an Alliance between MCP and UTM at the Kamuzu Institute of Sports in Lilongwe and for Mkaka to say that he doesn’t know the Alliance, he is deceiving himself and President Chakwera.
The activist has claimed that President Chakwera is not in good terms with Dr. Saulosi Klaus Chilima and Enoch Chihana not because of his interest but the interest of Mkaka and Chimwendo Banda who have made it possible to sow seeds of destruction.
He claimed that without Mkaka and Chimwendo Banda confusing President Chakwera, Chakwera would have today been a darling of the people not the way Malawians are looking at him as a failure while the truth is that President Chakwera is not a failure.
“People in South Sudan are fighting because of careless remarks of ruling out an Alliance when all Malawians are witnesses of the Alliance signed between MCP and UTM,” said Mangochi.
He has claimed that President Chakwera is being booed, insulted and castigated, visiting ADMARC without maize saying all this are as a result of telling him lies and President Chakwera was made to believe and trust in them
Proverbs 13:4 – “The soul of the lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” The lazy man desires what hard working people want: house, food, vacations, money for college and retirement. But the lazy man’s desires remain unsatisfied, while the diligent gain wealth.
What does Jesus say about the lazy? He loves the person, but He strongly dislikes the lazy attitudes that keep them from reaching their maximum potential. In Matthew 25:30, Jesus continues by calling this non-productive servant “the unprofitable servant.” The word “unprofitable” is from the Greek word achreios, which literally means useless.
The main challenge
When people reach a stage of stoning a presidential motorcade, it is the biggest sign that they are not scared of that particular anymore: it means they are very disappointed, furious, and nobody can stop them now. They have completely lost any respect of that leader.
In some of my every day conversations, I once predicted that the manner in which President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera is running the affairs of this country, one day the people of Malawi will throw a dirty shoe at him, and this has come to pass. Instead of a dirty shoe, some people threw stones at the President. Very bad indeed ! This is as a result of leadership failure.
President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera in prayer for the country’s socioeconomic challenges
Main Causes of anger and disappointment
Firstly, factors leading to President Chakwera’s leadership failure include poor communication skills and too much pressure on the President and his teams. These are factors that the President can control. Simply delivering on five things, Chakwera’s Hi-5 might protect the image of the President from complete failure, but are not fail-safe methods.
Unfortunately, the President has poor communication skills. Everyone knows that he speaks excellent Americano English but he is a poor communicator, he doesn’t explain why this nation is not prospering together, why corruption is on the rise in this country more than ever before, why one million jobs cannot be created, which he promised, neither can be explain why civil servants’ salaries cannot be revised to a competitive level. Salaries for government employees must be reviewed and updated or package adjustment based on various factors such as current cost of living, industry standards, motivation, competitiveness and employee performance. It was typically expected to have been done after winning the controversial 2020 fresh presidential election or during the following year, and must have been initiated by the Tonse Alliance Government. Unfortunately, that chance is lost and I do not see it coming again as the 2025 election is just around the corner.
Secondly, there’s failure of leadership because Chakwera has problems instructing his cabinet Ministers and coordinating their efforts. This is causing project delays, decreased employee morale, miscommunication and poor quality of governance.
Thirdly, the President is failing because he is not able to take responsibility for his government’s failures, shortcomings, or wrong strategies. Instead, Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance are busy making excuses or pointing fingers at the previous government. Quite often they play the blame game instead of working on finding a solution.
Fourthly, Chakwera’s failure in leadership is caused by many factors like poor communication skills, Lack of confidence, Inability to communicate well, Lack of understanding of his own goals, Not taking responsibility, and poor communication with his cabinet.
Fifthly, President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera’s Leadership failure is being caused by many factors including his lack of experience, poor communication skills, and selected justice and rule of law with with his Vice President. The President needs to put his best foot forward at all times so he does not risk losing the respect of those around him or undermining his authority as a leader. No wonder how motorcade has started getting rude obstruction, jeering and stones.
Finally, after making a couple of fake campaign promises and speeches, Malawians have started losing trust and respect that they can be taken to the promised land of Canaan or prosperity easily. Chakwera doesn’t pay much attention to details and overlooks potential issues with their decisions. It looks like the journey of taking Malawi to Canaan was just a fictional story. This is another reason why our leader is failing big time.
The country’s economy that was put on a sickbed into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led administration has now taken its recovery path following the gambling decision by President Lazarus Chakwera and his administration to devalue the local currency by 44 percent to align it with the major exchange rate of USD.
With only a month in office as a Minister of Finance, Simplex Chithyola Banda announced a devaluation of 44 percent which was a total sacrifice for Malawians and did not go down well with many who were already meeting various challenges including fuel scarcity, and shortage of foreign currency reserves (forex).
Minister of Finance, Simplex Chithyola Banda
Little did Malawians know that Chakwera’s leadership is full of wisdom from God, little did Malawians know that the appointment of Chithyola Banda was the beginning of a new journey for the Kwacha from the cross-roads where it stayed for long as contributed by the DPP’ crooked way of managing the local currency against the dollar.
In his statement, President Chakwera said the devaluation was to bring the country’s currency to its real value rather than pretending it had strong value against the USD.
On the other hand, Chithyola Banda said in one of the interviews soon after the Kwacha was devalued saying:”One of the reasons we did the currency rate alignment was in order to bridge the gap that was there between the parallel and official market.”
Since the devaluation of the Kwacha, the country started to experience positive changes highlighting the recovery of the economy which include; No queuing for fuel at all filling stations in the country, availability of forex in the country, the return of International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and with many other donor partners trickling down to Malawi to join hands in restoration of the currency, years after suspending their assistance.
Meanwhile, National Advocacy Platform (NAP) has applauded the Minister of Finance for pivotal initiatives including restoration of budget support.
