Malawi’s award-winning musician Piksy, has been invited to perform at this year’s Association of Malawians in Ireland (AMAI) Gala Awards expected to take place in the Irish capital city, Dublin, this weekend.
The event will take place on 10th of December at the Maldron Hotel and the _Anana_ hit maker will be among the artists to perform.
The musician, real name Evance Zangazanga has since expressed excitement with the invitation and promised to give out his best performance.
Other artists who are also expected to perform include Mike Akitivi, Bingolingo and Brayside Boys. Dj Ovie2Nyc and Dj Primill of Primill Entertainment will also showcase their djeeying skills on the night.
The red carpet event is expected to start at 6 o’clock in the evening and is going to be hosted by Faith Queen Mother Alufandika and Tamara Harawa
Recently, the representatives of AMAI were in the country where they handed over a house worth K2.9 million to an 82-year-old woman in Mangochi district.
Mtambo continues to defy the odds in leading the struggle and pursuit for a better Malawi. While many would only expect Mtambo to talk about peaceful coexistence, national unity and demonstrations as these directly fall under the Ministry of National Unity, has challenged Malawians to consider extremely cutting down on unnecessary imports in order to reduce on the negative trade balance Malawi has been suffering from for the past five plus decades.
Mtambo was speaking on Saturday evening at Capitol Hotel where he was a guest of honor at Product Magazine 2022 edition launch. The event was organised by Product Magazine in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Malawi Export Promotion to award the best local product exporters to international markets. Mtambo said both the event and participants were the champions of the Malawi Export Strategy which is key to the Mw2063 as recently launched by Chakwera.
“This is killing our industry, creating a forex shortage and suffocating the economy. Why do we like importing everything and anything, including what we could locally produce even cheaper and at a much better quality?” retorted Mtambo. “Malawi is a nation nearing extinction if we can’t feed our own people; if we can’t produce more than what we consume, if our trade balance remains negative, if we can’t generate enough forex to sustain our demand,” warned Mtambo.
Hon Mtambo
“When I had heard of the ‘Buy Malawi Campaign’ I felt this was the moment for Malawi’s economic and industrial revolution, but now I know the campaign alone is not enough,” Mtambo said. He said that Malawians need a change of mindset to overhaul this deeply entrenched inferiority complex that compels most to think that everything from outside Malawi is better.
Mtambo reported that his Ministry runs the Pabwalo Citizen Engagement program which aims at bringing people closer to the Government and vice versa. He committed to engaging all stakeholders through this program in order to inculcate mindset change among the citizenry, which is a crucial enabler for the Mw2063. The Ministry for National Unity and Civic Education was mandated to implement this crucial pillar in the development agenda.
“Let me ask our business colleagues who import everything even toothpicks, brooms, cane chairs, sofa sets, school uniforms, mangoes, potatoes, vegetables and many more to consider taking advantage of the Malawian industry and supply chain,” Mtambo pleaded. He further said Malawi must import petroleum products because there are no oil wells, but agriculture products must be cultivated locally, processed and even exported instead of importing.
The Minister has highly commended the event organizer, for putting Malawian business owners and their products on the international market map through the Product Magazine, a local private organisation, which promotes products not only from Malawi and SADC region but also beyond. “This is what it will take in order for Malawi to create global competitive business advantages,” Mtambo reiterated. The organizers also expressed gratitude for the Government’s support to the Product Magazine and all business participants to the competition.
Though majority citizens welcome the idea to extremely cut down on imports, some members of the society have received this demand with reservations, citing poor quality and desire for status symbol as reasons for importing what could already be locally produced.
Malawi’s urban musicians Provoice and Macelba sustained injuries while two others died in a road accident that happened on Sunday in Dedza district.
According to Dedza Police Deputy Public Relations Officer Cassim Manda, the accident happened at Hinda Turnoff after Chimbiya Trading Center when the driver Lapieni Malivenji lost control of the vehicle (Honda Fit, BY 1692) which swerved to the extreme verge of the road before hitting a male pedestrian John Namagunda who was coming from the opposite direction.
“The vehicle later overturned several times and rammed into an earth wall.
Following the impact, the driver and the pedestrian sustained severe head injuries and were pronounced dead upon arrival at Dedza District Hospital,” he said.
Manda further explained that Macelba escaped with minor bruises and was treated as an outpatient while Provoice sustained a fractured pelvic and was referred to Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe for further treatment.
Macelba, real name Smart Mazaka Banda who was coming from a music performance in Zomba, was heading to Lilongwe where he was expected to partake in the bridal shower ceremony of his fiancee.
For Provoice, real name Lameck Mwenewanda this is not the first time to be involved in a road accident as he survived another serious road accident just a year ago when he was coming from Hangout Festival in Salima.
Malawi Under-17 National Football Team, the Junior Flames have progressed to the semifinals of the TitalEnergies U17 AFCON Algeria 2023 | Cosafa Qualifier after beating Namibia 2-1 at Bingu National Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Namibia were the first to score through Dorian Nanuseb 27 minutes in the first half but the Junior Flames responded 10 minutes later through Blessings Kanowa who scored from the penalty spot
Webster Mzunda scored the winning goal for Malawi with only seven minutes to play to the excitement of the home fans that came in large numbers to support their team.
The win moves the Junior Flames to four points from their two games in Group A, and ensures they will be in the top two with Namibia and Botswana left to battle it out for the other semifinal place on Tuesday.
The two finalists in this year’s competition, which forms part of the Region 5 Games Lilongwe 2022, qualify for the TotalEnergies U17 AFCON Algeria that will be played in April next year.
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition HRDC has shifted to a later date demonstrations scheduled for December 7, 2022 and has given government a probation to fix social economic and governance challenges the country is facing.
Speaking during a press briefing in Lilongwe on Saturday, the organization’s Gift Trapence said they have arrived at the decision after noting that some concerns are being addressed by government citing an improvement in fuel availability which was one of the key concerns.
Trapence and HRDC
However, HRDC made fresh demands to president Lazarus Chakwera to reshuffle his Cabinet and remove non performing ministers, suspend Secretary to the office of President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba until she is cleared from the allegations made by former acting chief executive officer of National Oil Company of Malawi Helen Buluma against Zamba.
” We are calling on President Chakwera to reshuffle his cabinet so as to make everything move smooth,” said Trapence.
The human rights group last month gave government a 21 day ultimatum to address challenges such as fuel scarcity and the mess surrounding AIP implementation this year.
