Super League of Malawi (Sulom) on Sunday morning handed over a Mazda Demio to Nyasa Big Bullets and Flames midfielder Chimwemwe Idana who was voted 2020/21 TNM Super League Player of the Season.
The ceremony took place at Ndirande Community Centre Ground in Ndirande township, Blantyre.
Bullets supporters gathered in large numbers to witness the 25-year-old star receiving the car from Sulom officials.
During the week United General Insurance (UGI) presented a Comprehensive Car Insurance Policy to Idana who was also voted best midfielder of the season.
The midfielder helped the Peoples team to win 15th super league title and third league title in succession.
Chimwemwe idana
Idana earned the award after shrugging off competition from Vitumbiko Kumwenda of Mighty Wanderers, Lloyd Nyaliwa of Moyale Barracks and Blessings Tembo of Silver Strikers.
Apart from Idana, the other players that won individual TNM super league awards this season include Hassan Kajoke and Richard Chimbamba or Nyasa Big Bullets who received the top-scorer and best goalkeeper’s accolades respectively.
Nickson Mwase of Silver Strikers was the best defender while Lloyd Njaliwa of Moyale Barracks was the most improved player.
South African based political activist Bantu Saunders Juma on Saturday launched his Muvi wa Chilungamo pressure group with an appeal to Malawians to exercise patience as the Tonse led government is trying to restructure the economy.
Speaking during the launch at College of Medicine in Blantyre, Juma said that people should change their mindset and work towards helping government fulfill its developmental promises.
He further said that it is not proper for people to rush into demonstrations as the economic challenges that Malawi is facing are also being faced by many countries across the globe.
According to Juma, it is too early to assess the Tonse led administration as it has been in power for a short period of time and is leading the country at a time when the world is still grappling with the economic hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Juma also said that as a country, Malawi has everything to make it rich but politicians have failed Malawians for the past 57 years of the country’s independence.
He then urged the Tonse led government to start with mindset change so that they ably deliver on their promises.
He then said that the coming in of his pressure group will help Malawians to change their mindset and in turn help in the development of the country.
“We are preaching mindset change to the people, there is no impossible thing in life, what is impossible will be possible if all people change their thinking capacity,’’ said Juma.
Also present at the launch was president for Mafunde George Mnesa who advised members of the newly launched pressure group to focus on puting out positive criticisms instead of just opposing government for the sake of opposing.
Nyasa Big Bullets have won the Airtel top 8 cup after beating Silver Strikers 5-3 on post-match penalties in Saturday’s final at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
The game ended 1-all in regulation time and it had to take penalties to separate the two and for the Peoples team to win the Airtel top 8 cup for the first time.
Silver’s Stain Davie opened the scoring just nine minutes into the game with a cool finish past Bullets goalie Ernest Kakhobwe.
However, Lanjesi Nkhoma cancelled Silver’s lead seven minutes later to give the Blantyre giants hopes of winning a double this year.
Chiukepo Msowoya nearly increased Bullets’ lead in the 23rd minute but his header went up the cross bar
In the 28th minute there were penalty shouts after a Silver Strikers player fouled Hassan Kajoke in the penalty area but referee Newton Nyirenda waved play on.
The second half saw the Peoples team bringing in Zicco Mkanda and Eric Kaonga for Chiukepo Msowoya and Alick Lungu while the central bankers brought in Innocent Shema for Mike Roberts and Chokondi Kamanga for Tawonga Chimodzi. Blessings Tembo and Patrick Macheso also paved way for Maxwell Phodo and Levison Maganizo.
Bullets also brought in Precious Phiri for Hassan Kajoke and penalty specialist Yamikani Fodya for Charles Petro towards the end of the match.
Despite the changes there were still no goals from either side and the match went straight into the penalty shootout.
Bullets scored all their five penalties through Yamikani Fodya, Zicco Mkanda, Chimwemwe Idana, Gomezgani Chirwa and Nickson Nyasulu
On the other hand Silver scored their penalties through Frank Banda, Stain Davie and Innocent Shema. Levison Maganizo missed his spot kick for Silver Strikers.
The victory means Bullets have secured a double this season, having won also the TNM Super League.
Opponents Silver Strikers are the Airtel top 8 most successful side, winning it on 2 occasions since its inception in 2017.
The 2021 champions have received K17 million while Silver have received K5.5 million for being runners up
Bullets’ Babatunde won the golden boot award with 8 goals and went home with K500, 000 from Airtel
In order to support the Malawi Government in intensifying its response to the 4th Wave, the Malawi International Covid Response Group is organising a Virtual panel discussion which will be held via Zoom this Sunday, 19th December 2021.
The group which is comprised of Malawians living in the diaspora working alongside various stakeholders in Malawi has been at the forefront of helping the government in its effort to combat the pandemic.
The Sunday event will be held on Zoom Platform and people are encouraged to attend. The Zoom details are
Meeting ID: 838 7083 6801- Passcode: 661713. The panel discussion will start at 3.00pm Malawi Time and 1.00pm UK Time.
Recently the group has embarked on Vaccination Acceleration Programme in rural communities, an initiative that has been hailed by Chiefs and political leaders .The Programmerolled out in October and is being done in partnership with the Society of Medical Doctors of Malawi (SMD) and NBS Bank
The districts so far reached include Neno, Nkhotakota and Mzimba where over 200 leaders were reached out and given the platform on community radio stations to communicate and influence rural communities in order to accelerate uptake of rural communities CoVID-19 vaccination.
Speaking to 247Malawi News Tikhala Chimpango, PR & Comms Lead for the group said the group is pleased with the progress of the vaccine acceleration programme “We would like to appeal to all Malawi to continue getting vaccinated”, she said.
MICRG is an initiative that was initiated by the Malawi Diaspora Network (MDN) and taking cognizance that the vaccination uptake awareness was not reaching out to the rural communities, the group decided to join the campaign.”We are working tirelessly to save the lives of our families in Malawi and we are urging every Malawian to play their role in the battle against this pandemic” explained Edith Chikago-Parker ACMA, Chairperson MICRG. She also emphasized the importance of adopting a multi-stakeholder partnership and collaboration approach which has been vital for the success of the Rural Communities Covid-19 Vaccine Acceleration Programme.
The initiative has been endorsed by the Malawi Government, during its meeting with Dr. Nkhoma (Co-chairperson, Malawi Presidential TaskForce on Coronavirus), who commended the group on its strategic approach and informed the members that the Ministry of Health has asked all the districts DHSSs in Malawi to submit their plans and budget on Covid with an intention of increasing vaccination rates in the districts. Therefore Dr. Nkhoma urged the members, to relay this message to key district representatives requesting them to incorporate the initiative in their plans.
The initiative got support of NBS Bank, which sponsored MICRG with MK9.6 million — gesture that showed the Bank’s willingness and determination to adhere to their strong Corporate Social Responsibility.
SMD President Dr. Victor Mithi, who is the leading the delivery team on the ground, reports that they have been working in close partnership with the Presidential Taskforce on CoVID-19, he explained that through the Presidential Taskforce, they have also managed to link the programme to the government mobile vaccination clinics. He explained that the response has been encouraging, we have discovered that through the community influencers many people are positively coming out for their jabs — which is a plus in balancing up the uptake of information between the urban vs the rural.
Dr. Mithi also took cognizance that community radios play a huge part in influencing people in matters of national importance — thus MICRG applauds all who accepted to be community influencers in this initiative.
Staff Sargeant Chim Musicha, Programme Delivery and Quality Assurance Lead, MICRG explained that the group has limited funding covering 6 districts currently, so far we have reached circa 200+ community leaders in Neno, Nkhota-kota and Mzimba. We have also recently joined forces with our colleagues from Malawians Health Initiative (USA) and have agreed phase 2 of our strategy which will focus on intensifying fundraising activities in order to raise MK40,000,000 required to deliver the programme in the remaining 21 districts in the Malawi.
The Rular District Programme sees SMD deploying its doctors nationwide to sensitise the rural districts to increase vaccination uptake. MICRG was launched in January 2020 to support Malawi Government in implementing sustainable CoVID-19 management strategies.
Its aim is to coordinate the diaspora resources including knowledge, skills and abilities in supporting sustainable CoVID-19 Management strategies and to date, MICRG has contribute towards Malawi’s Covid-19 management strategies through presentations during high-level national vaccination roll-out and planning meetings, delivering virtual panel discussions, publications, disseminating information and advising on Malawi’s corporates social responsibility strategies.
The Urban Research and Advocacy Centre (URAC), on thursday the 16th of December 2021, donated assorted items worthy tens of thousands to victims of floods which took place last weeks at the Mzuzu University (MZUNI).
The donation comes barely weeks after heavy rains affected a number of students who reside at St. Augustine area, outside the university’s campus which left the students handless.
Speaking during the donation, the executive director of URAC, Prof. Mtafu, said that its their social responsibility to help hopeless victims of such natural disaster and promote them materially for the betterment of their lives. He added that the centre thought it wise to weigh in with material support to the students thus basic needs as they are sourcing other funds to supplement the donation.
On his part, Dean of students at the green campus, Mr Fiskani Ngwira, thanked the URAC for the timely donation and hoped that the organisation will keep on bailing as many students as possible in consideration that there are many other needy students who are lacking basics whilst studying at MZUNI.
Representing the students, Face to face Social welfare director, Mr Isaac Lalama, was quick to denote his gratitude towards the donation. He further extended appreciation note to URAC for the items which have been served to the victims. Lalama has since appealed to the general public to consider, financially and materialistically, helping multitude of needy students who are struggling to make it on daily basis at Mzuni.
At least 18 students have benefited from the donation which include cooking oil,10 kgs bags flour and rice, parked chicken,writing pens and note books.
Introduced in 2016, URAC is a research centre which aims at promoting evidence based economic planning, development, service delivery and accountability. It has its main station in Mzuzu and sub-stations in Chintheche, Chilumba, Lilongwe, Blantyre, among other districts.
