It continues to be a hard time for Malawians living in Diaspora,
especially in UK as it has been established that a third Malawian has died due
to Corona Virus.
The victim, a Manchester based Grant Maganga passed away in
the early hours of Monday morning. He was admitted at Tameside Hospital a week
ago after being diagnosed with Covid19.
Maganga was working as a Mental health Nurse in Tameside borough of Greater Manchester. Prior
to his moving to UK ,over two decades ago he
worked as a district commissioner in several districts including Lilongwe.
Details of the funeral arrangements will be announced. The UK remains one of the worst hit areas by Covid19. So far over 14000 people have died .
Two Malawians have also already succumbed to the deadly virus.
London based Best Banda and Birmingham Nurse Elsie Sazuze were the first victims.
The latest results of a primary research conducted by a British based Marketing research company has revealed that Democratic Progressive Party and Peter Mutharika have lost the trust of Malawians who identify themselves as “God fearing”.
Making the results of the survey known, lead researcher for Ipsos Political Research Inc, Dale Morgan said his organisation specialises in researching the power of a brand for marketing purposes. This time, the company worked with a local Malawian marketing agency as part of their project to do more branding research in Africa. “We look at the overall brand equity with its elements like brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand association” said Morgan.
Mutharika : Not being trusted by God fearing people
According to
the findings, it has been established that 90% of Malawians who regard
themselves a God fearing will not vote for Mutharika in the forthcoming elections.
The research highlights that this
response has come from a cross section of all religions “We sampled all religions and
the results have come out the same, both Muslims and Christians or even people that don’t go to church but identify themselves as God fearing are
not prepared to vote for Mutharika or DPP again” clarified Morgan
The research had
a sample of 10000 Malawians randomly sampled.
They came from different religious disciplines such as the evangelicals,
Pentecostals, Muslims, Rastafarians, Catholics and those who are religious but
have no church affiliations.
In trying to explain the findings, Dale Morgan said they have identified that DPP and Mutharika name (Brand) is so tainted in that people who regard themselves to have morals don’t want to associate with it. “These findings pick out strong elements which are against what most people who believe in God or Allah would want in a party. The Mutharika/DPP name is strongly associated with Corruption, lack of common love due to Nepotism, lies that comes from leaders of the party and the party is strongly perceived to be a party of thieves” .
DPP spokesman Dausi has laughed off at the research findings claiming that the research company did not collect the right sample “DPP is loved by all Malawians and we have a lot od religious leaders who endorses us “ defended Dausi
The bodyguard to Peter Mutharika Norman Chisale has reacted
angrily to the videos circulating on
social media where a number of DPP
cadets are accusing him of preventing
them access to the president.
The videos which have been shared widely on Facebook and WhatsApp
sees prominent DPP cadets led by Bangwe1
calling for Chisale to be removed from the statehouse and calling him “chiswamudzi”
saying he is the one breaking the DPP party.
DPP Cadets calling for Chisale to be fired
After choosing to be silent on the accusations, Chisale
finally broke his silence and has confided to his close allies that he is aware
of campaign within the DPP ranks to
damage his working relationship with Mutharika. Our sources says Chisale
has confided that he knows that the DPP thugs are being sponsored by Kondwani Nankhumwa using
his boys like Leonard Chimbanga
Chimbanga is on record after a leaked phonecall a few months ago expose that him and others are working on a campaign
to remove Norman Chisale and Gertrude Mutharika .
Chisale is urging all
those that have issues with him to follow the proper channels to address their grievances “ I am not a politicians so don’t drag me
into your politics, I am a security guy and the President security is my
priority. I am warning those thugs that are threatening to deal with me to be
careful of what they are saying- as long as the president security is
threatened then I will have no choice bit to deal with them “ Chisale said
President Arthur Peter Mutharika has appointed the immediate past Malawi Defence Force General Vincent Nundwe as Malawi’s High Commissioner to the Republic of India According to an announcement from the office of the Chief Secretary to the Government, Retired General Nundwe’s diplomatic appointment is subject to confirmation by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament.
Nundwe was replaced by General Peter Namathanga in a recent shake up of Malawi military top ranks by President Mutharika.
General Nundwe
In announcing Namathanga’s appointment as the new army commander, Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) said General Vincent Nundwe and his former deputy Lieutenant General Clement Namangale will be assigned other duties in the public service.
About a fortnight ago, Nundwe officially surrendered the military sword of power to Namangale at a function that was held at Kamuzu Barracks in the capital Lilongwe.
A Malawi high court has temporarily barred the government from implementing a 21-day lockdown to curb coronavirus following a petition by a human rights group.
Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda on Friday set aside the lockdown in response to a challenge by the Malawi Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), which argued that more consultation was needed to prevent harm to the poorest and most vulnerable of society.
Small-scale traders, often young people, had been staging protests in the three major cities against the planned lockdown, initially due to begin on Saturday, carrying placards declaring that it would be better to contract the virus than die of hunger because they are unable to work.
Most of those protesting called on the government to provide them with cash and food handouts if a lockdown went ahead.
The HDRC chairman, Gift Trapence, said the court had granted them temporary relief pending a judicial review in seven days.
“Yes, we have been granted the injunction,” he told AFP news agency. “So, what it means is that there is no lockdown for the next seven days.”
Protesters against lockdown in malawi
Presidential Press Secretary Mgeme Kalilani told the Reuters news agency that President Peter Mutharika’s office had noted the judgment and continued to see the lockdown as the way to save lives by minimising further spread of the coronavirus.
“Since the injunction obtained is a temporary relief pending judicial review, our expectation is that our civil, society and the courts will be guided by the law and what is in the best interest of Malawians when the matter finally comes for a hearing and determination, and nothing else,” Kalilani said.
“We can only hope that by the time the HRDC and the courts finalise dealing with the matter in court, it shall not be too late for all of us to effectively contain the spread of the virus and save lives.”
Malawi on Tuesday had joined other countries in announcing a three-week lockdown, with Mutharika saying if authorities were not careful, up to 50,000 lives could be lost.
All non-essential businesses and services were to cease operating during the lockdown, which was due to end on May 9.
Nyirenda’s ruling ran parallel to that of Health Minister Jappie Mhango, who announced at a briefing that the number of coronavirus cases had risen to 17 from 16. The latest case is of a 70-year old Blantyre businessman of Asian origin.
While African countries have far fewer confirmed cases of COVID-19 than other nations in the world, they have little testing capacity and most people have scant access to modern healthcare, meaning the risk of major virus outbreaks is high.
Mhango, who chairs Malawi’s cabinet committee overseeing its response to the pandemic, said three of the 17 coronavirus patients were recovering and could soon be declared cured
