About nine foreign based players are expected to jet into the country today to join the Flames camp ahead of two friendly matches against Zambia and Zimbabwe next week.
Mozambique based duo of captain John Banda and Schumaker Kuwali will arrive in the country this morning.Six South Africa based players namely Limbikani Mzava, Gabadinho Mhango, Gerald Phiri Junior, Chawanangwa Kaonga, Richard Mbulu and Dennis Chembezi will arrive at 2PM through Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe.
Gabadinho Mhango
USA based Yamikani Chester will arrive together with the SA based crew.Charles Petro will join the team in Zambia as he will fly direct from Moldova. Georgia based midfielder Francisco Madinga is doubtful due to COVID-19 travel complications.
The Flames are expected to travel to Zambia on Monday ahead of the match against Chipolopolo on Wednesday. They will return on Thursday and play Zimbabwe at the Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday October 11.The Meke Mwase side is preparing for back to back 2022 AFCON Qualifying matches against Burkina Faso in November
Luchenza Municipal Council says preparations to remove vendors from the streets have reached an advanced stage, saying come Monday next week the council will not allow street vending.
Chief Executive Officer for Luchenza Municipal Council, Sellina Chimphamba said the council conducted a meeting with market committees for Chonde and Luchenza on issues bordering on street vending and Covid-19-related matters earlier this week.
Chimphamba said on Wednesday the meeting resolved that all vendors should move out of the streets to designated places and those who will fail to relocate voluntarily will meet law enforcing agencies in the process.
Lunchenza municipal council Civic Centre
“Luchenza Market Committee already briefed traders while the market committee for Chonde will brief traders on Thursday (today). Our office will do announcements via Public Address System probably on Sunday so that the message can be wide spread.
“Come Monday, police will start enforcement and we have identified a place to allocate to all vendors who ply their trade along the Chonde-Mulanje Road and those at Luchenza will go in the market since it has not been occupied due to street vending,” said Chimphamba.
Chimphamba said both Luchenza and Chonde markets have enough space to accommodate all vendors, adding that they will use a grader to clear more space.
Government has recently been removing street vendors starting from Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Blantyre and other places in a bid to bring sanity on how business is conducted.
A similar exercise took place in Limbe last week where Blantyre City Council authorities demolished shacks constructed in undesignated places. The demolition was part of councils plan to deal with illegal vending in the city.
Deputy Minister of Education Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima said she was impressed with the way Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination (PSLCE) are being administered in the country amidst the COVID 19 pandemic.
Speaking during a monitoring visit to some centres in Salima and Nkhotakota on Wednesday, Wirima said it was pleasing to note that exams started very well in the centres she visited.
She said the ministry is happy to note that there is high compliance of COVID 19 preventive measures in the schools of the two districts she visited, a development she described as a good move towards protection of the standard 8 learners who are sitting for the PSLC exam.
“I am impressed to see that the exams are being administered. Our aim of the monitoring visit was to see how schools are complying with the pandemic’s preventive measures,” she said.
She added: “As you know that we are in difficult times where we have the virus amidst us, what is pleasing is that all the learners were putting on masks and there were hand washing facilities everywhere we visited.”
Wirima interacting with a special needs candidate at Nkhotakota LEA centre
The deputy minister congratulated MANEB for laying out good strategies of administering the exams by ensuring that centres have adequate invigilators and enough rooms for exams which she said allowed learners to observe social distance.
“Of course there are challenges that they are encountering like some infrastructures not having enough light for the learners to see properly,” she said.
Wirima said they needed classrooms or halls that are well ventilated and allow enough light to come in but all in all they are happy that learners sat for their exams after a long covid 19 break.
She urged learners that fell pregnant to go back to schools after delivering saying they still have a chance to get educated.
Chiyembekezo Mwafulirwa, a centre supervisor at Lozi secondary school centre in Nkhotakota said their main worry was that some learners failed to turn up for the exams because they were either married or fell pregnant.
“We have four schools clustered here at Lozi with a total number of 269 learners but only 240 turned up for the exams and 29 did not come because they got married or fell pregnant during the long holiday,” he said.
He said the development is worrisome considering that the future of the absent learners is halted.
“They tried their best from lower classes to this far, and when the exams they waited for all this time are here, the learners failed to show up because of the challenges mentioned. This is very worrisome considering that their future is now doomed,” said Mwafulirwa.
Mercy Zimba, a candidate at Thavite Centre said she was happy that exams are finally here.
“The holiday was too long. I even lost hope that we are going to sit for it. I started getting worried as to what is going to happen with us as learners who were disturbed just before we sat for the exams,” she said.
The Minister visited Lozi and Nkhotakota LEA centres in Nkhotakota, Thavite and Salima secondary school centres in Salima during the monitoring tour.
As part of its expansion efforts, the UTM party, on Wednesday launched its women’s wing in Salima which will be responsible for accelerating the party’s activities.
The women’s wing which is called Women for Change will among other things be responsible for women empowerment, fighting against early marriages as well as helping communities’ poverty reduction.
Speaking after the launch, Salima district women’s wing team leader, Sala Chipala said that the grouping will make sure that they reach out to the less privileged communities so that they work together with them in uplifting their living standards.
“We already had the grouping and what remained was an official launch. As a wing we have so far managed to reach out to a woman at Gwilize area who delivered twins and was suffering from malnutrition and we also offered some help to a boy from Chipoka who was suffering from cancer,” said Chipala.
She said what the grouping has started is just the beginning of what they will be doing for vulnerable communities in Salima adding that they will be using different initiatives to support those that are in need.
The UTM national team leader, Lise Kamwendo said the launch of the women wing is in line with the government’s effort of creating a better Malawi for all and encouraged the women to work very hard so that they help government in realizing its dream.
“There is a need for them as a newly born wing to conduct more fund-raising activities so as to boost their financial muscle,” said Kamwendo.
The national women’s programs coordinator for the party, Cecilia Luso hailed the women for the commendable job they have done towards the launch through cash donations and moral support.
The launch was attended by women from Blantyre, Kasungu and Lilongwe
Member of Parliament for Blantyre North, Francis Phiso has asked Minister of Transport Sidik Mia to name the Area 18 interchange after immediate former president Peter Mutharika.
Phiso, a member of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), argued that he K7.6 billion Area 18 Traffic Interchange in Lilongwe was project initiated and championed by Mutharika.
He said it was “right and proper” to name the Area 18 Traffic Interchange after Mutharika.
Area 18 interchange in Lilongwe
Mia responded by saying it is not his mandate to name the interchange and that it is the President’s prerogative to name it whatever he wishes.
The Area 18 Cloverleaf Traffic Interchange is located at the site of the then Area 18 Roundabout. It boasts an upper road from Parliament Roundabout to Bingu National Stadium which was upgraded to dual carriageway.
The underpass also has a dual carriage on the M1 and is expected to be later connected to the planned Kanengo to Mchinji Roundabout dual carriageway.
