Police in Mangochi have arrested 19-year-old, Ishmael John, who had been on the run for several days on allegations of murdering a 25-year-old sex worker, Ethel Mphepo, over jealousy.
According to Mangochi Police Spokesperson Inspector Amina Tepani Daudi,the incident occurred on the morning of April 27, 2026, within Mangochi Township.
Daudi
Daudi said the suspect was a regular customer of the deceased and the two were often seen together at her friend’s business spot within the Township. The two frequently patronised a nearby bush for their sexual activities.
Some days prior to the incident, another man had expressed interest in marrying Mphepo. The man was often seen at the business area chatting with her in the presence of the suspect, a situation that reportedly angered him.
On the day of the incident, the suspect allegedly lured Mphepo from the business area to their usual spot under the pretext of having sex. Once there, he is said to have strangled her to death before fleeing to his home village.
The matter was reported to Mangochi Police Station, and detectives promptly visited the scene. The body was taken to Mangochi District Hospital, where a postmortem examination confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation.
Following investigations, the suspect was apprehended over the weekend at his home village, Mitanga, under Traditional Authority Mponda in Mangochi District.
The suspect has since admitted to committing the offence and is expected to appear before court to answer a charge of murder upon completion of necessary paperwork.
Malawi has joined the global community in commemorating International Firefighters’ Day (IFFD), observed annually on May 4.
The day recognizes and honours the sacrifices firefighters make to protect lives, property, and the environment.
The commemoration in Blantyre was marked by a march from Limbe to Kamuzu Stadium, where firefighters conducted public demonstrations on fire prevention and emergency response.
This event aimed to raise awareness about the importance of fire safety and the critical role firefighters play in saving lives.
The event also paid tribute to both current and former firefighters for their dedication and service to the nation.
Their bravery and selflessness deserve recognition and appreciation, serving as a reminder of the importance of supporting those who risk their lives to protect others.
President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika was voted into State House by Malawians from Nsanje to Chitipa, from Nkhotakota to Mchinji. He is not President of the Lhomwe, he is not President of the Yao, he is President of all Malawians.
That mandate carries one non-negotiable duty: to serve every citizen with honesty and to demand the same from every minister he appoints. When Mutharika assembled his Cabinet, he looked each of them in the eye and said they are servants of the people, not bosses. They were hired to liberate Malawi, not to lecture it.
They were told to deliver, and above all, to tell Malawians the truth. That is the standard. That is the contract. And that is why President Mutharika must now take a bold, unavoidable move and fire Minister of Energy and Mining, Hon. Dr. Jean Mathanga.
Mutharika
The fuel crisis has exposed a gap between what government says and what Malawians live, and in that gap trust is bleeding. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mathanga stood before the cameras, flanked by microphones, and gave the country a date and a number.
She said Malawi would be “flooded with fuel by Monday, 27 April.” She was specific. She said 143 fuel tankers were already in transit and another 110 were ready for dispatch. That is 243 tankers. She did not say “maybe.” She did not say “we hope.” She gave a deadline. Malawians marked it. Minibus operators parked their vehicles to wait. Hospitals recalculated ambulance runs. Farmers delayed moving produce.
The whole country held its breath for Monday. Monday came and went. Tuesday followed. Then Wednesday. Today is May 4, and the pumps are dry. The serpentine queues have disappeared not because tankers arrived, but because filling stations gave up. “No Fuel” signs are now the national flag at the forecourt. The crisis has not eased.
It has calcified. So the question every Malawian is asking is simple and brutal: who is cheating Malawians? Is it Jean Mathanga or is it President Mutharika himself? If the President did not send his minister to mislead the nation, then the minister misled the nation on her own.
If she did, she must go. If the President keeps her, then the lie becomes his. There is no third option. Leadership is not poetry. It is consequences. Mutharika cannot preach servant leadership and practice protection of non-performance.
A country without fuel cannot progress. A child cannot get to school. A nurse cannot get to work. A shop cannot open. The economy does not run on excuses. It runs on diesel and petrol. When a Minister of Energy cannot get either into the country after promising 243 tankers, that is not a policy challenge.
That is a failure of competence and credibility. Dr. Mathanga has had a week since 27 April to explain where the tankers are. Which border did they cross? Which depot signed for them? Which transporter is holding them? Instead of answers, Malawians have received silence, and silence in a crisis is arrogance. The minister told the nation to expect fuel. The nation received emptiness.
That is not a miscommunication. That is a breach of trust. And breaches of trust at Cabinet level cannot be patched with another press briefing. They must be punished with dismissal. President Mutharika’s legacy will not be written by the speeches he gives, but by the ministers he keeps.
If he retains a minister who assured the nation of fuel by a specific date and failed to deliver, he tells every Malawian that dates do not matter, that promises are theatre, and that Cabinet is a place where words have no weight. That is how governments lose the people. The President campaigned on liberating Malawi from mediocrity, from blackouts, from endless queues.
Liberation does not happen when the Minister of Energy turns the ministry into a factory of missed deadlines. Liberation happens when a President fires non-performers and hires problem-solvers.
Mutharika needs only performing ministers and nothing less. The ministry has recycled explanations about global supply chains, about aging infrastructure, about Open Tender Systems. Malawians have heard it all before.
What they have not seen is fuel. What they have not seen is accountability. Dr. Shadric Namalomba can urge calm. Calm does not fill a tank. Dr. Mathanga can promise long-term rehabilitation.
Long-term does not start a generator today. The short-term test was 27 April. She set it. She failed it. Keeping her in office after that failure insults every Malawian who believed her and planned their week around her word.
Some will say firing a minister will not bring fuel overnight. Correct. But keeping a minister who lied will guarantee that no Malawian believes the next promise. Once a government loses credibility, it governs by force, not by consent.
Mutharika was not voted to rule by force. He was voted to serve by results. The result here is zero. The fuel did not come. The blackouts did not stop. The minister did not resign. Therefore the President must act.
If he does not, then 247 Malawinews and every other voice that loves this country will be forced to conclude that the President is the one cheating Malawians, and we will advocate for his resignation for failing the nation. That is not malice. That is accountability. The President asked to be judged by his team. The team has failed. The minister at the centre of the failure must be the first to go.
Malawi is bigger than any minister. It is bigger than any party. It is certainly bigger than any lie. President Mutharika must fire Jean Mathanga now. He must show that in his government, when you promise 243 tankers and deliver zero, you pack your office. He must show that servant leadership means you serve or you leave.
He must show that the votes from Nsanje to Chitipa were not votes for excuses. They were votes for fuel, for light, for dignity. The tankers did not arrive. The minister must. At the door, with a resignation letter. If she will not write it, the President must hand it to her. Anything less is a betrayal of the people who put him in State House. The country is watching. The pumps are dry. The decision is due.
A week has passed since Minister of Energy and Mining, Hon. Dr. Jean Mathanga, stood before cameras and promised a nation on its knees that relief was coming. “143 fuel trucks were already in transit as of Wednesday,” she said last Friday. “An additional 110 trucks loaded with fuel are ready for dispatch.” That is 243 tankers.
By her own arithmetic, this fleet was supposed to flood the country and end the humiliation of dry pumps.
Today, the question ringing from Chitipa to Nsanje is simple: Where are they?
The serpentine queues that once choked our cities have not disappeared because fuel has returned.
Mathanga
They have vanished because filling stations have surrendered. Empty forecourts, locked pumps, and “No Fuel” signs are now the monuments to a promise broken. Motorists sleep in their cars for nothing.
Minibus operators park their hopes. Businesses bleed. Yet from Capital Hill, there is only a deafening silence.
Dr. Mathanga must not take Malawians for granted. Leadership is not a press conference. It is delivery. To announce 243 tankers with such precision, only for the country to see zero impact a week later, is not a miscalculation.
It is deception. When a minister feeds the public numbers that do not translate into fuel at the pump, that is cheating. When she repeats assurances while hospitals ration ambulances and farmers watch produce rot, that is lying.
The minister’s attempt to blame “aging infrastructure” and “global supply chains” insults the intelligence of citizens who have heard the same script for years.
We were told the Open Tender System would cure the vulnerabilities of Government-to-Government deals. We were told diversification would guarantee supply.
If that is true, why are we still dry? If 243 tankers were truly “in transit” and “ready for dispatch,” which border post swallowed them? Which depot is hiding them? Malawians deserve names, dates, and tracking sheets, not vague adjectives.
This is not just about fuel. It is about trust. It is about a government that seems comfortable making promises it cannot keep.
The same ministry that tells us blackouts will ease “in the long term” cannot even account for tankers it said were already on the road “in the short term.” How then do we believe any plan for hydropower rehabilitation, or new generation projects, when the basic task of getting diesel to Blantyre fails?
Dr. Shadric Namalomba asks citizens to “avoid panic buying.” But panic is the child of lies. When officials say fuel is coming and it does not, people hoard.
When ministers speak and pumps stay dry, trust evaporates faster than petrol. You cannot lecture the public on calm while feeding them fiction.
The Democratic Progressive Party rode to power on promises of efficiency and delivery. Today, under its watch, the energy sector is a case study in failure.
If a minister cannot tell the difference between “in transit” and “invisible,” she has no business managing a strategic ministry. The honourable thing for Dr. Jean Mathanga to do is to resign. Not tomorrow. Now.
Resignation is not weakness. It is accountability. It tells Malawians that public office is not a shield for excuses, but a seat of responsibility.
Keeping her in office after misleading the nation would confirm what many now suspect: that the DPP has failed, and it is failing with arrogance.
Malawians are not children to be pacified with numbers. We are citizens demanding fuel, light, and truth.
Until Dr. Mathanga produces the 243 tankers or produces her resignation letter, every blackout will remind us of her words, and every empty tank will echo her silence.
The country is waiting. The tankers are not. The minister must go.
Zomba City Council on Friday launched activities under Presidential Executive Order No. 2 with Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Dr. Ben Malunga Phiri, taking to the streets to sweep alongside residents, market vendors, and students.
The minister said the exercise showed the government’s commitment to clean, green, and orderly cities, stressing that implementation must start at community level.
Phiri
“My Ministry recognizes that meaningful implementation must begin at the community and council level, where our people live, learn, and work,” Dr. Phiri told participants at Gymkhana Ground. “I urge all councils and partners to make implementation a collective responsibility.”
Following the Executive Order, the Ministry issued a circular directing all local authorities to put in place measures that ensure cities and towns remain clean and sanitary. In Zomba, the minister led a city-wide sweeping exercise before marching with council officials and residents to Gymkhana Ground, where partners showcased services promoting urban hygiene and civic responsibility.
Residents and city officials praised Dr. Phiri’s hands-on approach, describing him as a leader who works closely with ordinary people.
“We have had many ministers, but Dr. Phiri comes to the ground and sweeps with us. That motivates everyone,” said market vendor Eluby Kalua. Zomba City Mayor Christopher Jana added: “The minister does not just give directives. He participates. That is the kind of leadership that changes attitudes in the city.”
Dr. Phiri said clean environments are central to public health and dignity.
“This event demonstrates the Council’s commitment to strengthening one of the most fundamental pillars of public health and human dignity — clean and sanitary environments for all,” he said.
He further noted that councils must treat cleanliness as a daily responsibility, not a one-off campaign. “A clean street tells a child that her country respects her,” he said.
The minister has in recent weeks been visiting councils to monitor compliance with the Executive Order, pushing for practical action on waste management, urban greening, and orderly trading spaces.
Council officials said Friday’s launch in Zomba will be followed by weekly community clean-ups and stricter enforcement of by-laws on littering and illegal vending.
Partners at Gymkhana Ground exhibited recycling initiatives, public health services, and youth-led sanitation projects aimed at sustaining the clean-up drive.
Dr. Phiri commended the collaborations and called on more stakeholders to support councils with equipment and civic education.
