Minister of Transport Jacob Hara has issued an ultimatum to Engineers Construction Company Limited (ECCL) of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) to resume work on the stalled Ntcheu-Tsangano road project by August 6, 2024, or face contract termination.
During an inspection of the project site in Ntcheu on Tuesday, Hara expressed disappointment that the first phase of the 18-kilometer road project has fallen short of government expectations.
“We have given them August 6,2024 as a deadline so that they resume the construction works,”said Hara.
The project, which began in 2018, has faced significant delays due to funding issues, failing to meet its completion deadline.
Despite eight kilometers of the road already being upgraded to bitumen, ECCL officials attribute the delay in completing the remaining section to the recent devaluation of the Kwacha.
The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) on Tuesday donated 264 footballs to be used as match balls in the FCB Under 19 Youth Leagues across the country.
FAM Technical Director, Benjamin Kumwenda, said this is part of FAM’s “Transforming the Game” agenda, which aims to ensure that each FAM-organized competition has proper match balls.
Kumwenda stressed the importance of providing basic needs, such as footballs, to facilitate player growth in the youth leagues.
“For us to develop football in Malawi, we need to invest in youth football.
“The youth clubs and leagues must have equipment and resources like footballs, and this is why we have made this donation,” he said.
Each of the 174 teams registered in the 14 District Leagues across the country will receive a football.
The 11 District Leagues with 10 teams will receive 5 footballs, while the three cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu, which have 16 teams, will receive 10 footballs.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has given the green light for Bingu National Stadium to host international matches, but with conditions.
The stadium has been approved to host only CAF Interclub competitions for the first and second round preliminary rounds.
This means that the highly anticipated match between Nyasa Big Bullets and Red Arrows of Zambia will go ahead as scheduled.
However, the Malawi national team, the Flames, will not be able to host any matches at the stadium until another inspection is conducted.
This is a blow to the team, which was hoping to play their home matches at the stadium.
The approval comes after a series of inspections by CAF officials, who were assessing the stadium’s readiness to host international matches.
While the stadium has been given the nod, CAF has emphasized that it will continue to monitor the stadium’s progress and may conduct further inspections in the future.
The match between Bullets and Red Arrows is expected to be a thrilling encounter, with both teams looking to make a statement in the competition.
Bullets will be looking to use home advantage to their benefit, while Red Arrows will be seeking to cause an upset.
The stadium’s approval is a relief to football fans in Malawi, who were worried that the match might be moved to a different venue.
The match is expected to attract a large crowd, and fans are eagerly looking forward to the encounter.
In a statement, the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) expressed its delight at the approval, saying it was a testament to the country’s commitment to developing its football infrastructure.
FAM also assured fans that it would continue to work towards ensuring that the stadium meets all the necessary requirements to host international matches.
Former DPP leadership hopeful Dr Dalitso Kabambe has been welcomed in the United Transformation Party . The welcoming event which took place at Masambanjati in Thyolo on Tuesday morning concludes all the speculation that Kabambe who dumped DPP a week ago , was in search of leadership opportunities in UTM .
Kabambe coming in comes at a time when the party is divided after the death of its former leader Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima who died in a plane crash a month ago . Many people believe the succession issues in UTM is no surprise as the party was largely builty on Chilima as a person. To many people , it wasn’t the party that was attractive to them but its flamboyant leasder in SKC. This is why despite Dr Usi accednding to power, a cross section of the pary are refusing to accept him as aleader.
To the desperate members who are not willing to accept Usi as a leader , Kabambe comes in a s new face that can reshape the party .
The reality though is that Kabambe is no SKC- he cannot fill in the shoes of Saulos Klaus Chilima as far as appeal is concerned. Kabambe is a boring politician, whose only hope is his academic prowess but very lacking Politically. In summary he lacks energy, and always thinks he can win people over by bombarding them with statistics and economic jargon that is usually difficult for a common man to understand.
Another issue is in trying to figure out the motive behind Kabambe joining of UTM- two clear things from his move . First a desperate man who lacks patience and got frustrated because his hope of taking over DPP looked impossible as Peter Mutharika is set to lead DPP in the polls. Secondly, an opportunist, who wants to ride on SKC wave, capitalising on sympathy voters to make himself a giant politically. One thing is certain though, DK is no SKC and low energy DK is not the solution that UTM needs
Global Health Corps has called for collaboration among different implementers and players to curb mental health issues in the country.
Global Health Corps country director Simon Simkoko said these remarks after conducting mental health awareness stakeholders meeting in Lilongwe on Monday.
Simkoko said they are concerned with anything affecting communities, saying mental health is one of the area that contribute to the cases of suicide, as it has been reported in the media.
Simkoko – we are concerned with anything that affect our communities
He said :” the major expectation for us is around collaboration, we want to bring the stakeholders in one place, you know we have many places but out of these players they are having different programming that are independent, why can’t we collaborate?, why can’t we come together?.”
Simkoko further said their focus is to make sure that players are able to share resources and expertise in order to make the same impact in communities .
Simkoko said:” we will continue having this Programme around mental health, so that we are able to be focused and impact initiatives.”
In his sentiment head of non communicable disease and mental health division in the ministry of health Dr Jonathan Chiwanda said as the ministry they are worried of high rise of suicide cases but they remain vigilant.
He stated that increase of cases are sometimes caused due to poor reporting, growth of the population, dynamics of living conditions, social economic issues and the coming of different occurrences contribute to the cases of mental condition including suicide.
According to ministry of health ,statistics has shown that suicide cases are increasing for the last four years starting from 2019 were 119 cases that were registered in 2020 were 280 cases, in 2021 were 291 cases, in 2022 were 296 cases in 2023 were 529 cases that were registered and in this year 2024 from January up to June 281 are registered.
Global Health Corps is an international organization which provides leadership in development and building young professionals.
