Govt to Introduce a Standalone Environmental Protection Agency- Muluzi

Govt to Introduce a Standalone Environmental Protection Agency- Muluzi

The Minister of Natural Resources and Energy and Mining Hon. Atupele Muluzi has told National Assembly that he will soon present to the house a Environmental Protection Policy Act for review, a legislation seeks to introduce Environmental Agency.

Muluzi said this when presenting his Ministerial Statement on the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme and Power Shortages affecting the country on Monday afternoon. He said main reason of bringing the policy in the National Assembly is for the house to make its consideration.

“We are bringing to the house Environmental Protection Act for Review” said the minister in an interview

He said “What we are looking at is the establishment of Environmental Protection Agency that will be a standalone agency that will be responsible for enforcement and oversight over environmental aspects.” 

Muluzi indicated that the policy among others contain “Stiffer penalties” for those that will violet the provisions in the Act and proposes establishment of the standalone agency. 

He emphasized the importance of having a standalone environmental agency as it will be in a better place to enforce and oversee environmental aspects. 

In his statement Muluzi also informed the house that his ministry has a long term solution on energy. He promised to bring to the house the strategy and the report of the recent geological survey. He added that Compendium of geological resources will soon be released saying it is of economic interests.

He further recognized efforts by the private sector in reforestation and replanting of trees during this year’s tree planting season.

Huge Energy Demand in the Capital City Fueling Dzalanyama Deforestation- Muluzi

Huge Energy Demand in the Capital City Fueling Dzalanyama Deforestation- Muluzi

Government lay blame on huge energy demand in the capital city Lilongwe as the major cause of the tree loss at Dzalanyama forest reserve.

Minister of Energy and Environment Honorable Atupele Muluzi was responding to a question put to him by Lilongwe Msodzi South Parliamentarian hon Vitus Dzoole Mwale immediately after finishing his Ministerial Statement on the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme and Power Shortages affecting the country.

Dzoole Mwale in his question expressed dissatisfaction that hon Muluzi in his Statement failed to explicitly outline strategies put in place in ending massive deforestation being perpetrated by charcoal and wood fuel businesses. The parliamentarian said Malawi is being deforesteted by greedy people who are going into protected areas and forests especially Dzalanyama, and other forests of Chikangawa and Zomba Mountain a development which he said is resulting into among others the recent floods.

“Charcoal burning is a very serious issue in our country” Said Dzoole, “go to Dzalanyama forest reserve, is now bare, similarly to other protected areas. My worry is, if we are not careful Malawi as a country will be deserted.”

But in his response Atupele Muluzi accepted that Malawi continues to experience energy crisis because statistics indicates only 9% of urban population has access to power with only 2% in rural areas have access to electricity.

Specifically answering on Dzalanyama forest reserve problem, Muluzi said “We have huge energy demand in the city of Lilongwe. That is what is fueling the massive deforestation at Dzalanyama.”

“This energy demand is more towards biomass which is wood fuel and charcoal production.” He said

Muluzi said his ministry is implementing number of interventions ensuring that it addresses the huge fuel demand for Lilongwe City and communities around Dzalanyama having realized that this problem require a holistic approach.

“We have carried out enforcements, there is Malawi Police Service, Malawi defense force and Forestry Department. But honorable member should appreciate that enforcement sometimes has its limitations. So long as you have huge demand for charcoal and wood it is very difficult to enforce over a long period of time. What the enforcements should do is to address the short term requirement, which is to contain the situation while implementing long term measures.”

“So long as you have the charcoal sellers who are dependent upon the selling of charcoal for their livelihood for jobs, we take that away, we are creating another problem. So what we are doing as a ministry is encouraging them to be licensed.” He said while adding that by having charcoal sellers properly certified will enable them do their job in a sustainable manner.

“Enforcement alone cannot work!” said Muluzi

He also mentioned that government is considering other solutions like encouraging private sectors to grow trees in some specific areas for providing wood fuel in sustainable manner. He said government has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Global Environment Fund within this intervention.

Muluzi who emphasized that enforcement will continue said government will carry on with finding other alternatives on energy demands in Lilongwe particularly rolling out “extensively” Clean Cook Stoves Projects in areas around Dzalanyama and adopt other options like introducing wild animals or turning the place into national park.

He further informed the house that very soon a first time regional conference will convene in Lilongwe where Dzalanyama crisis will be discussed “extensively”

Finance Minister Winds Up Mid-Term Budget Review Statement;

Committee of Supply on Thursday

National Assembly Building

The National Assembly will on Thursday begin Committee of Supply authorizing vote by vote of additional resources to be allocated to various government ministries and departments, Leader of House Francis Kasaila announced in the house.

The announcement came following winding up statement of Budget Review statement on Monday by Finance and Economic Planning Minister Goodall Gondwe and curtailment of the General Debate of the statement last Friday.

Gondwe is seeking the house to authorize government use extra resources amounting to K32 billion.

In an interview Kasaila confirmed that documentation of all budget votes is ready “Government is ready for committee of supply.”

However, when winding up his statement Gondwe made an error whereby instead of ending at informing the house to take note of the developments and the way the budget is being implemented he went ahead to ask for an approval for the extra resources which means, the house should have gone into committee of supply. Interestingly the house accepted to approve the extra resources when the speaker Richard Msowoya put the question as motion moved by the Minister that the house approve the resources.

Immediately, a very long argument erupted in the house from some opposition MPs. They questioned why the minister requested the house to approve resources of which its breakdowns (budget votes) were not brought in the house. The development saw other confused MPs expressing worry that by accepting the Minister’s motion the whole house might have approved the budget without being provided with document details of how funds have been allocated to each vote.

Speaker, for several attempts explained to the house that the motion simply meant that the Leader of House shall bring at later day a government business programme for Committee of Supply but to no avail. It took the leader of house honorable Francis Kasaila to end the argument when he told the house that the Committee of Supply is on Thursday and acknowledged the mistake made by the Finance minister.

In an interview Kasaila explained that the confusion on the matter might have been also a result of failure to inform the house the agreed procedure during the Business Committee of the house. 

“Traditionally we have been doing budget review and we have been following supplementary procedures. But we did discuss this issue during our business committee level and agreed that it is irregular that as parliament we are treating budget review as supplementary budget. “

And therefore he continued “what we had agreed this time around was that we will not continue with the same tradition which is not backed up by any of our standing orders and any legislation.” 

A Primary School Protests Over Dzaleka CDSS Closure Injures Two Passengers;

5 Protesters  Arrested

Sgt Richard Kaponda 

Umodzi Katubza Primary School Students at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district went on run riot Monday morning and in the course injured two vehicle passengers and destroyed some school property.

The Primary school students also stoned their head teacher’s office before injuring the two vehicle passengers, Dowa Police Public Relations Officer told Malawi Voice. 

The riots were related to the temporary closure of Dzaleka Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) on Friday last week. Dzaleka CDSS was closed after students on Friday held protests demanding reinstatement of their Deputy Head Teacher a Congolese national who was teaching  Mathematics at the school. The employment contract of the said teacher  has not been renewed this year and the development has angered students .

On Monday, Sergeant Richard Kaponda said a nearby primary school students also went rampage because are angered with the temporary closure of Dzaleka CDSS and and very handful students from Dzaleka CDSS also joined pupils protests.

“The protests that started on Friday also happened today morning” said Sergeant Kaponda “The primary school students started throwing stones at their head teachers office saying they are deeply concerned that their brothers and sisters at Dzaleka CDSS are not learning.”

“When we were trying to calm down the situation, the pupils tried to runaway then closed Lumbadzi Dowa road. In the course of continuing throwing stones, they smashed front door glass of a vehicle coming from Dowa heading to Lilongwe. Two passangers were injured and were taken to Dowa hospital."

"As of now we have arrested five suspects"  The Officer said the suspects are a Form 2 student, two pupils of standard 6, one pupil of standard 5 and a standard 4 pupil. He said the students ages ranges from 14 to 18 but declined to name them.

The five have been leveled with charges of Malicious Damage and Asualt (Unlawful Wounding).

"The situation as of now is quet” He said but indicated that police are continuing with patrols around the area.

He said school officials from Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), Dzaleka Day Secondary School and the primary school as well as Camp Administrator and Police were in the day discussing ways of ending the riots.

Kachama Confirmation on Wednesday- Kasaila

Kachama Confirmation on Wednesday- Kasaila

The Malawi National Assembly is expected this Wednesday afternoon debate on confirmation of the newly appointed Malawi Police Service (MPS) Inspector General (IG).

President Professor Peter Mutharika on 10th February 2015 appointed former deputy Inspector General of Police responsible for Administration Lexten Kachama as new IG with immediate effect. 

Kachama appointment followed a surprise resignation of Paul Kanyama on health grounds. Kanyama who serve IG post for three months, announced his resignation at the same time as the National Assembly was debating his confirmation.

“We expect that on Wednesday we will bring business of confirmation of the new IG.” Confirmed Leader of House hon. Francis Kasaila in an interview

“My colleague, the minister responsible (Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security) is doing everything possible to provide the details that are required to be provided into the house” he said

Cashgate Convicts Namata gets 8 years, Kasamba gets 4 years

Cashgate Convicts Namata gets 8 years, Kasamba gets 4 years

The High Court in Lilongwe has given two Cash gate convicts Maxwell Namata and Luke Kasamba custodial sentences despite returning the stolen money.

Judge Justice Anabel Mtalimanja has sentenced Namata to eight years imprisonment with hard labour and co-accused  Kasamba has been sentenced to four years imprisonment with hard labour.

Namata and Kasamba were convicted after being found guilty to encashment of two government cheques totaling K24.1million through Cross Marketing Limited, a company  owned by Kasamba.

The two through lawyer Raphael Kasambara told the court during sentencing submissions that they have made a restitution of the money they defrauded government. Namata resituated K14 million in cash while Kasamba returned K4 million and a truck valued by

defence at K9 million.

Namata and Kasamba are the fourth convicted cashgate convicts to get custodial sentences since commencement of cash gate prosecution.

TICSTO Malawi's first online ticket selling, buying platform

World over the Internet has changed the precedence in the way people buy and sell goods and services. Since 1980s, when e-shopping began in most developed nations shopping and selling of goods has not only become exciting but less costly and convenient to both customer and service provider.

Nowadays, for instance, people are buying cars after hours of Web research and subsequently pay using various online payment platforms. Similarly, using payment systems and shopping platforms like EBay, Paypal and Amazon customers can buy various items and make payment online and there several other platforms that give opportunity for a customer to place an order to purchase airline ticket, Coach ticket even booking for accommodation.

It is of late, where Malawi online payment industry has seen growth though at slow pace. There are now platforms like Xtra Pay which uses scratch card vouchers and email technology to transfer credit online, Sky Services, Dibs Africa and other facebook pages.

Ever since, Malawians have had no opportunity to taste online ticket booking. But wait a second! Ticket booking will never be the same of travel long distances just to get a ticket, there is TICSTO.com the innovation that will see Malawians brief a sigh of relief.

At comfort of home or office, anyone can buy a ticket even for family and friends using TICSTO.com platform.

TICSTO, found on http://www.ticsto.com by TICSTO events management firm is the first online ticket re-tail store in Malawi. It aims at bringing event management and booking solutions to clients for both social and corporate events as well as recur-ring events.

Using TICSTO’s ad-vanced online payment system which makes use of Mobile Money systems like Airtel Money, TNM Mpamba and National Bank’s MO626 the site provides an opportunity for events managers to sell tickets to consumers online.

Emmanuel Kamwenje

“This first ever payment platform in Malawi is a simplified system for any user wishing to buy or make an order.” Said Mr. Emmanuel Kamwenje one of the managers for TICSTO “Once one searches and finds their desired event then from the tickets list for that event, the buyer chooses the number of tickets wants and adds this to their shopping cart by the click of a button.”

“Once satisfied with the choices in the cart, the buyer proceeds to checkout then transfers money to TICSTO accounts using their mobile money accounts and enters the transaction id on TICSTO checkout page.” He explained, and proceeded that the buyer receives their ticket in an email or by text which is a transaction id (a ticket) that one can use at the gate or to verify that one paid for the service.

“There is no better way to drive up sales in the events business now than to offer clients ability to acquire tickets remotely from the comfort of their homes."

Kamwenje indicated that this online ticket retailing system is ideal for all major events whether Cinema, Concerts or football games and football tournaments where tickets can be sold in advance and people can use their transaction id at the gate.

He said the system can help event’s organizers want to “tremendously save costs” incurred for organizing events, as well it can completely prevent ticket fraud while offering a better customer experience.

He added that any service provider like Coach Services can take advantage of this platform as well “even hotels and lodges can utilize the site to enable customer book for accommodation. This is also important on improving the clients’ customer experience and drive up sales.”

Kamwenje assured that TICSTO is an intuitive system, user friendly and reliable.

Now, people would like to check bus, concerts or football game tickets and accommodation availability at a click of button. Preference for services that are more convenient but less costly among customer is on the increase, and taking advantage of the booming advanced mobile devices that support internet, online banking and mobile money services, what remain is companies and any other business to adopt these kinds of technologies for a customer to have a better shopping experience like online ticket booking on TICSTO.

Surely, long gone are the days where one would be required to walk for a distance or drive for miles just to buy a ticket or book for accommodation.

Listing services at online services like TICSTO.com will not only help consumer but also grow business and even reach out to other Business 2 Business (B2B) and Business 2 Consumer (B2C) clients and get rich dividends in the form of increased sales and large turnovers.