Malawi Anticipate Booming Mining Sector After Positive Survey Results

The Malawi Government has expressed optimism that the Country-wide High Resolution Airborne Geophysical Data will propel government plans of diversifying the economy.

Data obtained from the survey conducted between September 2013 and August 2014 which involved radiometric and gravity methods has been launched on Thursday in the capital city, Lilongwe.

Results from the survey, shows that there are mineral deposits across the country but Geological Survey Department is yet to interpret and conduct ground follow-up for the whole data set. However interested individuals and companies can still access the data and conduct their own interpretation and ground follow-ups based on their interest.

Hon Bright Msaka 

Speaking when launching the results, Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Hon. Bright Msaka, said the results from the survey are impressive enough to greatly improve the mining profile of Malawi.

He said this data is likely going to attract more investors and lead to stimulated mineral exploration.

The Minister then said from such intensive explorations, the country will start earning more revenue from the mining sector and possibly end the overdependence on Agriculture sector.

"Malawi's economy has been agro-based since independence, relying a lot on revenue from major cash crops, in particular tobacco. However, various factors including the global anti-smoking lobby, unpredictable and hostile climatic conditions among others, have heavily affected the agricultural sector and subsequently, the country's agrarian-dependent economy" noted the Minister when speaking on sidelines of heavy dependence of agriculture

To further enhance economic diversification and realize sustainable economic growth, Hon Msaka mentioned that Malawi also will implement number of reforms in the mining sector.

He among others said government will introduce number of initiatives including enactment of mining related Acts.

Ambassador Marchel Gerrmann

In his remarks, European Union Head of Delegation to Malawi, Ambassador Marchel Gerrmann also noted that the new data marks beginning of development of mining sector as well as economic diversification and broadening of the resource base.

But he stressed that Malawi ought to be more transparent and properly manage resources generated from the sector including contracts and licenses to fully realize potential of the mining sector.

On other hand, Ambassador Gerrmann, hailed Malawi's interest to join Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) saying this is a right direction geared towards more transparency in mining sector.

On 6th November, 2013, Malawi launched the Country-wide High Resolution Airborne Geophysical Survey at a function held at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, kicking off a massive search for high value mineral deposits.

The search involved low flying aircrafts hovering over the whole country and the exercise was widely known as 'Kauniuni.

US$ 5.7 Million from World Bank Mining Governance and Growth Support Project (MGGSP) loan (amounting to US$ 25 million) was spent in acquiring the airborne data while, European Union co-financed the Project with a Grant amounting to 4.1 million Euros.

Chia Productions Brings Chiphwando cha Ndakatulo in Lilongwe

A local Studio Chia Productions is set to take the Capital City, Lilongwe by storm on Sunday 13th September 2015 with a poet event dubbed 'Chiphwando Cha Ndakatulo' 

Gift Khabuwa, Public Relations Officer for Chia Productions told Malawi Voice that Chia productions is bringing Chiphwando Cha Ndakatulo to make Lilongwe experience the best poetry event that never happened before in the Capital. 

Gift Khabuwa

He said for the first time in Lilongwe, the poetry event  will draw together a lot of renowned poets who never met face to face in Lilongwe.

"For the first time and ever before, it will be Robert Chiwamba facing Nyamalikiti Nthiwatiwa" said Khabuwa 

"Not only that" he said,  "We have on the line up, Sylvester Kalizang'oma the Amkalindanji Moyo fame, Joseph Mazeze who did Amunanga a Chikabudula and Raphael Sitima just to mention a few."

He also disclosed that several comedians including Atcheya, Mr. Malawi and Aunt Geti are also prepared to make people laugh their lungs out. 

"We have number of things organized for this day" added Khabuwa

He then mentioned that the show will include live musical performance starting late hours.

He said the live performances headlined by Lulu and Mathumela Band will include Dalisoul from Zambia, Innocent Chitimbe and Sangwani Munthali who will also entertain people with classic Jazz.

"This function is organized to give Lilongwe fans what they have been looking for a very long time" said Gift Khabuwa

The event scheduled to take place at Wakawaka Hotel starting at 1 Pm will cost K1000 for advance tickets found at Galani Shop behind Mangochi building and Globe Star near Wullian Super Market. But Tickets will cost K1500 at the entrance.

Woman Commit Suicide After Suffering from Cancer

Police in Ntchisi district in the central region of Malawi says a 50 year old woman has committed suicide for allegedly suffering from cancer disease for a very long time. 

The suicide which police suspect to have occurred between Tuesday and Wednesday this week, found the deceased hanging in a tree.

Police have identified the deceased as Selina Zamtima of Kankowe village in the area of Traditional Authority Nthondo in Ntchisi. 

Sergeant Gladson M'bumpha, Ntchisi Police Public Relations Officer, while confirming the suicide said the woman was diagnosed with cancer long time ago.

"The deceased has been suffering from cancer for along time and she has been admitted to Ntchisi District Hospital for several times." confirmed 

Sergeant M'bumpha indicated that the woman has been critically ill and week so that her husband had on 11 August 2015, taken her to a traditional doctor at Khadani village for further assistance. 

However, the Ntchisi Police PRO indicated that the deceased never get any treatment from the traditional doctor and that on August 18th 2015 at around 8pm she went missing only to be discovered hanging up in a tree.

M'bumpha said postmortem conducted by a medical officer revealed that death was due to suffocation and no foul play suspected. 

He also indicated that the incident took place at Khadani village in the area of Traditional Authority Chikho in the district. 

Malaria Vaccine RTS,S Receives Positive Opinion From European Regulators

Malaria candidate vaccine ‘Mosquirix’ RTS, S receives positive opinion from European regulators. This is a milestone in the fight against malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive scientific opinion for Mosquirix’ RTS, S,  which trigger the body’s immune system to defend against the malaria parasite among children aged 6 weeks to 17 months. 

Prof. Francis Martinson

UNC Project Country Director, Prof. Francis Martinson, also the Principle Investigator for the vaccine trial in Malawi, says “We have played one of the biggest headways” 

Prof. Martinson said the opinion from CHMP of the EMA made on 24th July, 2015 agrees that the vaccine is good enough to be used “everywhere” where there is malaria transmission. 

He said the Mosquirix’ RTS, S, S is a noticeable milestone and a plus for number of existing malaria prevention tools that includes bed nets and sanitation as this vaccine will hopefully increase the efficacy of prevention programmes so that less people get infected with Malaria.

“We strongly believe that as fewer and fewer people have the parasite in them then the eventual dream of having eradication of malaria will come true.” He said

A lot of people die of Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In 2013, there were an estimated 584,000 deaths with around 90 percent of these occurring in SSA, and 83 percent in children under the age of five in SSA.

“If you visit any hospital during the malaria season, many of the cases that the clinicians are seeing or are on admission are malaria cases. So if we can prevent that many from appearing in the hospital, that will be a lot of time for the doctors and nurses to provide a better care to those who find themselves in the hospital.” Added Prof. Martinson 

Prof. Martinson further said, following this positive opinion, the documentation has been forwarded to Word Health Organisation (WHO) whose committees will also look at the information.

“Once they will agree which we hope will be before the end of the year, we will see a report from them that will eventually lead to request various national regulatory authorities to start looking at possibility of including the vaccine in their vaccination programmes” he said

The UNC Project Country Director said for now, the vaccine is for the children since were targeted in the trial due to frequent cases among them.

But he expressed hope that once the vaccine minimizes the problem in the children there will be another clinical trial for adults. 

“We are already in contact with sponsors about the possibility of doing this study again in adolescent and adults.” He disclosed

The positive opinion for young children was based on the review of data assessing the candidate vaccine’s safety, efficacy and quality from a Phase III clinical trial programme involving more than 16,000 young children that was conducted by 13 African research centres in eight African countries including Malawi at Area 18 Health Centre in Lilongwe.

Data from this Phase III clinical trial programme demonstrate that over the first 18 months following three doses of RTS,S, malaria cases were reduced by almost half in children aged 5-17 months at the time of first vaccination and by 27% in infants aged 6-12 weeks. 

At study end, four doses of RTS,S reduced malaria cases by 39% over four years of follow-up in children, and by 27% over three years of follow-up in infants. In areas of the highest malaria burden more than 6,000 clinical malaria cases were prevented over the study period for every 1,000 children vaccinated.

Cashgate Case: Justice Kachale Accept Recusal Application in Kasambara, Wapona Case

Justice Chifundo Kachale has recused himself from the Money Laundering case involving former Justice Minister and lawyer Raphael Kasambara together with four other persons including one of the renowned lawyer, Wapona Kita.

Kachale recusal on Monday follows two applications by first accused Raphael Kasambara and third accused Pika Manondo.

However, from the two applications the Court disallowed for lack of merit Mr. Pika Manondo’s application at the same time upheld request of the first accused, Raphael Kasambara. 

The suspects general fear, was the Judges relationship with the incumbent Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mary Kachale spouse to the judge. 

The two suspects argued that the relationship throws into serious doubt the impartiality of the court and raises question of bias and that the best thing was for the Judge to recuse himself for justice to manifestly seen to be done.

The letter dated 9th April 2015 signed by Ralphael Kasambara, the DPP (judge spouse) must be ultimately responsible in the case though it is being prosecuted by Mr. Enoch Chibwana. The application further pointed out that the present proceedings are closely associated with the trial before Justice Kapindu in Zomba involving one Oswald Lutepo which is being prosecuted by the DPP Mary Kachale.

In his application, Pika Manondo said cannot expect a fair trial before Justice Kachale court since there are allegations against his brother Dauka Manondo, purportedly for threatening the DPP.

When disqualifying Manondo application Justice Kachale said the observer application lacked pertinent aspects; not reasonable, fair-minded and had no adequate information. He added that the apprehension of bias itself was also not reasonable in the particular context.

“Applying the pertinent and legal principles to the present facts it is rather hard to appreciate the jurisprudential of logic of Mr. Pika Manondo’s application for my recusal” said Justice Kachale 

“It is rather difficult to appreciate how this fortuitous development impugns the integrity of these proceedings.

In the first place, my spouse is not presently involved in these proceedings, secondly the present proceedings are about Mr. Pika Manondo and his alleged in specific criminal acts. There is no suggestion that my family is pursuing some personal vendetta of some kind against him and his brother.” Argued Justice Kachale

“It is respectfully suggested that to grant that vexatious motion would actually undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system; hence it is declined.” he concluded

But Justice Kachale accepted to recuse himself from the case following arguments presented in the application of the first accused Raphael Kasambara which cited the linkage of the present case with that of Oswald Lutepo in Zomba.

“There can be no disputing the clear evidential link between this trial and the one before Justice Kapindu which is currently being prosecuted by Director of Public Prosecution herself.

“In fact that was the very reason why the state requested that this case should be postponed until the Zomba trial has been concluded-thus we are informed these two proceedings are closely related in some manner.” Observed Justice Kachale

He said “In all fairness, therefore I would be reasonable for an informed observer to question the impartiality of this court given the closeness of the ties with the officer prosecuting the other associated case in Zomba; on that strict basis alone my court would not insist on presiding over this case.”

For the avoidance of any doubt Justice Kachale said “had the other trial before my brother Justice Kapindu been prosecuted by anyone else from office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Other than the incumbent who is also my spouse) the present application would have failed”

Following Justice Chifundo Kachale recusal in this case, the Registrar of High court will re-assign the case to another judge but the suspects will remain on bail.

Raphael Kasambara, Wapona Kita, Pika Manondo, Oswald Flywell Lutepo, Roosevelt Franklin Ndovi, and Fletcher Arnold Kaizo are accused persons in this case.

Among other charges in the case, the suspects were charged with found in possession of proceeds of crime: eleven motor vehicles and K5.616 billion (five billion and six hundred and sixteen million nine hundred and eighty one thousand) which they knew or had reason to believe represented in whole or in part directly or in directly stolen money.

Kasambara, Wapona Kita and Manondo are also answering a charge of being found in possession of K55 million suspected of being stolen.

Read full text of Judge ruling and background of the issues here Chifundo Kachale recusal on case involving Kasambara, Wapona and others

University Students Loan Reforms:

• Private and Public University ‘Needy’ Students are beneficiaries 

• Limited to students pursuing accredited programmes and colleges

• Loans be repayed two years after graduation of beneficiary 

The newly established Higher Education Students’ Loan and Grants Board has announced procedure that ‘needy’ university students should follow to access loans and grants.

Geoffrey Chipungu Board Chairperson declared in Lilongwe that under the new Board, needy students will be required to apply for the loans through filling forms introduced by the board.

Chipungu said eligible students must be Malawians admitted to pursue or is pursuing “an accredited higher education programme at an accredited institution and has no financial assistance from any other source” to cover the items of cost for which the application is made. 

Unlike the past where the loans were only accessible to students from public universities, Chipungu said the Board will be receiving applications from students in private universities but those pursuing and admitted into “unaccredited programmes are not eligible” to apply for either the loan or grants.

“All needy students will be expected to apply by completing the form” said Chipungu while indicating that once application is successful the loan will be valid for one year but students will be allowed to apply for another new loan if they still want it. 

He assured that the new forms are “quite comprehensive” to collect all necessary ‘needy’ information that will help the Board make best determination of right persons to access the loans and grants.

The Board Chairperson then said “no quota system” will be used to identify the needy in the programme

“There will be no such a thing like equitable distribution like number of needy students in a town. We are going to allocate loans to needy students but we are not going to look at where they come from.” he said 

The 2015-2016 budget allocated only K1.5 billion for the programme. The Board chairperson said due to limited resources, not all students applying for the programme will automatically qualify for the loans.

As such, the board has appealed for more donations to the Board so that that it can have more resources 

“The Board wishes to appeal to well meaning individuals and organizations to complement Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Fund by supporting needy students in various institutions of higher learning.” Said Chipungu

Chipungu also indicated that as of Thursday 13th August 2015, the board had already sent out forms to all accredited universities for students to fill them. He assured that, the Board will possibly allocate loans for the very first time in the month of September 2015.

Under the new Board, beneficiaries will be expected to start repaying the loans two years after graduation 

The Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board was established by an Act of Parliament No. 2 of 2015 to provide education loans and grants as well as repayment. The Act also empowers the Board to establish operational links with employers of loan beneficiaries for the purpose of facilitating the recovery of students loans.

Board Claim K2 billion From Former Students on Higher Education Students Loan

Chipungu Board Chairperson 

The new Higher Education Students' Loan and Grants Board to start a repayment exercise for all former University of Malawi 'needy' students who never settled loans and grants obtained from students loan scheme.

The Board which has just begun functioning on Wednesday 12th August 2015 says a new committee has been set up to recover K2 billion from previous loan scheme. 

Chairperson for the Board, Geoffrey Chipungu disclosed that a lot of needy students who benefited from the loans disbursed since 1985 up to date, never repaid the money possibly "they did not know where to pay."

He said, the new board will do all it can to facilitate the repayment process and recover such outstanding loans.

"We have set up a committee" said Chipungu "This committee is chaired by quite an able member of the board and we will do everything." 

"We will look into all the logistics. It might not exclude publishing the names in the news papers. We hope will not go that far, and we expect that people are going to start repaying." said Chipungu



The Board which its main purpose is to manage and administer students loans and grants funds is mandated to recover outstanding loans that were granted to students under students loan schemes which were introduced in the 1985/1986 until the commencement of the Higher Educations Students Loans and Grants Act.



The Act section 4 (a-w) further empowers the Board to establish operational links with employers of loan beneficiaries for the purpose of facilitating the recovery of students loans.