A man identified as Simon Kayira, 49 from Chiberekete village in the area of senior chief Mwankhunikira in Rumphi district has regained his sanity after  the burial of his father after suffering from mental illness for over 27 years.

In an interview with his uncle who is also village head Wasambo, said Simon’s condition turned worse in 1994.

“He started isolating himself, stopped taking his bath and stopped wearing clothes.  He has suffered for a long time. This is like seeing the biblical Lazarus rising from the dead and we are all pleased,” he said.

Wasambo further said that his brother (Simon’s father) died on Friday last week and was buried on Saturday, May 14, 2022.

During the burial a naked Simon was also asked to lay a wreath on his father’s grave which he did with his sister.

Soon after the burial his nephew asked him if he could put on some clothes and this time he accepted after running around naked for over 27 years.

He was later clothed and had his overgrown hair which he had been keeping for 27 years cut for the first time.

He said he later took his bath and has been taking his bath since Saturday.

On his part, Simon said he does not remember much from his past.

But he is able able to remember the names of his cousins, aunties, and friends he used to play with in his youth.

Group village headman Chiberekete said he was in awe to see Simon recover from his psychological disorder after wasting 27 years of his life suffering from the condition.

Simon is optimistic to support his aged mother and sister after fully reintegrating into the community.

Another villager, Tyson Mayuni while collaborating the story said the entire village was happy to see Simon putting on clothes again.

Thandiwe Mkandawire who is executive director for Mental Health Users and Carers Association said his reintegration into society will depend on the kind of support he gets from his community.

“There are so many things to be considered for one to reintegrate into a community such as peer support, psychosocial support.

“It also depends on what is in the community to allow such a person to reintegrate. For example, people’s attitudes and what community leaders are doing to have that person reintegrate into the community,” she said.

Meanwhile, a well-wisher and businesses man of Malawian-Asian origin based in the  United Kingdom (UK) has engaged Simon’s family on how best he can support him.

Eventually, Simon and his guardian were invited to Lilongwe for further support arrangements.

Upon arrival in Lilongwe, Simon was attended to Saint John of God clinic at area 43 for medical treatment; physical and mental support.

Not only that, the well-wisher also dressed up Simon coupled with food items, mobile phone and bicycles donation for a quick recovery.

“Firstly, when he sent someone to visit us at the home village to find out about Simon, we doubtful him. But after understanding fully his main intention, the family agreed to accept the invitation to Lilongwe.

“We can’t believe on what this well-wisher has done to us. Unfortunately, we just spoke with him on phone while being lodged in the city. May almight Lord, add more blessings to this well-wisher,” amazed Dalitso Kayira, Simon’s guardian.

Kayira adds, “With the support been given, we have hope that our relative, Simon, will recover fully and able to contribute to our family needs.

“We also grateful to our Constituency lawmaker Chidumpha Mkandawire for visiting us when we were in Lilongwe. Mkandawire gave Simon upkeep and encouraged him to be strong”.

Simon is expected to undergo two months rehabilitation at Saint John of God in Mzuzu with financial support from a well-wisher.

Vice President Salous Chilima – who also over sees public sector reforms – will next week be in the Northern region for a week to track progress of various reforms taking place in councils as well as visit various projects.

The firebrand and workaholic Chilima has an overstretched schedule from Monday to Friday as he embarks on inspecting some major projects and holding public reforms meetings in the Northern region.

The Veep held a similar reform progress tour in the North in April 2021 to track the government’s reforms agenda.

A packed programme for the Veep for the week that we have seen shows Chilima will kick start his week long tour in the Northern region on Monday in Chitipa .

According to the loaded programme, Chilima will start with Chitipa to inspect the Emergency Treatment Unit – Chitipa Isolation Centre, Rehabilitation of Chitipa Council Chamber & Office Premises and hold full council meetings at the boma

Later in the afternoon and on Tuesday morning the Veep will be in Karonga where, among other projects, he will tour Karonga North Rukuru Dyke and Hara Women Briquettes Production and thereafter hold council meetings.

On Tuesday Chilima will be in Rumphi where he will inspect the Community Based Floods Early Warning System and hold reform meetings at Rumphi boma.

On Thursday, the Veep is expected to engage Nkhatabay and Likoma councils where he is expected to visit NkhataBay District Hospital (Paying Ward, Restaurant, Printing Services) and Standardized Exams in Primary Schools at St Maria Goretti before holding council meetings at Chikale beach.

The same day in the afternoon he will tour Mzuzu Civic Centre Construction and hold a reform meeting with Mzuzu City Council officials.

Chilima is expected to wind up the week-long tour in the North with a visit to Mzimba on Friday where he will appreciate progress of the Kasangazi Irrigation Scheme and Innovation Project: Hydro Power Generation.

The public sector reforms are being implemented in various government departments and councils to modernise the country, moving the country to a middle income nation and anchoring the implementation framework of the key priority areas in the Malawi 2063 development agenda.

Some fish farmers in Mangochi and Zomba have hailed The Foods Company Limited (TFCL), a subsidiary of conglomerate Press Corporation plc (PCL) trading as Maldeco, for supporting them through their fish farming and providing them with a ready market for their fish.

Speaking to journalists in Mangochi and Zomba at the weekend, the farmers said Maldeco has been giving them assistance in terms of the technical know-how in aquaculture farming as well as assisting them to access the much needed fingerlings so that they are economically independent.

Maldeco is running a community transformation initiative dubbed ‘One Village, One Cage’ (OVOC) Initiative where in each of its surrounding five villages, Beach Village Committees (BVCs) have been allocated a cage on Lake Malawi where they grow the fish. The company is also supporting other farmers who practice fish farming in fishing ponds in Zomba.

Under the initiative, Maldeco, with the support from the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund (MICF) matching grant facilitated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) supplies the high quality scarce fingerlings and coordinates feed supplies to the BVCs and when the fish is harvested, Maldeco procures the fish and the cost of the inputs is deducted from the sale proceeds and the profit is what the BVCs take away as their income.

Michesi Beach Village Committee Chairperson Jordan Kanyerere Junior said they made a total of K1.7 million during their sales from the first phase of the project.

“This is a lot of money to us. Apart from sharing the money as committee members, we also managed to buy school uniforms for needy children from 23 families in our village so that they too should benefit from our relationship with Maldeco,” said Kanyerere.

Siwema Daniel from Makokola BVC also thanked Maldeco for the support that it is giving to the community saying her BVC has been economically empowered by the initiative.

“We are now thinking of increasing our fish stock so that we make more money during the second harvest,” she said.

A fish farmer who practices fish farming at her five fish ponds at Domasi in Zomba, Rennie Kawaga hailed Maldeco for supporting her with the aquaculture know-how and providing her with a ready market for her fish harvests.

“I am happy that Maldeco, apart from supplying us with the fingerlings and the fish feed, is also giving us a ready market for our fish,” said Kawaga.

Another fish farmer Norah Miteche from Songani in Zomba who also practices fish farming in her 6 fish ponds, also hailed Maldeco and Aquaculture Enterprise Malawi (AEM) for the support which includes fish growth monitoring (sampling), extension services, aquaculture technologies and business management courses.

“As a new fish farmer, I can say that this has been a beneficial relationship because apart from supplying us with fingerlings, feed and a ready market, Maldeco has also been conducting business management courses for us farmers which have been an eye opener and essential for enterprise sustainability,” said Miteche.

Maldeco General Manager Andrew Santhe said the initiative has helped to improve relationships with villagers especially in Mangochi where the company engages in cage fish farming on Lake Malawi.

“We have seen that issues of security of the cage fish have greatly improved because the communities around the company have their own cages on the lake and hence the company and the community are collaborating in securing the fish. We are also happy that we are contributing to the economic development and independence of these communities around Maldeco and elsewhere where we are supporting the fish farmers,” said Santhe.

The initiative is within a bigger project where Maldeco is constructing a modern fish processing facility with funding from PCL and additional funding from UNDP which Maldeco won as a matching grant.

By Iommie Chiwalo

The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has moved in to wake up President Lazarus Chakwera and his administration to from deep slumber by devising mechanisms that will resuscitate the country’s economy from its death bed.

The move by CDEDI follows country’s economic status which is heading south as
evidenced by the rationing of essential goods and services, scaling down of local
production due to scarcity of foreign currency, the ever-weakening Malawi
kwacha and increasing electricity load shading hours.

In a press statement signed by its Executive Director, Sylvester Namiwa and made available to this publication, CDEDI has challenged the President and his administration to ring-fence forex for essential services and products such as drugs and medicines, fuel, wheat and cooking oil, before the situation gets out of hand.

Namiwa observes that the dire economic outlook is dampening the spirits and aspirations of Malawians each and every passing day with headlines clearly pointing to a clueless and helpless leadership.

“Just to cite a few examples, CDEDI has learnt with shock revelations that this
month the country has only managed to secure forex just enough to procure essential drugs and medicines for 20 days, production in most of local industries is at zero, essential commodities such as cooking oil and sugar are being rationed in shops, reputable airlines have scaled down their services in the country due to unavailability of forex, businesses have grounded to a halt due to the unavailability of forex,” says Namiwa.

With the prevailing trends, Namiwa has on a sad note observed that Malawi will soon begin to needlessly lose productive lives to preventable diseases due to lack of drugs and medicines in both the public and private health facilities.

CDEDI is of the view that the current government erred big time by cancelling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF).

“As they say bad politics makes bad economics, apparently, we have established that such a costly decision was made to accommodate their litany of campaign promises such as the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), the duty-free week, not forgetting the global trotting by President Chakwera and his Cabinet. Such extravagance would have certainly have put the IMF programme off track, hence the cancellation,” he narrates.

CDEDI has also been vindicated on indecisiveness of current government through its recent letter to Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe who did not bother to either respond or only acknowledge receipt of the said letter.

In the letter, CDEDI was demanding an explanation on the status of forex in the country, and policies that have been put in place to reverse current trends.

“With inflation rate as high as 15.7 percent, Malawians have now lost the pride that goes with being a citizen of this great nation, as they are trying in vain day and night to save their families from starvation.

It is worth pointing out that for the past two years of current regime, the business community has survived on the parallel market to access forex to run economy. It is, therefore, a mockery for the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), to peg the US dollar at MWK825 when, in fact, the authorities are aware that the green buck is not available in the first place and wherever it is found, the rate is pegged at more than MWK1,150. It is sad that government is exerting negative energy by blaming everyone and everything from the Covid-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine and not its poor leadership for the skyrocketing cost of living, thereby conveniently forgetting that Malawi is a predominantly importing and consuming nation, hence any rate of fall of the kwacha means more misery for the people,” he observes.

And CDEDI is further demanding Chakwera to swallow his pride and accept that the involvement of his government’s high ranking officials in forex externalisation, non-trickling of proceeds from the sales of agricultural commodities on the international market such as South Sudan and India and his own cluelessness in running State affairs, saying are some of the reasons that have pushed the country’s economy into the ditch.

“With President Chakwera’s tendency of shielding corruption, it is not automatic that Malawi will get the IMF nod. He should not put all the eggs in one basket by banking all his hopes on the IMF, which by the way is not a charitable organisation. This therefore, calls for plan ‘B’,” says Namiwa.

He has further urged government to plan and act for a future that must be defined saying as it stands now, Malawi is on autopilot and, unfortunately, the captain is in deep slumber,”

Apart from CDEDI, more CSOs have expressed displeasure with Chakwera’s style of leadership which they say is benchmarking to dictatorship.

Companies are now scaling down as they cannot spend more on expenditures than the revenue.

Basic commodities are not only expensive but are also not available.

Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima has addressed the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, stressing that Malawi has intensified her efforts to decisively end child labour.

Addressing the conference in Durban, South Africa on Sunday, Chilima said Malawi is implementing many interventions and has ratified several conventions to end child labour

He said the Malawi government is concerned that an estimated two million children – aged between 5 and 15 – are still involved in child labour in the country.

“We cannot, therefore, afford to watch and contemplate to postpone ending child labour to a later date. Immediate action is required to reverse these trends,” Chilima emphasized.

He said much focus should be interventions to the Agriculture sector which accounts for 70% of child labour, saying sector needs multi-faceted approaches that promote inclusive rural transformation and rural development.

The Malawi Veep informed the conference delegates Malawi has ratified the relevant ILO Conventions including, all fundamental conventions, such as, Conventions 138 on the Minimum Age of entry into employment, as part of efforts to elimate child labour.

“Corresponding legislation has been enacted in my country. We have the Employment Act aimed at regulating minimum standards of employment and prohibit child labour and forced labour. We also have the National Action Plan on Child Labour, the Malawi Decent Work Country Programme and the country’s current development blueprint, the Malawi 2063,” he told the delegates.

The Malawi VP also said Malawi has abolished the Tenancy Labour system due to its resemblance with forced labour or bonded labour, which is a crucial step towards the sustenance of the country’s efforts in the fight against child labour.

He called for quick interventions and policies to extend social protection coverage for children and their families; scale-up investment in free and good-quality education; promote rights of children from birth to adulthood; and promote decent work for young people.

Earlier, Chilima conveyed Malawi’s condolences to South Africa following the loss of over 400 people in Durban during the catastrophic floods last month.

The Durban conference is being attended by high profile delegates including Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa, and Guy Ryder who is ILO Director General.

It follows a similar conference on the Elimination of Child Labour that took place in Argentina five years ago where Buenos Aires Declaration, which outlines the principals and actions to be taken. was adopted.

The Buenos Aires Declaration called for action to accelerate efforts by the Sustainable Development Goals’ deadline of 2025 to end child labour and 2030, for forced labour and for the generation of more decent employment opportunities for young people around the world.

Chilima is expected to return home on Tuesday, May 17.