BLANTYRE, Nov 23, 2009 (MalawiPolitics)-- Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, whose party enjoys a parliamentray majority, is seeking to beef up his powers before he exits the political stage in 2014. Read Full Story
Two Malawian opposition leaders have been sentenced to 20 months in prison for sedition and inciting violence ahead of the May elections, a court official said on Tuesday. The convictions in Zomba, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the commercial capital Blantyre, mark the first time that Malawi's courts have handed down a sedition conviction since 1993. Hophmally Makande of the United Democratic Front, led by ex-president Bakili Muluzi, told a rally in March that the party would take "the... Read Full Story
Lawyers say two Malawian opposition leaders have been convicted of sedition and inciting violence while campaigning. Lawyers said Tuesday that a judge had convicted the two on Monday and sentenced each to 20 months in prison with hard labor. Defense lawyer Bob Chimkango says he will appeal the first sedition convictions since the late dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda's 1963-1994 rule. Hophmally Makande was convicted for saying at a March rally that his party would take the law into its own... Read Full Story
Madonna marked the start of construction of her school for girls in Malawi on Monday by planting a tree at the planned site of the $15 million school. The 51-year-old celebrity arrived in the impoverished southern African country on Sunday accompanied by her four children — daughters Lourdes and Mercy, and sons Rocco and David. Madonna adopted Mercy from Malawi earlier this year and adopted David from the country in 2008. The singer was dressed in a dark summer dress and a colorful shawl... Read Full Story
LILONGWE (Reuters Life!) - Pop star Madonna will visit Malawi on Sunday to lay the foundation stone of a multi-million dollar girls' school she is building, her charity Raising Malawi told Reuters. The singer, who has adopted two children from the southern African country, is due to arrive on Sunday and attend a brick-laying ceremony in Lilongwe on Monday. The school is expected to cost about $15 million. "She plans to meet the President Bingu wa Mutharika and together lay a foundation stone... Read Full Story
Government fertilizer has made the difference between hunger and plenty for Rodrick Jesitala, a farmer and father of three in southern Malawi. Thanks to fertilizer he couldn't afford without government help, Jesitala harvested enough corn to feed his family this year. A report released Friday praised Malawi's program, saying governments simply making agriculture a top priority and offering financial and other incentives to small farmers have seen some poor countries quickly move from... Read Full Story
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday paved the way for his brother Peter to succeed him when his second term ends in 2014. "Professor Peter Mutharika has the right to hold or campaign for any position in this country just like anybody else. He can stand for any position. I mean any position," the president was quoted by state radio as saying. Mutharika appointed his brother, who is an MP in the president's Democratic Progressive Party, as justice and constitutional minister... Read Full Story
Folks, you have to excuse me but I will not stop ranting about the state of affairs in loved country, Malawi. President Bingu wa Mutharika has been in the headlines of late, both locally and internationally after ordering deportation of 'foreign' tobacco buyers. Mutharika accused the tobacco buyers of paying less than his set price on the commodity. Read Full Story
Foreign tobacco buyers who are paying less than agreed-upon prices for the country's main cash crop are the "enemy of the people" and will be expelled, said the president of this African nation, whose government this week deported three of them. President Bingu wa Mutharika's administration ordered the expulsion of a South African and three British buyers, making good on a campaign promise. "These individuals connived to deliberately frustrate the policy of this government to improve the... Read Full Story
Malawi has expelled four South Africans working for international tobacco firms for price cutting and sabotaging the economy, President Bingu wa Mutharika said Wednesday. "They were sabotaging the economy and harming tobacco growers," Mutharika said in a strongly worded denounciation of the four, in a special live broadcast to the nation. Calling the four "colonialists", Mutharika said he ordered the immigration department to revoke their work permits. The four were employed by international... Read Full Story
