Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 10th of February twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

This Friday the 13th, President Peter Mutharika is set to have his first State of the Nation address since he came into power four months ago, but some people, including civil society organisations, have made it clear that they don't want the typical political stuff these speeches usually have. They are demanding real solutions for the country's economic, development and governance issues.

This address will happen as part of the president’s opening of the twenty twenty-six/twenty twenty-seven Budget Meeting of Parliament.

Local news said analysts are describing the address as a test of Mutharika’s leadership. They expect him to explain clearly how he will tackle the country's debt, inflation, and food issues.

In trending news, Sameer Sacraine, the Director at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe in the Central Region, was kidnapped. Video footage from the incident shows him walking up to the hotel, and a vehicle parking next to the entrance, with two men dressed in white rushing up to him and quickly grabbing him and running to their car. They were armed.

Police said the kidnappers’ car had two registration numbers that are not officially registered in the Malawi Traffic Information System, suggesting that they went a long way to try to hide their identities.

The police said they are trying to track the perpetrators.

In an update to a story from our previous show… Last week, we mentioned that the government was considering requiring civil servants working in District Councils to work in their districts of origin.

The Ministry of Local Government has now issued a directive on the matter, only this time, they want officers to live in the districts they are designated to work in. They said they noticed that officers who live in cities or districts other than where their duty stations are located often travel long distances to get to work, which ends up making their performance at work poor.

The Ministry has since ordered all officers living outside of their duty stations to relocate to their designated areas.

In another episode, we mentioned a new law that the Blantyre City Council passed, stopping heavy-goods vehicles from passing through the city between 6AM and 6PM.

Well, transporters aren’t happy with the new law and have given the Council five days to reverse it. They didn’t say what would happen if the Council didn’t do so, but they told local news that their businesses have suffered greatly because of this law, since the city doesn’t have any alternative routes for them to use. They said they would have loved it if the Council consulted with them before passing the law.

Unfortunately, the Council's CEO and the Blantyre City Mayor are in Morocco for a meeting, so the transporters’ petition may have to wait.

Some online students will no longer receive student loans.

On Wednesday the 4th, the Higher Education Students' Loans and Grant Board said the Skills For A Vibrant Economy project by the World Bank came to an end, so they can no longer give students enrolled under the Open Distance and E-Learning alternative learning method any student loans in the next academic year, since they came from the initiative.

The Board told local media that the project supported online students studying priority fields like health, energy, and education in many universities across the country.

On a related note, UNICEF revealed that over one million youths are out of school, and that less than one in five children have achieved age-suitable literacy. UNICEF feels that Malawi’s recent introduction of free education, which we spoke about in previous episodes, is a great move, but also advised the government to come up with reforms that align with strong systems and adequate financing.

In response, the Ministry of Education said that they are reviewing the first phase of the National Education Sector Investment Plan, which ran from twenty twenty to twenty twenty-five, and said they want their next phase, which will run from twenty twenty-six to twenty thirty, to focus on removing barriers to education, getting more qualified teachers, and focusing on skills development.

Meanwhile, Mzuzu University is currently investigating a cheating scheme and has suspended some administrative staff members, who are suspected of facilitating academic fraud.

A statement by the University said the school’s authority noticed that the exam results for 103 students were tampered with in the Integrated Management Information System (a digital system that handles students’ affairs). They said they reported the issue to their Institutional Integrity Committee and are working with the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the school's lawyers to get to the bottom of the matter. They also reversed the tampered information and blocked the students' access to their student portals.

This situation exposes loopholes in the Integrated Management Information System, which all local universities use.

Who owns land? The person with the oldest title deed or the one who developed it? A December twenty twenty-five ruling says the oldest title deed wins, but Ephraim Nyondo, a Nyasa Times journalist, says this is problematic and drew attention to the case of Cecilia Kadzamira, the former official hostess, versus the Kaphwiti family.

Kadzamira bought her land in nineteen seventy-eight and built infrastructure on it, while the Kaphwiti family abandoned it for over forty years. The High Court said Kadzamira’s ownership of the land was void, since the Kaphwiti family’s title deed was from nineteen sixty-eight. They ignored the Ministry of Lands’ failure to detect the potential land dispute when Kadzamira registered it in nineteen seventy-eight.

Nyondo suggests the law should favor those who develop the land over those who buy it.

To know more, follow the link in our show notes.

In other news, the government will be installing house number plates across the country.

According to local news, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority is implementing the National Addressing System, one of the many activities they will be undertaking. The press said the Authority will work with the Geographical Information System to create a standardized physical addressing system across thirteen councils in Malawi.

Local news said the target areas include Blantyre and Mangochi in the south, Salima and Lilongwe in the Central Region, and Rumphi and Mzimba in the north.

People can now deliver their goods by plane at lower prices, compared to the expensive delivery services that typical planes offer.

Delivery company Speed Courier and Logistics partnered with air service Nyasa Express to offer express parcel delivery services from Saturday the 14th. Unfortunately, it will only deliver items between Blantyre and Lilongwe.

Authorities at Speed Courier said they noticed a huge demand for faster parcel delivery, which is why they introduced the new service, allowing people to receive parcels in just one hour for just ten thousand Kwacha, which is six dollars, per one kilogram or about two pounds.

Football club Ekhaya FC said they are not affiliated with Roy View, a popular fashion designer, who has been scamming people by promising to sell them Ekhaya FC merchandise, such as the club’s jerseys. Ekhaya’s statement, released on Friday the 6th, said Roy View collected people’s cash and failed to deliver the merch.

While Ekhaya emphasised that they don’t work with Roy in any official capacity, they said they want people who were scammed by him to provide proof of the scam, so that the club could review it and try to see if they can provide any support.

However, some people wondered why there are pictures of Ekhaya authorities receiving merch from Roy View.

Closing this episode with entertainment news, the second edition of the Kabula Festival is set for the 29th and 30th of May at Echo Park in Blantyre. They had their first gig last year, hosting big South African artists like Sun-El Musician and Prince Kaybee.

Early bird tickets are already up for purchase on Kwenda.co. Keep your eyes on their Facebook page - Kabula Festival - if you want to know who will be on their artist lineup this year.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

A few of you have asked for an easy way to connect and get updates on Rorshok and what we may do in Malawi, because we might do some stuff, and who knows, it's not impossible that we even get the Malawi update going again. We will set up a way for you to let us know you are interested, and share it with you this coming week.

Pitani bwino!