Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 8th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Last week, the country experienced rapid and extreme weather changes ranging from scorching heat to freezing cold, and strong winds.

At first, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said this was due to Mwera or southerly winds that were blowing over local lakes. However, they later announced that the weather changes were indicating the beginning of the rainy season.

They said weather patterns show that nearly thirty tropical cyclones may develop in the Indian Ocean during the twenty twenty-four/ twenty twenty-five rainy season. Affected countries in the Southern Africa region have developed a list of potential cyclone names. Malawi included the names Honde and Njazi.

Next up, on Thursday the 3rd, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (or ESCOM) said that vandalism caused last week’s unstable power supply.

They said the vandalism prevented their infrastructure from withstanding the stormy weather, resulting in damaged poles and conductors across the country.

They assured locals that they would fix the issue but also asked them to refrain from damaging ESCOM equipment. A few weeks ago, ESCOM told local media that they lost about four billion Kwacha (which is about 2.3 million dollars) in the past two years due to vandalism.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program (or WFP) has stepped in to help mitigate the effects of another adverse weather condition - El Niño - which hit the country early this year and in twenty twenty-three. It affected farmers’ harvest, leading to projected hunger.

On Wednesday the 2nd, the WFP started distributing maize to El Niño victims in Chikwawa district. They expect to help 2.1 million beneficiaries across the country between now and December.

According to Charles Kalemba, the Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, 5.7 million people are suffering from hunger this season. He said these statistics are from June this year, but current local trends, such as rising food prices, mean the figures may have increased since June.

On Monday the 7th, local news reported that seven people died while thirty-three others sustained injuries after a lorry carrying forty-four people collided with a car along the Magalasi road in Blantyre. It is unclear how the accident happened, but Doctor Kelvin Mponda from the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital confirmed the figures and revealed that five of the injured people are in critical condition.

Local news said the lorry was carrying individuals who had just received aid at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre. They were headed to Chirimba township in the city.

In other news, a new survey conducted by UNICEF revealed shocking stats about Chikwawa district. It said that eighteen percent of children under five in Chikwawa are underweight, compared to the national average of thirteen percent. The study further said that in Chikwawa five percent of children are experiencing wasting, which is a form of acute malnutrition. It also said that chronic malnutrition is at a staggering thirty-five percent, which is slightly above the national rate of thirty-three percent.

Feston Katundu, the District Nutrition Officer for Chikwawa, told local media that climate change and recurring floods have severely compromised food security in the district.

Despite the climate-induced issues, there are worries that many people will still struggle because of developments like sugar prices, which were increased on Tuesday the 1st.

Illovo Sugar Malawi, the largest sugar manufacturer in the country, released a statement saying they had increased their prices by 300 Kwacha (which is around twenty US cents).

While this may look like a small increase, it has a ripple effect on other commodities that use sugar. Now business owners will have to raise their prices, which will make food less accessible to their already-struggling customers.

And the struggle continues as Malawi’s agricultural output dropped by seventeen percent to 2.9 million metric tonnes in the twenty twenty-three/ twenty twenty-four season due to El Niño.

As a result, seed companies also experienced a decline in stock from 31 thousand metric tonnes of maize and legume seeds last year to 17 thousand in twenty twenty-four. So there will be a high demand for quality seeds because they guarantee high yields. However, there will be a low supply of it, meaning fewer people will farm, and those that will farm might resort to low-quality seeds since they may not afford the recommended ones.

To make matters worse, the August Malawi Monthly Maize Report by the International Food Policy Research Institute revealed that local maize prices are the highest in Southern Africa.

The report said a fifty-kilogram bag of maize costs about 44 thousand Kwacha (that is, twenty-five dollars), while the same bag costs 36 thousand in Zimbabwe, 26 thousand in South Africa, and 19 thousand Kwacha in Tanzania. These figures range between ten to twenty dollars.

Local experts like Jacob Nyirongo, the Chief Executive Officer at the Farmers Union of Malawi, is worried that inflation may soar, since maize contributes to over fifty percent of the country’s consumer price index, which is an aggregate basket of consumer goods and services for computing inflation. He challenged the government to plan properly to avoid maize scarcity.

There is hope that the Pre-Conference of Parties (or Pre COP) will have some solutions for Malawi.

On Monday the 7th, Michael Bizwick Usi, the Vice President, left the country for Azerbaijan to attend the Pre COP, which is slated to take place from Thursday the 10th to Saturday the 12th of this month. This comes in readiness for the twenty twenty-four United Nations Climate Change Conference which will take place in November.

The Pre COP will discuss solutions to outstanding global climate issues and their accompanying policies, such as the Loss and Damage Fund, which seeks to support countries that have been impacted by climate change.

On another note, on Monday the 7th, the Secondary School Teachers Union gave the Ministry of Education an ultimatum to resolve their grievances by the 1st of November or risk industrial actions.

The Union is complaining that the Ministry is delaying its promotions and monthly salaries and does not provide adequate resources for its work. They said these issues have kept some teachers at the same pay grade for over twenty-five years, despite the Kwacha devaluations and rising inflation.

The Union’s letter highlighted unkept promises by the government, such as salary adjustments, which were expected by June twenty twenty-four. All eyes are on the Ministry to see how they’ll respond.

Now some news on the twenty twenty-five Presidential elections.

The United Democratic Front (or UDF), one of the biggest political parties, held a National Convention in Blantyre. A huge highlight from the event was the election of Atupele Muluzi as the presidential candidate.

The news came as no surprise since Muluzi has been the face of UDF for years. He is the son of Bakili Muluzi, the former president of Malawi and founder of the UDF.

Unfortunately, we close this episode with some tragic news. Gift Nathaniel Mkamanga, one of the members of the Coaching Course by the Confederation of African Football, was pronounced dead on Thursday the 3rd. Mkamanga was the Assistant Coach for Chitipa United.

A statement by the Football Association of Malawi said Mkamanga was found dead in his room after his colleagues noticed he was not present at breakfast. A postmortem by the College of Medicine said Mkamanga died of a heart attack.

He was buried in Chitipa on Saturday the 5th.

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

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Malawi Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

Pitani bwino!