Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 17th of February twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Cyclone Gezani hit Mozambique and even caused over thirty-one deaths in Madagascar. Malawi was affected too.

On Monday the 16th, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services warned that districts in the Central Region should expect heavy rains for the next two to three days, because the cyclone is moving deeper into Mozambique.

Still, the rest of the country should expect heavy winds and thunderstorms, since the cyclone is causing an Intertropical Convergence Zone, which disrupts local temperatures.

Some top officials working for the National Economic Empowerment Fund were arrested on charges of money laundering and abuse of office.

The two are the company's CEO and the Irrigation Engineer. Local news said they are believed to have misappropriated about eleven billion Kwacha, which is about 6 million dollars, between twenty twenty-four and twenty twenty-five. They also allegedly abused their office by firing an employee unfairly and purchasing some properties without following the procurement procedures.

The court has since granted the two bail and said that the trial will start in March.

This corruption case concerned many, who are now demanding accountability from public officials.

For instance, when President Peter Mutharika revealed that the government had removed many ghost workers, activists quickly demanded that the government release the list of names of the ghost workers, how much the government has recovered financially, and how the ghost workers would be held accountable through legal action. They said that, without a full audit, the information is pointless and may be lies.

On Monday the 16th, the Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency said that the government must back all its moves with hard facts. The Centre for Democracy and Economic Initiative had similar thoughts, and called for immediate arrests of the culprits.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President and Cabinet said they are still putting the information together, making people more suspicious.

The ghost worker issue came up during the President's State of the Nation address, which he delivered last Friday, as we mentioned in our last episode.

Another interesting topic was that of Digital Identity Wallets, which the government is planning to introduce as a replacement and improved version of the current National IDs.

During his address, President Mutharika said that the new IDs won't have expiry dates, and that they would reduce the National Registration Bureau’s current backlog..

He said Malawians should expect mass renewal of all expired cards and production of new cards sometime this year.

This also comes at a time when questions were raised about the government's austerity measures on travel, following allegations that government officials were traveling unnecessarily.

The government acted quickly and released a statement. On Wednesday the 11th, the Chief Secretary’s statement said that the President was concerned about how much some Ministers were traveling, and gave them a directive to only travel once a month. They said this would help them save resources like fuel and travel allowances, and stick to the austerity measures.

Since then, many have been policing travel by government officials, ensuring that they stick to the President's new rules.

In other news, The National Registration Bureau will now be responsible for registering all marriages, divorces, and other activities outlined in the country's Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act.

The Bureau released a statement on Thursday the 12th, announcing that the Registrar General would no longer be in charge of administration and registration activities. However, civil marriages will continue to be handled by District Offices, and religious marriages will still be held at the appropriate religious places of worship.

The Bureau has struggled with providing National IDs on time, and now people are worried that the same thing will happen with marriage certificates.

In business news, Malawi and Tanzania have signed a Simplified Trade Regime Agreement that will allow traders from either country to import and export two thousand worth of goods without paying any duty taxes.

The governments expect the agreement to make it easy for small-scale traders to carry out cross-border trade and reduce barriers linked to administration and customs.

They also hope to balance a huge balance gap, seen in data by the United Nations Comtrade. This info shows that, in twenty twenty-four, Malawi exported goods worth 57 million dollars while Tanzania exported 340 million. During that same period, Malawi imported goods worth 340 million, while Tanzania imported 284 million.

Local traders are also excited by China's plans to implement zero tariffs on imports from fifty-three African countries, including Malawi. They want to implement this new directive on the 1st of May, while also pushing for African exporters to access Chinese markets.

The news made headlines on Twitter, sparking talks on the platform, on Saturday the 14th.

It seems many traders, especially youths, feel they could use the new trade law to start or grow their businesses.

Even though the country has new trade opportunities, a report by the Global Financial Integrity revealed that Malawi lost a yearly average of 626 million dollars between twenty thirteen and twenty twenty-two. This amounts to 6.3 billion dollars. They said illegal financial flows are the culprit, with issues like mis-invoicing.

They said this forces the government to rely on debt, and ends up harming critical industries like health and education.

While commenting on the study, the Economics Association of Malawi said this means the government is losing tax revenue.

Speaking of health, public hospitals are supposed to provide free healthcare services to all locals, but a new report by the Platform of Investigative Journalism indicates that this is not the case. In fact, the article said that several major hospitals, including the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre in the Southern Region, have a secret payment system that prioritizes people who have money and abandons those who don't.

They said many officials such as security guards, clinicians, and clerks, act as gatekeepers of healthcare. They gave examples of some patients who were overlooked for hours, and some even years, because they didn't have money to pay bribes.

They described the corruption as “an auction for human life, and questioned whether public hospitals are truly free.

The Ombudsman’s office said they received over sixteen thousand cases related to corruption in hospitals in twenty twenty-five alone.

The President must have caught wind of this trending story because, on Monday the 16th, he banned public health workers from getting payments from patients. He also banned public health workers from running private health clinics or pharmacies.

A statement from his office said that the behavior was unethical, since free healthcare services were established to ensure people's right to healthcare was protected, and that underprivileged people were not left behind.

His new directive says that any health workers who are found soliciting payments and bribes from patients will be fired immediately and sued.

Closing this edition with some agricultural news, the country has produced its first early-maturing variety of pigeon peas, and experts believe this could be the key Malawi needs to fight food insecurity.

The government, in partnership with the National Research Institute and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, developed the new pigeon pea. The three said the new variety is different because it matures within 100 to 120 days and can yield up to 1.9 tons per hectare of land. This helps farmers get bigger yields in little time.

The government has since engaged nearly 400 thousand small-scale farmers to test out the new variety.

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

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Pitani bwino!