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

President Lazarus Chakwera passed thirteen new parliamentary bills on Wednesday the 2nd.

The bills include the Financial Crimes Act, the Mental Health Act, and the Registration and Intellectual Property Centre Act.

However, the government did not share the Bills with the public, so no one really knows what is in them. This raised questions about what the government was hiding and why it was trying to pass laws that the public was not aware of.

The government has yet to respond, thus unfortunately reinforcing perceptions of the government’s violation of human rights.

Malawi turned sixty-one years old on Sunday the 6th. The government held the Independence Day celebrations at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe in the Central Region.

President Chakwera was accompanied by President Duma Boko of Botswana, who had landed in the country on Friday the 4th for bilateral talks. Boko and Chakwera led the country in celebrating Malawi’s independence.

During the event, President Boko said Malawi has everything it needs to succeed but lacks good leadership and strategic planning. He also criticized some members of the ruling Malawi Congress Party for dismissing locals’ calls for change.

President Chakwera did not respond directly to Boko’s message during his address, but there were some positive reactions to Boko speaking without fear.

The President also pardoned thirty-seven inmates as part of the Independence Day celebrations. However, conservation groups and human rights activists were unhappy that Chakwera pardoned two Chinese nationals who were arrested for running one of Southern Africa’s largest wildlife trafficking networks.

On Saturday the 5th, the Natural Resources Justice Network, which is a coalition of forty-five civil society organizations, asked Chakwera to reverse his decision, saying it is a low blow to Malawi’s environmental protection efforts.

The pardon of the two Chinese nationals sparked a much larger conversation on the country’s pardon process. Some critics believe it lacks transparency and assume it may be fueled by political influence.

Meanwhile, local media highlighted some issues concerning the country’s development.

For instance, on Monday the 7th, the Nation newspaper published a story saying the country’s population had risen by 436% since its independence in nineteen sixty-four, that is, from a little over four million according to the first census in nineteen sixty-six, to eighteen million in twenty twenty-four.

Nyovani Madise, a Demographer and Social Statistician Professor, said the country’s population was projected to be twenty-two million in July twenty twenty-five. She was worried that the annual growth rate was too high, and was creating more pressure on land and other resources.

Just a few days before that - on Friday the 4th - the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority or MACRA revealed that Malawi is trailing behind on internet access compared to its counterparts in the Southern African Development Community.

Malawi’s internet penetration is currently at nearly thirty-seven percent, which is below the average of forty-four percent in countries within Southern Africa. This means that Malawi has a lot of work to do if it is to catch up to the Community’s goals to reach an internet penetration of sixty percent by twenty twenty-nine.

MACRA said that to reduce the digital gap with these nations, there needs to be deliberate efforts to improve access to smart devices, reliable electricity, and digital literacy.

While MACRA may have a solid plan to reach its goals, the same cannot be said for the government’s ambitions to increase electricity access to seventy percent from the current thirty percent by twenty thirty.

The government believes it will meet its goal because of some ongoing electricity projects, including the Ascent Malawi Project funded by the World Bank which aims to connect over 230 thousand households, but experts don’t think this is realistic.

Kandi Padambo, the former CEO for the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, said that statistics show that the country’s electricity access is growing at three percent per year, meaning that by twenty thirty, electricity access would reach a maximum of thirty percent.

Fortunately, the International Atomic Energy Agency (or IAEA), alongside the government, shared a huge developmental update on Friday the 4th. They said Malawi had opened its first radiotherapy center at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe. This marks a major milestone in the country’s local diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients.

According to the IAEA, global health organizations like the World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, funded and supported the project, resulting in a facility that has several key machines in treating cancer, like radiotherapy bunkers.

Furthermore, the IAEA said they have already trained over twenty medical personnel, meaning the facility is ready to serve thousands.

Still on health, Patience Namadingo, a celebrated local musician and humanitarian, announced plans to build a hospital in Chitipa District in the Northern Region, just a few weeks after finishing a month-long construction project for a school block at Wataka Primary School in Machinga District in the Southern Region.

On Monday the 7th, Namadingo said the impact of his Machinga project inspired him to help Chitipa, which is currently one of the country’s most underserved regions. His Facebook post also hinted that he would carry out more similar projects across the country.

The post has since attracted applause and praise. Namadingo has a track record of delivering on his word, so he is expected to match high expectations.

The government is trying to make its own strides, and the latest one is the Parliament’s launch of a new radio station on Tuesday the 1st. The station is already up and broadcasting on 98.0 FM.

The station is expected to bring the Parliament closer to the people by engaging with the public, disseminating parliamentary information, and fostering more informed public discourse.

According to a post on the Parliament’s Facebook page, the station began test transmissions in late June and will be implementing a test phase for the next three months.

During that period, listeners can tune in to some instrumental music, promotional messages, and announcements from 8 AM to 4 PM, while the station gradually transitions to full programming.

There is a new presidential candidate for the September general elections.

Jordan Sauti, President of a new party called the Patriotic Citizens Party, will run in the presidential race, as he has already submitted his papers to the Malawi Electoral Commission.

As part of his campaign, Sauti has pledged to make education accessible to all Malawian students by abolishing school fees in primary and secondary schools and reducing tuition fees in all government tertiary institutions.

He made the promises during the launch of his party in Blantyre in the Southern Region on Saturday the 5th. He believes a developed nation is built on educated people.

If you hear any fire alarms around Blantyre City, especially along the Victoria Avenue road, then you should probably ignore them.

On Wednesday the 2nd, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi announced that they would be conducting a routine service of its firefighting equipment at its office in the Umoyo House Building located in the heart of Blantyre City from Thursday the 3rd to Friday the 11th.

They said fire alarms may go off as part of their testing process, but requested that anyone who hears them should not take them seriously, as it will most likely be a maintenance check.

Closing this episode with entertainment news, a new movie called Welcome To Maula Prison got over 300 thousand views just a few hours after it was released on YouTube at 6 PM on Monday the 7th.

The movie explores the complexities of the life of prisoners in Malawi, and while the premise of the movie caused a lot of excitement on social media, some viewers shared how they were also intrigued by the actors’ performances.

The Welcome To Maula movie was produced by 4Kaya Films, which is also behind the School Days movie which had the public talking earlier this year.

Watch the movie with the link in the show notes! Join the current hot topic and share your thoughts!

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

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Pitani bwino!