LILONGWE, Dec. 11 — Police have arrested a Zimbabwean national and two Malawians for allegedly possessing three live pangolins, an endangered animal species in Malawi.
The three were arrested on Monday in Limbe, the center of the commercial capital of the country, Blantyre, according to a police statement on Tuesday.
“The officers from the Wildlife Crime Investigations Unit in Lilongwe and their Limbe counterparts organized an operation which led to the suspects’ arrest and seizure of the animals on December 9, 2019,”read the statement signed by Limbe Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Patrick Mussa.
Pangolins
“This was after our detectives were tipped off by some patriotic citizens that the three were possessing the said pangolins which they were offering for sale,” it said.
Musa said the three have since been charged with an offense of being found in possession of specimen of listed species.
Meanwhile, the protected species have been released back into a wildlife reserve about 50 kilometers from Blantyre City upon a court order.
In September this year the country’s court also sentenced two Malawians to three years imprisonment for their involvement in a largest transnational wildlife trafficking syndicate that included pangolins.
Malawi is “making strides in developing regulations” on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), according to a government assessment carried out for the UN’s treaty aimed at eliminating the toxic and long-lasting chemicals worldwide.
The southern African country last week published an updated national plan for implementing the UN’s Stockholm Convention on POPs. Since its first plan in 2005, according to the country’s energy and mining secretary Patrick Matanda, the country has:
developed regulations on chemicals and toxic substances;
published a national waste strategy;
developed a strategy for compliance and monitoring; and
recruited more staff to cover the sustainable management of POPs, pesticides and other hazardous chemicals.
The 2019 plan assessed the country’s regulatory situation on POPs and found that Malawi has several sectoral legislations that cover “specific areas of chemicals management in the country.” These include acts to control and monitor POPs in sectors including pollution and waste control, pesticides, occupational health and safety, and fisheries.
But challenges remain. The plan highlighted that a lack of knowledge by customs officers leads to a failure to stop the import of products containing POPs and that there is weak enforcement of existing legislation.
PCBs
Another major problem is the issue of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of POP that is widely present in old power generation equipment. Manufacturing of PCBs was banned in 1979, but the assessment found that they are present in much of the equipment owned by its national power supply company, which was largely installed before that date.
There is no legislation specifically focused on PBC management in Malawi, but its power supply company uses guidelines published by other African institutes to manage PCBs.
Along with 11 other southern African countries, Malawi is implementing a $34m project funded by the Global Environment Facility – which assists in the protection of the global environment and promotes environmental sustainable development – to eliminate use of PCB-containing equipment in the region. It hopes to have achieved this phase-out by 2025, the plan says.
However, even when use of the equipment has stopped, destroying PCB-containing equipment without releasing them into the environment requires advanced technology not present in many developing countries. This often creates stockpiles of obsolete equipment, which it is sometimes then stolen and re-sold. This issue has been highlighted in North African countries as well.
Other issues
Malawi’s updated plan also includes inventories for the substances that have been classified as POPs under the Stockholm Convention since 2009, including PFOS.
It highlights e-waste as a growing problem, estimating that in the period 2018-2022 between 8.69 and 11.66 million devices, primarily mobile phones, will become e-waste in Malawi and need to be disposed of.
Additionally, POPs pesticides are a significant problem in the country, as approximately 80% of Malawi’s 19 million people live in the rural areas and carry out subsistence farming. The assessment found low public awareness of what pesticides are banned or approved, and of the effects of using obsolete POPs pesticides.
Following a strategic review by Nedbank Group the financial services provider will dispose of its Malawi operations.
The financial institution made the announcement in a shareholder notice issued on Monday. The Malawi subsidiary of African banking group MyBucks will acquire Nedbank Malawi, according to the notice.
“Nedbank Group and Nedgroup Investments Africa have agreed to dispose of, and MyBucks Banking Corporation Limited has agreed to acquire, in one composite, indivisible transaction, 100% of the issued shares of Nedbank Malawi and the cession and delegation of a term loan from Nedbank Limited to Nedbank Malawi,” the notice read
Nedbank CEO Mike Brown
“The disposal follows a strategic review by Nedbank Group. As at 30 June 2019, Nedbank Malawi contributed less than 0.1% to Nedbank Group’s headline earnings and total assets and its market share in Malawi was approximately 1%,” the notice read.
Nedbank said it is still committed to growing operations in the Southern African Development Community, as well as exploring opportunities in East Africa and to strengthen its alliance with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated in Central and West Africa.
So far, the Reserve Bank of Malawi has approved the transaction, which is still subject to approval of the competition authority, namely Common Market of East and Southern Africa.
By Sean Kampondeni
The Constitutional Court case on the presidential elections has in the end not been so much a battle about whether or not there were irregularities in the May 2019 polls, but rather a battle about what story those irregularities tell when viewed panoramically. It is therefore important to grasp what elements in the story advanced by the petitioners are similar to the elements in the story advanced by the respondents and what elements are variant. Below is a sample of some of the key elements the two narratives have in common, followed by a sample of the key elements the two narratives disagree on.
NARRATIVE SIMILARITIES
▪Many of the results sheets used were tipexed.
▪Many of the results sheets used were altered.
▪Many of the results sheets used were not the genuine ones from Dubai
▪Many of the results sheets used were duplicates instead of originals
▪Many of the results sheets used did not have signatures from party monitors
▪Many of the results sheets used did not have signatures from Presiding Officers
▪Many of the results sheets used had signatures from non-authorized persons from entities like NICE and MESN
▪Some of the results sheets used were completed at the homes of the Presiding Officers
▪Tipexing and alterations were mostly done by Constituency Returning Officers at Constitutency Tally Centres
▪Tipexing and alterations were mostly done in the absence of the party monitors who had observed voting and counting at the polling centre from which the results sheets originated
▪Many manually completed results sheets that were submitted to MEC do not match the computer generated results sheets that were used by MEC
▪Many carbon copy results sheets that were meant to be given to party monitors on polling day are nowhere to be found
▪The petitioners have not submitted to the court sworn statements from their party monitors who observed voting and counting at streams or polling centres
▪MEC did not require the 11,095 stream record log books to be submitted to the National Tally Centre for comparison with the submitted results sheets
▪Most of the 11,095 stream record log books that the ConCourt ordered MEC to surrender as evidence were not surrendered
▪Most of the original results sheets the ConCourt ordered MEC to surrender as evidence were not surrendered
▪The election audit report from BDO that the ConCourt ordered MEC to surrender as evidence was not surrendered
▪None of the MEC Commissioners have submitted sworn statements as evidence in the presidential elections case
▪None of the minutes of the Commissioners’ meetings during election week have been submitted by MEC as evidence in the presidential elections case
▪The auditors rejected many results sheets either because they had tipex and alterations or lacked signatures, but MEC instructed them to accept them anyway
▪The MEC CEO was the one who instructed the auditors to accept the results sheets they had rejected.
▪The MEC CEO asked the auditors from BDO to alter the parts of the audit report he disagreed with, but BDO refused and said the report was final
▪The number of candidate vote counts that were reported using results sheets that were tipexed, altered, duplicates, and unauthorized is in the millions.
▪Not every complaint conveyed to the Malawi Electoral Commission by political parties was responded to before announcement of results.
▪The Electoral Commission did not gather, document, or publicize anecdotal and corroborated evidence from presiding officers and party monitors into the unique circumstances that transpired at every CTC and with every CRO that returned tippexed, or altered, or duplicate, or unsigned, or unauthorized results sheets before declaring the final result.
NARRATIVE DIFFERENCES
The following are the areas of disagreement between the petitioners and the respondents in the proper interpretation of the aforementioned anomalies:
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that the above incidents were isolated, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that they were ubiquitous.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that the above incidents were looked into thoroughly and rigorously before declaration of results, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that MEC permitted and committed these offences, neglected to prevent, and neglected to rectify them.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that despite the above anomalies, the elections were fully compliant with both the Constitution and the laws governing the Electoral Commission and elections, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that the above incidents represent recalcitrant negligence and gross violations of those statutes, as well as an infringement on the constitutional provisions on MEC’s responsibility and the democratic rights of Malawian voters.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that none of the above incidents were done intentionally or maliciously as acts of rigging, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that the above incidents have so many attributes of patterned repetition that can only be explained by intent, premeditation, and conspiracy.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that the results announced by MEC were largely and duly agreed to and signed for by the monitors of the petitioners’ parties, while Chakwera & Chakwera maintain that there were many instances where their monitors did not endorse the results and many other instances where the results they endorsed were later altered either manually or digitally in their absence.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that even if all the above incidents had not occurred, the winner of the presidential elections would still be Arthur Peter Mutharika, but Chilima maintains that the above incidents make any credible result indeterminate, while Chakwera adds that a close scrutiny and analysis of the pattern and effect of the anomalies shows beyond doubt that the conspiracy was designed to give Mutharika an undue victory and rob Chakwera of a due victory.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that all parts of the electoral process were free, fair, and credible, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that while voting was free and fair, the management and announcement of results lacked transparency, legality, credibility, and fairness.
▪MEC & Mutharika maintain that the court should uphold the declaration of Mutharika as winner of the May 2019 elections, while Chakwera & Chilima maintain that the court should nullify that declaration and the process that produced it, then administer the most just and effective remedy for quarantining the damage and moving the country forward.
Needless to say, the final judgment by the Constitutional Court will be determined by the five judges’ collective sense of which of the two narratives passes the tests of credibility, believability, and reasonableness, but also their collective sense of what ruling would uphold the supremacy of the Constitution and the sovereignty of Malawians. Granted, the judges have made it clear that whatever the public believes about the case will not be a factor in their considerations, for the public has seen and heard only a fraction of the evidence tendered in court, and that only from a layman’s perspective. Even so, it is impossible for the judges to live, think, and rule in a social vacuum, because the country that is trusting them to make this monumental decision happens to be their own. This means that unlike their rulings on other cases that typically come before them, their ruling on this particular case will affect them too, for they themselves have to live in the social and political order their ruling creates, just like the rest of us. So while they may not be moved by public opinion, they will undoubtedly have the public good weighing heavily on their minds. May the all-wise God, who knows the hidden secrets and mysteries of both the world and the heart, be a light for them now. ??
One woman who was allegedly raped by a group of Police Officers at Msundwe ,Mbwatalika and Mpingu has fallen pregnant.
Police officers on 8 October 2019 descended on Mpingu, Mbwatalika and Msundwe where they went for retaliation following the murder of their fellow officer Imedi. The matter attracted wide condemnation from foreign and national organizations. However, when reporters accompanied the Chewa Heritage Foundation on a follow up fact finding mission on the rape cases and other human rights related abuses it was chicking to believe the outcome.
During the visit, our reporters saw two Health passport books, one indicates that the 27 year old woman is pregnant since she had sex with the officers while the other Health passport indicates that the victim has contracted sexually Transmitted disease (STI).
Police spokesman Kadadzera
Reporters managed to talk to all of the victims who confirmed on their own that indeed one is Pregnant and the other one is with STI “Yes am pregnant I went to the hospital for examination which included various tests,” said th victim whose name is withheld. Other victims told us that they are not living in peace with their families and that some have been divorced from their families. However, in an interview, CHEFO Secretary General Richard Mdyetseni says as Chewa people they are disappointed with the police
Mdyetseni said the Police leadership knows who went to Msundwe He accused the Police System of lacking partiality when discharging their state duties.He said it is sad that Police used heavy force on unarmed citizens.“This is against norms of justice that is why we will not sit back but to move the courts, ombudsman as well as reporting the matter to the United Nations” he said.He said this will be done with speed to ensure that all wheels of seeking justice are well activated.“We demand that Government should compensate you people I know some of you have lost families and some of you have been turned into laughing matters in communities therefore we demand that Government should compensate you people,” Said Mdyetseni.He further said it is sad that some of the victims have contracted various diseases and that some are pregnant we demand justice.
But National Police publicist James Kadadzera said their hands as tied in absence of commission of enquiry report.
