Defender Dennis Chembezi has joined Limpopo outfit Polokwane City. The Malawian international has signed a two-year deal with coach Clinton Larsen’s side.
Chembezi has described his move to Rise and Shine as a dream come true.
“It was my dream to play in South African especially because I am from Malawi. Many players there aim high and one of the ambitions is to play in South Africa,” Chembezi said
Dennis Chembezi
“I was advised by players who are from Malawi who play in South Africa (Gerald Phiri jr and Gabadinho Mhango) whenever we play in the national team to work hard. Even when I was coming here they spoke to me and told me to push so I can play more games and aim for Europe.”
Rise and Shine are second from bottom on the log table and will hope the new signing will boost their leaky defence.
Queen of Pop Madonna brought her daughter Chifundo Mercy James onstage with her in Lisbon on Tuesday night to wish her a happy 14th birthday.
‘The best birthday present I can give you,’ the Michigan-born 61-year-old said at Portugal’s Coliseu dos Recreios, ‘is to teach you to never settle for second best.’
Backstage during the nightly group prayer, the seven-time Grammy winner called her privileged teenager ‘truly compassionate’ and revealed her name Chifundo translates to mercy.
Madonna and daughter Mercy James
Madge (born Ciccone) beamed with pride as ‘happy’ Mercy said she ‘really looks up to’ her and thanked her for giving ‘me a life that I would never have if you didn’t adopt me.’
‘Even though sometimes I’m like, “Oh my god, I can’t deal right now.” But I really love you and I want to thank you for everything, Mom,’ the not-so-typical teen gushed.
Mercy was a four-year-old orphan suffering from Malaria when Madonna adopted her in 2007, which led to a three-year legal battle due to her two divorces.
In 2017, the Raising Malawi founder opened The Mercy James Institute for Pediatric Surgery and Intensive Care at Queen Central Hospital in Malawi in her honor.
Malawi has once again scored poorly on the fight against corruption and bribery with latest studies showing the country has slipped from 120 to 123 on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
The 2019 CPI, which is conducted by Transparency International, reveals that a majority of countries, including Malawi, are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.
The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people. It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on the 2019 CPI, with an average score of just 43.
The report says similar to previous years, the data shows that despite some progress, a majority of countries are still failing to tackle public sector corruption effectively.
African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC)-hosted Integrity Platform coordinator, Jeff Kabondo, who presented the CPI report in Lilongwe on Thursday, said Malawi is stuck in corruption such that it would require authorities to rise above petty political rhetoric on corruption fight.
“Generally, Malawi hasn’t performed well. We seem to be stuck. Last year, the country scored 31; this year we have scored 32. On the global ranking, Transparency International has ranked us 123, which means the global perception on our corruption fight is getting worse and worse,” said Kabondo.
He said some of the issues considered when ranking a country are electoral integrity, political financing, political campaign based on misinforming the voters and nepotism in the public service.
Kabondo therefore emphasised the need for Malawi to create robust systems of political financing, electoral integrity, transparency and accountability if the country is to improve its global perception on corruption.
He said keeping big money out of politics is essential to ensuring political decision-making serves the public interest and curbing opportunities for corrupt deals.
“Countries that perform well on the CPI have strong enforcement of campaign finance regulations,” said Kabondo.
AICC chief executive officer Dr Felix Lombe said it is sad that Malawi continues to slip deep into corruption trap.
Lombe appealed to authorities to seriously consider tackling the vice to avoid chasing potential investors.
A Magistrate Court in Zomba on Wednesday late night quashed an arrest warrant obtained by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) from Lilongwe Magistrate Court against prominent businessman Thomson Mpinganjira, owner of FDH Bank over allegations he tried to bribe judges hearing a legal challenge to the re-election of President Peter Mutharika.
Mpinganjira released from custody and warrant of arrest has been declared by court as void Matemba: Legally disgusting
Mpinganjira, through his lawyer Frank Mbeta sought a court order quashing the warrant of arrest and the court ruled the warrant was void but does not specify the reason for the decision.
ACB head Reyneck Matemba expressed shock with the way bureau’s warrant of arrest has been rendered void by mid night court session, saying it is legally disgusting.
Thom Mpinganjira
Matemba said he was “speechless” with what he called a very strange legal practice for a court to cancel a warrant of arrest issued by another court and also order release of a suspect in police custody when ACB as a law enforcing agency was acting on a serious complaint.
The court order bears no name of a Magistrate but it is signed and was obtained by lawyers from Mbeta’s legal firm Ritz Law Firm.
“This is legally disgusting. Abuse of court process and it exposes how rotten the judiciary is,” said Matemba.
He said at around 12:05 midnight he was phone by Chipliro Mpinganjira , a deputy minister of defence and one of the lawyers representing the banker. Around the same time the acting Inspector General of police Duncan Mwapasa also phoned about the order which served on police .
Mpinganjira was expected to appear before the court Thursday morning to take plea and be charged following his arrest on Wednesday.
He is a key suspect in the investigations into claims by Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda that bribes had been offered to the five judges presiding over the case.
Social and governance commentator Makhumbo Munthali said the release of Mpinganjira on bail will be received with mixed reaction by the members of the public who expected him to spend sometime in police cell especially considering a background where opposition leaders or critics of government have spent at least a night in policy custody.
“While Mpinganjira has a right to bail, the timing and his connections to the ruling party will raise suspicion by the public that perhaps the whole arrest of Mpinganjira was a well crafted tactic between ACB and some judicial officials to cool down the public pressure that something was being down when in actual fact it was just window dressing,” said Munthali.
“The midnight court bail would also reflect badly on the integrity of the judiciary especially when the timing of such a bail was granted and the sensitivity of the allegations. Already ACB director has not minced words against the judiciary on the matter.
“But then looking at the broader picture whether bail or no bail the very fact that the name of one of the two suspects has been disclosed and that such an individual is closely linked to the ruling party it would reflect badly on one of the accussed parties in the election case,” said Munthali.
The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on the election challenge sometime between January 27 and February 3, its spokeswoman Agnes Patemba.
Malawi’s anti-graft body on Wednesday said it had arrested a prominent businessman over allegations he tried to bribe judges hearing a legal challenge to the re-election of President Peter Mutharika.
The arrest comes days before the court is expected to deliver its ruling on the election petition mounted by the opposition.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said it had arrested Thomson Mpinganjira, owner of FDH Bank, following investigations into claims by Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda that bribes had been offered to the five judges presiding over the case.
“Mpinganjira will be taken to court after the ACB has recorded a statement from him,” the agency said in a statement, without further details.
Thom Mpinganjira
Malawi has been embroiled in a battle over the credibility of the May 2019 election.
Mutharika won a second term, but his victory unleashed a six-month-long court case and nationwide demonstrations demanding the head of the electoral commission be fired.
Mutharika beat opposition candidate Lazarus Chakwera by 159,000 votes — a lead of just over three percentage points.
Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party and the United Transformation Movement say the poll was marred by fraud.
Allegations this month by Chief Justice Nyirenda that the judges in the petition case had been offered kickbacks sparked fresh fury.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched last week calling for the culprits to be unmasked.
The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on the election challenge sometime between January 27 and February 3, its spokeswoman Agnes Patemba told AFP on Wednesday.
It is the first time presidential election results have been challenged in court since Malawi gained independence from Britain in 1964.
