The Area 23 Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) through Malawi Central Conference has organised a 13-day crusade to be presided over by pastors from Australia.
SDA Malawi Central Conference President Pastor Petro Sukali, who is also the crusade coordinator, said the crusade, which will start on September 23 to October 5, aims at winning 500 souls to Jesus Christ.
SDA Malawi Central Conference President, Pastor P. Sukali
“We have invited the pastors and church elders from Australia to share with us the word of God so that when Jesus Christ is coming for the second time he should find us righteous.
“We want people to give their lives to Jesus Christ and as a starting point, we are targeting 500 people from area 23 to surrender their souls to God so that at the end of this world, they should be in the Kingdom of God,” Pastor Sukali said.
He added that the budget for the crusade is K15 million and he has urged people surrounding area 23 to come in large numbers to receive the word of God.
A resident of Area 23 Charity Gamuti commended the organisers saying the crusade will give people a chance to pray for the country.
“We are facing a lot of challenges in the country which need God’s intervention,” Gamuti said.
Mike Loya, who attended the opening of the crusade on Monday, said it has always been his desire to join SDA Church and the crusade will be his opportunity to get baptized and become an SDA member.
“I have always wanted to join the SDA church but had no idea on how I can do that, so the crusade will give me a chance to know more about the church and their teachings.
“Hopefully, by the end of this crusade, I will be baptized and start following Jesus Christ as my saviour,” he said.
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam) lakeshore conference wound up on a high note on Saturday in Mangochi, with Kenya’s renowned motivational speaker Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba challenging leaders in Africa, including Malawi, to have a sense of urgency in implementing development plans.
In his speech titled Harmonising Africa’s Resources for Africa’s Development: From Third World to First, Lumumba, who once served as Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission director, cited among others, Africa’s founding fathers such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere for their unified agenda and a sense of urgency to develop their countries and the African continent.
Prof Lumumba at the conference
To fast-track economic development, he observed that time has come for African countries to harness technology, saying: “We can’t continue to practise agriculture of our forefathers by using a hoe and a plough. Agriculture is one of the areas we must focus on.”
In his thought-provoking speech listened to by over 1 000 delegates, including chief executive officers, Lumumba zeroed in on Malawi and praised former president Bingu wa Mutharika for ensuring that there was maize surplus within a short period.
“The soil didn’t change, it is the same people and the same land. If it can be done, it must be done. If it is not done, then we are done,” he said.
Lumumba challenged that Malawi can be the fulcrum of 16-country trade bloc South Africa Development Community (Sadc) by marketing what he called the “cleanest lake on the earth”—Lake Malawi.
He bluntly said: “Have you marketed the chambo fish? McDonalds [an American fast food company] markets mere potatoes and it is famous for that. Why is chambo not famous?”
Lumumba said development hinges on leadership at all levels; hence, no need to look for leadership elsewhere, observing that there is need to focus on things that work.
Turning to chartered accountants, he said: “If you speak with one voice, President [Peter] Mutharika will one day summon you to guide him as intelligent men.”
Speaking on the broader African continent, he said Africa is a home to an abundance of natural resources that include diamonds, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, platinum and copper.
It also has human resource which includes skills, intelligence and knowledge and has to use technology to transform a natural resource into usable and valuable things.
He said Africa can and will be great, stressing that he has seen beauty in the gloom.
In an interview after Lumumba’s speech, FDH Financial Holdings chief executive officer Thom Mpinganjira, who described the speech as powerful, said he has listened to him a number of times, but had to be there to see him speak in person.
“It is true that leadership is what is critical in the development of any country. We think a leader is someone else. All of us are leaders.
“If we all come together, Malawi will rise. It does not require herd mentality. You don’t have to follow somebody,” he said, adding that the underlying point is to change the way of doing things.
Mpinganjira mentioned Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who he said despite being criticised for stifling democracy, has turned his country into one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
The keynote speaker at the conference was High Court judge at Zomba District Registry Zione Ntaba, who spoke on Thursday evening.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition has announced that they will hold protests against ECF-SADC for Electoral Commission currently under way at Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre on Wednesday.
Making the announcement, HRDC states that they want the SADC meeting cancelled. The Summit was opened by Malawi electoral commission chair Jane Ansah of whom HRDC has been at the forefront calling for her to resign.
Ansah who attended a meeting of the Electoral Commissions Forum for SADC Countries (ECF-SADC) at the hotel today has for the past three months defied calls to step down.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lilongwe today, HRDC member Billy Mayaya said they have already sent a letter of notification to the district council and Police in Blantyre for the demonstrations which will be held from Wednesday to Friday.
Mayaya added that ECF-SADC has challenged Malawians by recognizing Ansah as its president despite some Malawians rejecting her due to irregularities in the May 21 elections.
“We are therefore calling on Malawians of goodwill to join and demand the electoral justice, we are saying that protestors will not leave Mount Soche premises until MEC chair resigns,” he explained.
HRDC has been organising nationwide demonstrations demanding Ansah’s resignation.
The organisation as well as the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM accuse Ansah and MEC of failing to deliver credible presidential elections in May.
The last demonstrations which were conducted in Mzuzu, Lilongwe, and Blantyre among other districts ended in violence as some journalists were harassed by protesters.
Meanwhile, at the Hotel where the ECF-SAD conference is taking place, there is heavy security with police officers deployed at the gates.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have arrived in South Africa, with their four-month-old son Archie, for their first official tour as a family.
Prince Harry will also travel alone to Malawi, Botswana and Angola, where he will pay tribute to his mother Princess Diana’s anti-landmine campaign.
Prince Harry and Meghan
The 10-day visit, that began on Monday, will see the couple celebrate the people and culture of southern Africa.
They are visiting a township in Cape Town on the first stop of the visit.
Other highlights of the tour will include a visit to another township near Johannesburg, where Prince Harry and Meghan will learn about a project tackling rising unemployment.
The royals will be in Africa until 2 October. While the duchess and Archie are scheduled to spend the duration in South Africa, Prince Harry will also tour Angola, Malawi and Botswana before being reunited with his family in Johannesburg
On Friday the duke is due to visit Angola where he will mark the legacy of his mother, the Princess of Wales, by paying homage to her 1997 campaign to outlaw landmines.
In Malawi Prince Harry will pay tribute to a British soldier killed by an elephant during anti-poaching operations. His visit will also focus on efforts to protect endangered animals.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “The Duke of Sussex’s love for Africa is well known; he first visited the continent at the age of 13, and more than two decades later the people, culture, wildlife and resilient communities continue to inspire and motivate him every day.”
About 45 Malawi Defence Force (MDF) marines and boat crewmen have completed a one month long training organized under the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) conducted by instructors from the US Navy Seal.
Speaking to journalists after officially closing the training, MDF Chief of Training, Brigadier General George Phiri described the training as important for MDF marines, saying they had acquired special skills to operate on land and water.
“Under the Joint Combined Exchange Training, we have many types of training that we do including redeployment, but this training was special one specifically for the marines,” said Phiri.
“The U.S. operators have trained the MDF Marines on vessel boarding and seizure, infiltration, amphibious operations and urban movement techniques,” said Phiri.
Phiri also expressed gratitude for the support which Malawi gets from the US in areas of training.
“We are always happy that we have cordial relationship with our friends from the US who are always ready to help us in terms of training,” said Phiri.
Brigadier General Phiri further said despite that the country has not been at war, it is important to have such trainings for keeping the forces ready and steady.
“Continuous training helps to keep a credible defence force while making it a deterrence to those that my want to harm us,” said Phiri.
In another interview, Commander of the Maritime Forces, Brigadier General Francis Kakhuta Banda said that training had equipped the Marine Forces with expertise that will enable them to be deployed in any situation requiring such expertise.
Brig. Gen. Banda said combined with the newly acquired warship skills, the marines have the means to be an effective unit.
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the USA Embassy, Marc Trahan described the relation between his country and MDF as robust.
“Our relation with MDF is good, we have a number of areas of cooperation, including the area of training and HIV AIDS programmes,” said Trahan.
“We have been committed for years and will continue to be committed for years to come as we have interest in building the capacity of the Malawi Defense Force,” he added.
At the end of the training, the 45 marines, three of which are female, received certificates for completion of the course.
