Paper says Muluzi has pledged to fund Nujoma’s trial
by NATION REPORTER (11/3/2007)

A publication by Namibia’s ruling party says former president Bakili Muluzi pledged to bankroll Sam Nujoma’s trial to the tune of over K1 million (R50,000) but Sam Mpasu, spokesperson for Muluzi, said he was not aware of the pledge.
Namibia Today, an official publication of the South West Africa Peoples Organisation (Swapo) which is chaired by Nujoma, said in its issues of August 24, and 30 that Muluzi and his senior special advisor (name withheld), pledged to pay R100,000 (K2,100,000) in legal fees to help fight a case in which a human rights NGO, Nation Society for Human Rights (NSHR), reportedly dragged Nujoma to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on crimes related to the missing of political activists.
The paper claimed that Muluzi pledged to contribute R50,000 in legal fees and the other half would come from his senior special advisor
When contacted to shed light on the issue, Mpasu said: “What we know is that Nujoma and Muluzi were in good terms when both of them were presidents and their relationship is still there. In fact, UDF and Swapo are sister parties, they invite us when they have their conventions. We also invite them when we hold ours. We learn from each other.”
Mpasu said he knows the person mentioned in Namibia Today as Muluzi’s senior special advisor as an Asian-Malawian currently based in the United Kingdom but added that it would be difficult to comment on the alleged pledge because he only heard from the media that a human rights organisation plans to take Nujoma to the ICC.
We were unable to speak to the senior special advisor.
But reads the story: “Former Malawian president Dr. Bakili Muluzi and his Senior Special Advisor...have jointly pledged to pay R100,000 towards legal fees to fight a submission by the Nation Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) where it wants founding president Sam Nujoma and three other Namibian leaders to be tried for people who went missing under the care of Swapo during the struggle and shortly after independence.”
The paper quotes Muluzi’s senior special advisor as having stated that Muluzi was disappointed with Phil Ya Nangoloh’s conduct, the executive director of NSHR.
“In the most unlikely event that the neo imperialists and eurocentrics succeed in getting the International Criminal Court to take up the matter, I have been asked to inform you that Dr. Muluzi will donate R50,000 towards legal fees, and I shall donate an additional R50,000,” Nambia Today quotes Muluzi’s senior special advisor as saying.
In an email response from Windhoek on the matter on Tuesday, Nangoloh said that they are worried with Muluzi’s gesture as reported in Swapo’s official publication in Namibia.
Said Nangoloh: “We deem Mr. Bakili Muluzi’s gesture in a very serious light. Firstly, it is not appropriate nor is it honourable for him to put his nose into Namibia’s domestic affairs however the close friendship between him and Nujoma.”
Nangoloh said it is surprising that Muluzi made such a pledge when there is a lot of suffering in Malawi, even among members of his own political party.
“Mr. Nujoma himself has not contributed a cent to his own defence. We believe that Muluzi and Nujoma have secretly planned to return to power during the next elections in both countries, and this, we suspect, was the main reason Muluzi paid a mysterious visit to Namibia in March this year and he was Nujoma’s guest of honour,” The email response reads in part.
NSHR, a well known human rights organisation in Namibia, last year in November submitted a report to ICC implicating Nujoma, former defence minister Errki Nghimtina, former chief of the defence forces, retired Lt. General Salomon Hawala and Colonel Thomas Shunya to be tried on the role they played in the missing of political activists during the country’s independence struggle and immediately after independence.
NSHR on its official website details in 15 sections their report to the ICC on the missing people and Nujoma’s alleged role.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) Executive Director Undule Mwakasungura on Wednesday said he was aware of the issue, having been briefed by Namibian human rights organisations.
“We are trying to see how we can come up with a campaign against Muluzi’s intentions. There is no way Muluzi should be supporting a person who is being accused of various human rights violations,” Mwakasungura said.
According to Mwakasungura, Muluzi and Nujoma are birds of the same feather as both of them want to bounce back to power.
Mwakasungura urged Muluzi against supporting Nujoma financially for a trial on human rights violations even if they share the same ambitions, saying doing so would be morally wrong.
ICC is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC is based on a treaty signed by 105 countries in the world.
The ICC is a court of last resort and does not act if a case is investigated or prosecuted by a national judicial system unless the national proceedings are not genuine.

Malawi cuts bank rate to 15 pct as inflation eases

Thu 1 Nov 2007, 13:37 GMT

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By Mabvuto Banda

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's central bank cut its bank rate to 15 percent from 17.5 percent on Thursday in response to sliding inflation.

"The monetary policy committee observed with satisfaction that all macroeconomic indicators continue to perform well, and the reduction in the bank rate was necessary to sustain growth," central bank spokeswoman Miriam Wemba said.

The cut follows a reduction from 20 percent in August, and comes in the wake of good maize harvests over the past two years that have helped drive down food inflation.

Headline inflation in the southern African nation eased to single digits for the first time in four years in January and has continued to slow, reaching 7.1 percent year-on-year in September.

Malawi's economy is growing rapidly, buoyed by the agricultural sector.

The International Monetary Fund last month upped its forecast for growth in 2007 to 7.5 percent from 5.6 percent.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said he expected more rate cuts with inflation set to continue easing.

"With the latest inflation for September now at 7.1 percent, revised strong growth of 7.5 percent for this year, I mean the bank rates had to be reduced," he told Reuters.

"We expect further cuts if we continue at this pace."

Analysts welcomed the move.

"It's a timely move and I think it will greatly help in accelerating the pace of lending by the financial system," said Andy Kuigomba, Head of Treasury at Nedbank, one of the leading banks in the country.

Malawi ex-minister charged over 14-year-old corruption allegation

1 day ago

BLANTYRE (AFP) — A former Malawian minister who was also a top aide to retired President Bakili Muluzi has finally been charged with three counts of abuse of office dating back 14 years, court officials said Friday.

Former education minister Sam Mpasu had a case to answer and should "defend himself" on November 27 said a spokesman for the magistrates' court in the capital Lilongwe.

He is accused of having flouted government procedures in procuring millions of notebooks and pencils from a British firm.

Mpasu, who survived initial corruption probes on the same matter, is suspected of having received kickbacks in return for awarding the tender to the company.

The materials were meant for a free primary school programme introduced in 1994 by the Muluzi administration.

A former speaker of parliament, Mpasu has always denied any wrong-doing.

He says he used his powers as minister to fast-track the procurement of the notebooks and teaching aids to coincide with the introduction of free primary school education.

The public prosecutions office in the poor southern African nation has said about 92 million dollars (64 million euros) was lost through fraud and corruption from 1994 to 2004, when Muluzi was in power.

How rich Africa could beat poverty

Photo by: Frederick Onyango An elderly woman and a young girl wait for relief food in Marsabit district in Kenya. African resources do not create new wealth in Africa because they are not processed on the continent, but are shipped to the industrialised countries in raw form. October 26, 2007: Africa is not a poor continent. Rather it is the people who are. The continent has the largest world deposits of diamonds, gold, coal, copper and manganese. It has large deposits of minerals, huge reserves of crude oil and natural gas and vast forests, fisheries and land for agriculture and cattle ranching. Africans rank among the poorest in the world in the midst of plenty for three main reasons. First, since the early days of colonialism, there has been incessant plunder and exploitation of Africa’s resources by the developed world to the detriment of economic development in Africa. Second, there is deliberate marginalisation of Africa in global financing, foreign direct investment and access to science and technological innovation that could have created new wealth for Africa. In other words, African resources do not create new wealth or employment in Africa because they are not processed on the continent but are shipped to the industrialised countries in raw form. And finally, most African governments have, so far, not taken concrete action to ensure that we change globalisation system in our favour. We have not developed home grown strategies to deal with our specific situations. In most cases, we have depended on “surrogate economists” to advise us and ended up with wrong diagnoses, wrong prescriptions and hence wrong results. Africa must agree on economic strategies and technological innovations that are tailored to respond to the challenges of poverty alleviation and help to bridge the “technology divide” between industrialised and developing nations. These measures must prevent the existence of extreme poverty amidst abundant wealth; hunger and malnutrition amidst food surpluses; diseases and death amidst breakthroughs in medical and health sciences; and ignorance amidst phenomenal advancements in information and communications technology. Malawi is responding to the challenge of poverty through a variety of measures including implementing its home grown strategies and taking full ownership of its economy and destiny. During the past three years, Malawi has beaten all odds and introduced its own “Green Revolution”. It has implemented a successful agricultural subsidy programme that enabled the country to move from chronic food shortages, famine and malnutrition, to huge food surpluses. As a result, Malawi has independently been rated among the 12 best managed countries in Africa. The country has also moved from rampant corruption to a well-managed economy with a high rate of economic growth; and it has empowered the poor urban and rural communities through affordable loans and public works programmes. Malawi is meeting the challenge of poverty eradication through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) that aims to provide a new window of opportunity for the Government, the private sector and the donor community, to combine forces towards achieving sustainable economic growth and to alleviate poverty. The Government has also decided to have a holistic policy framework that combines the management of consumption and public expenditure with a sound structure of production, manufacturing and income generation. This not only takes care of the supply side of the economy through application of new technologies, but also changes the colonial economic framework under which we “produced what we did not consume and consumed what we did not produce”. The Government has decided that to effectively reduce poverty, the Malawi economy must grow at a minimum annual rate of six per cent. To achieve this, the MGDS has six key “priorities within priorities” that we know can pull the country out of the “poverty trap”. The index has (1) agriculture and food security; (2) irrigation and water development; (3) transport and communications infrastructure; (4) energy and power development; (5) integrated rural development; and (6) management and prevention of HIV/Aids pandemic. We have also placed high priority on public health and education, especially science and technology. We have given priority to investment in physical and social infrastructures such as roads, energy, telephone and communication networks, public health, education...to increase industrial production, manufacturing and trade. As an integral part of this strategy, we have in place the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) that aims to create a favourable and enabling environment for local enterprises to invest and create new wealth for FDI to flow into Malawi. The new strategy has resulted in the growth of the Malawi economy from a mere two per cent in 2004 to a phenomenal 8.5 per cent in 2006. To break the “vicious cycle of poverty,” Malawi will not take a posture of “business as usual” but has set up clear “performance criteria” in the national budget to evaluate its actions. To enhance the performance of our economy, Malawi decided to shift from preparing “expenditure budgets”, to preparing “growth budgets” to provide the nation with a new economic vision, a sound policy for resources mobilisation, and the best practices in science and technology. This will help transform Malawi from a predominantly importing and consuming economy to a manufacturing and exporting one. Nonetheless, the industrial nations must agree to change their mindset. In this regard, let me draw your attention to the remarks made by the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who in his report to the House of Commons on the Group of Eight Summit said “the wealthy nations of the world simply cannot any longer ask the developing world to stand on its own feet but shut out the very access to our markets necessary for them to do so”. The world is one and Africa is part of it. Industrialised nations must work to enable African countries to participate effectively in global negotiations to benefit from technology, global finance, international trade and prosperity. The continued ruthless plunder and exploitation of Africa’s minerals is no longer a viable option for a new world order. Equity, justice and fairness must be adhered to in all negotiations involving the rich and poor nations. The more Africa can acquire technology for industrialisation and agro-processing, the more the continent will contribute positively to global prosperity. An economically and politically stronger Africa is a better trading partner for the industrialised countries than a weaker one. Wa Mutharika is President of the Republic of Malawi

Not for our Muluzi to learn from

BY Steven Nhlane10:04:46 - 24 October 2007

This column has never been mean when it comes to giving praise where it is due. Among those who can bear testimony to this include Kalonga Gawa Undi on the recent Kulamba ceremony in Zambia and the elevations of Chikulamayembe and Kyungu chieftaincies to the status of Paramount Chief as well as Kaluluma to Senior Chief. But former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano's achievement for winning the Africa Leadership Prize does not draw any comparisons. The prize goes with a whopping U$5million (K700million) to be given out over a period of 10 years. There are other prizes. These include U$200,000 (K28million) annually for life, thereafter, and U$200,000 (K28million) a year for 10 years towards public interest activities and good causes.Chissano has beaten the likes of South Africa's Nelson Mandela, Botswana's Ketumile Masire, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Tanzania's Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, and of course, our own Bakili Muluzi. Chissano, we are told, won the prize for his achievements in bringing peace, reconciliation, stable democracy and economic progress to his country as well as for not seeking a third term which the constitution allowed.It is very tempting for many Malawians to remind our own former president, Bakili Muluzi, that what Chissano has achieved, he too could have achieved, in fact with much ease, considering that Malawi was much better off in many ways than Mozambique in 1994 when our Muluzi became president of this country. The main difference is that when Chissano took over the reins of power, he focused his fight on poverty brought about by the ravages of a 16-year-war, and the need to bring about democracy in his country. On the other hand, when our Muluzi wrested power from Kamuzu, he expended most of his energies on fighting political enemies rather than poverty. The other difference between the two former presidents is that when Chissano saw that he had done enough for his country, he voluntarily stepped down so that others waiting in the wings, could continue to build on the strong foundation he had laid down; a virtue that continues to elude our Muluzi to this day. And so we can say without fear of contradiction that as things are now, our Muluzi is far past the learning process, because he will not want to contradict himself now by bowing out of the presidential race after already declaring himself a candidate.By his own declaration---if what a BBC website report is anything to go by, he does not want to be an ex-president, meaning that should he be allowed to contest and then win the presidency, he will want to rule this country for life. It does not occur to him that there are over 14 million Malawians, many of whom are better qualified to rule this country than him. True, Chissano is a role-model not just for Africa but for the rest of the world, but his achievements are not for our Muluzi to learn from.