In a single month, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has threatened to shut down “any newspaper that publishes lies,” faced backlash for the arrest of a cleric on charges of sedition and blasted international donors for condemning his purchase of a multimillion dollar jet.
Blame.
“If you continue consistently writing such stories with the aim of disorganization, I will close down your newspapers. I am tired. This country is not run by you donors or the newspapers in this country. This country is run by me,” The Nation reported him to have said at an agricultural fair last week in the southern city of Blantyre.
He was responding to another Nation article earlier that week. It had published the findings of a report from the South African Development Committee (SADC) earmarking Malawi as one in the region at risk for famine.
The report matched research done and released in July by USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS), which said an estimated 1.5 million people in Malawi would need food aid due to dry spells and population growth.
According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) 2008 African Media Barometer, in Malawi “almost 80 percent of advertising in print media comes from Government and Government-funded projects.”
Sedition.
The arrested cleric, Reverend Levi Nyondo, was charged with sedition – defined in Malawi’s penal code as any intention to bring “hatred, contempt or excitement of disaffection against the President and government.”
He had been giving a eulogy at Professor Moses Chirambo’s funeral – the minister who died just days after being fired from cabinet – and had suggested stress had been the cause of his death.
In Malawi, the maximum sentence for sedition is five years.
Last week, Uganda’s courts overthrew its sedition laws, deeming them unconstitutional.
Planes.
The United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) also released its annual report, which said the Malawi government’s purchase of a K2 billion (just over $13.6 million CAD) luxury plane would result in its axing the equivalent amount from the country’s Poverty Reduction Budget Support over the next five years.
DFID’s report also says an additional £300,000 ($489,000 CAD) from a total of £800,000 ($1.3 million CAD) in Support to Parliament funds has been suspended, pending investigation into a “concerns of misuse of funds…exposed in a February 2009 audit.”
Deputy Minister in the Office of President and Cabinet Nicolas Dausi told The Daily Times that limitations on how foreign aid is spent too rigid.
“Some of these donor conditionalities are not fair, let them assist us but we should not be subjected to unfair ridicule of our leaders on scapegoat allegations,” he said.
Secretary to the Treasury Joseph Mwanamveka called the allegations that aid money was used “totally untrue.”
“The plane is owned by our army, it’s for security – so we don’t discuss that issue,” he said. “It has never even been discussed in parliament.”
Blantyre-based lawyer Justin Dzonzi says not only was this unconstitutional, but a breach of Malawi’s Public Finance Management Act, which demands accountability and transparency of public money.
