Madonna arrived in Malawi on Monday with the young local boy she is adopting, amid rumours she intended to adopt a second child from an orphanage the impoverished Southern African nation. Wearing dark glasses and a black outfit, Madonna carried Banda, now about 18 months old, as she walked onto the tarmac.
An Australian mining firm said on Thursday it had received a licence to construct a -million project to mine uranium in northern Malawi. The project, hailed as Malawi’s biggest investment to date, had been delayed by an an environmental impact assessment.
The African adage that ”when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers” is currently particularly apt in Malawian politics. The fall-out and subsequent power struggle between the country’s two foremost leaders — President Bingu wa Mutharika and his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi — have detrimentally affected one specific group of people: poverty stricken citizens.
At least nine people were feared dead on Thursday after a private plane hired by the Australian mining firm Paladin Africa crashed in the centre of Malawi. A police spokesperson said that there was no sign of survivors on the plane, which was known to have been carrying eight engineers as well as the pilot.
No image available
/ 28 February 2007
Aids-ravaged Malawi launched a two-day national debate on Wednesday on whether to adopt male circumcision in a bid to reduce the levels of HIV infection in the south-east African country. Around 14% of Malawi’s population of 12-million is infected with HIV, according to official figures.
No image available
/ 22 February 2007
Grace Kafere is tired. She has been on her feet for close to five hours, bending over as she moves up and down in a forest gathering twigs and branches to sell as firewood. The 45-year-old single mother of five lost her job as an administrative assistant three years ago when the firm where she was working was restructured. She has been unable to secure another job since then.
No image available
/ 19 February 2007
Malawi, which has the highest deforestation rate in Southern Africa, has roped in its army to save the trees, environmental officials said on Monday. The Natural Resources Ministry over the weekend inked a deal with the Malawi army for soldiers to be deployed to protect 16 of the country’s prime forest reserves and step up reforestation.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
Malawi’s Vice-President, Cassim Chilumpha, on Thursday refused for a second time to enter a plea to charges of plotting to kill President Bingu wa Mutharika through South African hit men. Lawyers representing Chilumpha told the Malawi High Court that the charge sheet by the state was defective and should not be admitted in court.
Two people have been killed and hundreds more left homeless after flash floods swept through large parts of southern Malawi, local officials said on Monday. Major roads in the districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje were also rendered impassable as a result of incessant rain since the new year, but the full impact of the floods was still unknown as areas had been completely cut off.
Chicken was once considered a delicacy that rarely graced tables in Malawi. Now fish has taken over this position, despite Malawi being famous for its lake — which is the fifth largest in the world by volume and contains an estimated 1 000 fish species. The lake is central to the livelihoods of many Malawians.
No image available
/ 15 December 2006
Southern Africa, the epicentre of the Aids epidemic, on Thursday agreed to look at male circumcision to fight the pandemic in the wake of reports that it could halve the risk of males contracting HIV. The Southern African Development Community said it will develop an HIV-prevention strategy that will be released early next year.
No image available
/ 13 December 2006
Southern African nations on Tuesday mulled ways to rope high-risk groups into the fight against HIV/Aids in the world’s worst-affected region as they started a three-day meeting in Malawi. The meeting will hammer out a ”comprehensive strategy on how to accelerate prevention”, said a Southern African Development Community official.
No image available
/ 29 November 2006
A judge in Malawi on Wednesday allowed a coalition of human rights groups to proceed with a legal challenge to United States pop star Madonna’s adoption of an African baby boy. Judge Andrew Nyirenda ruled that the coalition of 67 rights groups could be regarded as ”friends of the court”.
No image available
/ 13 November 2006
A judge began hearing a closed-door legal challenge on Monday to pop star Madonna’s bid to adopt a baby boy from Malawi. The Human Rights Consultative Committee claims the government broke its own laws by granting an 18-month interim adoption order which has allowed the singer to bring up David Banda outside Malawi.
No image available
/ 7 November 2006
A Malawi opposition politician and popular musician convicted of faking credentials so he could run for Parliament won his appeal on Tuesday, and a high court judge added he was shocked that the singer had received such a harsh sentence. Lucius Banda had been sentenced to 21 months in prison with hard labour.
No image available
/ 30 October 2006
The United Nations’ special envoy for HIV and Aids in Africa accused the world’s wealthiest countries on Sunday of failing to deliver on promises to increase aid to the most impoverished continent. ”Where is the G8 money ? Where is the promise?… The world is running out of patience. Why has the G8 defaulted?” Stephen Lewis told reporters in Malawi.
No image available
/ 27 October 2006
A judge in Malawi adjourned to November 13 a hearing into an application by child rights groups trying to block the adoption of a Malawian boy by pop star Madonna. Yohane Banda, father of one-year-old David, went to the court in Lilongwe, saying his presence was a symbolic protest against the legal moves to halt the adoption.
No image available
/ 26 October 2006
The father of the African baby Madonna wants to mother appealed for an end to legal challenge to her adoption bid, fearing the singer could react by sending the boy back to his impoverished homeland. Speaking on the eve of a hearing in Malawi’s administrative capital, Lilongwe, Yohane Banda said the case should be dropped ”for the sake of my child’s future and health”.
No image available
/ 23 October 2006
The biological father of 13-month-old ”Baby David” said on Sunday that he was misled into agreeing to give up his son to American pop diva Madonna, injecting new controversy and confusion into the adoption saga. Yohane Banda said that authorities had not made it clear to him that he was giving up his only son ”for good”.
No image available
/ 20 October 2006
A judge on Friday postponed a hearing on a lawsuit by human rights groups challenging the government’s decision to allow American pop star Madonna to start adoption procedures for a motherless, 13-month-old Malawian boy. Judge Andrew Nyirenda postponed a hearing on the case until next Friday.
No image available
/ 17 October 2006
A Malawian court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments by a coalition of local rights groups seeking to block ”Queen of Pop” Madonna’s fast-track adoption of a 13-month boy from the poor African country. ”The court wants to hear our locus standi and why we should be appointed guardians of the child,” Justin Dzodzi, chairperson of the Human Rights Consultative Committee, said.
No image available
/ 16 October 2006
Human rights groups want Malawi’s courts to review a ruling allowing Madonna to adopt a child from Malawi, an impoverished, Aids-stricken Southern African country, according to one of dozens of organisations involved. Boniface Mandere of Eye of the Child, a local child protection society, told the media on Monday a coalition had banded together.
No image available
/ 13 October 2006
Pop diva Madonna left Malawi on Friday after receiving official permission to adopt a one-year-old boy from the impoverished Southern African country. Her departure brought to a climax a controversial week-long charity visit during which her aides denied earlier reports by government officials that she planned to adopt a child.
No image available
/ 11 October 2006
Caroline Chileka has had to adapt her lifestyle to look after her four brothers and sisters following their parents’ death from HIV/Aids. The schoolgirl, who comes from the southern Mwanza province, is one of 700Â 000 youngsters in Malawi who have been left orphans by the disease which has ravaged so much of Southern Africa.
Madonna’s mission to help Malawi’s Aids orphans remained shrouded in mystery on Friday with a scheduled meeting between the pop star and a government minister failing to take place. The celebrity made a secretive visit to an orphanage near the capital, while rumours that she was to adopt a child persisted.
Pop diva Madonna arrived in Malawi on Wednesday to adopt an African child and fund an orphan centre for 1 000 children, many of whom lost parents to HIV/Aids. A fleet of cars and trucks whisked the Material Girl and her entourage to an undisclosed location soon after their private plane landed at Lilongwe.
No image available
/ 2 September 2006
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on Friday announced a ,9-billion debt-cancellation deal for Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries where 60% of the population lives on less than per day. ”This is a historic moment and very exciting news,” Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said.
A Malawian opposition lawmaker who is also one of the country’s most popular singers was on Thursday sentenced to 21 months of hard labour for faking his educational qualifications. Chief resident magistrate Luke Mabowoza Gama told a packed courtroom that he found 35-year-old Lucius Banda guilty of forgery and lying.
Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday demanded the resignation of a top prosecutor for withdrawing corruption charges against the nation’s former president. Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi last week unconditionally dropped all 42 counts of corruption, fraud and abuse of office filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against former president Bakili Muluzi.
The village headman of Mphandula, Malawi, has never heard of Madonna, the pop star. But he knows Madonna the philanthropist. Madonna has announced plans to raise at least -million for programmes to support the nearly one million children in Malawi who have lost parents to Aids.
A Malawian court on Wednesday gave a two-year jail sentence to a principal secretary earlier suspended for corruption, making him the most senior bureaucrat to be netted in a sweeping anti-graft drive. High court Judge Richard Chinangwa found Sam Safuli guilty of ”aiding and abetting the theft of public funds”.
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has suspended the head of the national graft-fighting agency just hours after the Southern African nation’s previous president was charged with stealing aid money. Wa Mutharika suspended Gustave Kaliwo, the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau on ”disciplinary grounds”, a brief statement by the president’s office said.