Fare thee well Muluzi

So Bakili Muluzi has finally decided to throw in the towel. This can only be a positive decision and I wish him well in his retirement days. He deserves the rest.

The task is now for UDF to rise from the ashes and become a force to be reckoned with as it was in days gone past. The party will obviously miss it's charismatic leader and his deep pockets but at the same time could capitalise on the infighting in the MCP and the downward spiral in popularity of the DPP. It all depends on Friday Jumbe and his team strategise.

There are issues that could dog Jumbe's job and include uncompleted corruption cases against him. All we can do wait and watch.

Sometimes it pays to complain

I few months ago I had complained about service at an MTL shop in city centre. Last week I forwarded this complaint to a colleague who works at MTL who escalated it to the relevant authorities. Yesterday I happened to find myself in this shop, not out of choice but rather because I could not burn Malawi’s scarcest commodity, fuel, going to another shop. But at the end of it all I was glad.

The customer service staff were a lot more responsive and explained certain processes I have always found unnecessary. He lady in the shop went out of her way (or maybe it was just her job) to make sure I was served quickly because there was an MTL dealer ahead of the queue and they normally take time to transact before the next person is served. In short it was a great customer experience. I guess it is always great when feedback is welcome and acted upon.

Are we learning from the happenings around us?

There is no doubt in my mind that there are a series of mini crisis’s happening around us, maybe none too serious to bring us to our knees. We have water shortages in Blantyre, power and fuel shortages country wide and a general lack of foreign exchange. Left unchecked these can have debilitating effects on our economic growth. Various players have promised to resolve or ease the current pressures but when? The question I keep asking myself is will Malawians will come out of all these events any smarter?

Water
There is no doubt that water is a bare necessity of life. Blantyre Water Board has been accused by many of incompetence and I tend to agree. But how can Malawians get out of this problem? Unfortunately there are not many options. Drilling boreholes and wells in urban settings is not advisable taking into the account sewerage tanks and soak aways that tend to contaminate underground water. However Malawians could learn not to contaminate natural water sources like rivers and streams and use water collected from these sources for some household chores. We have literally choked out waterways with plastics, industrial waste and silt from cultivation. The environment is being put under to much pressure it is doubtful it will ever recover.

Power
Yesterday Barack Obama was speaking in Shanghai, China on the need for Shanghai and Chicago, sisters city’s, to collaborate in building energy efficient buildings – buildings that requires less energy to heat and cool, building that provide more natural light and buildings that are built using environmentally friendly materials and technologies. How efficient are our buildings, both residential and commercial? Do we make enough use of the free solar and wind resources we have? Are we not digging ourselves deeper into a pit by not harnessing these natural and renewable sources of energy that are around us in abundance?

Fuel
Most people love to drive but there have to be limits. We can no longer afford to have a few families living in the same area each driving their child to the same school. We can no longer have neighbours, most probably working in the same office block or vicinity, each driving their gas guzzlers to work. The same applies to inter-city travel. We are simply burning too much fuel, fuel we don’t have. Fuel we have to use forex to purchase. Fuel that takes days to transport. Fuel that we have very limited storage space for.

Forex
Best Buy Malawi is an initiative that started when I was a young boy, it died, resurrected, went into hibernation and seems to be trying to make a comeback albeit not a very strong one. The initiative is great but if it lacks general political backing and widespread public support, it will amount to nothing but rhetoric. While I don’t hold Marxist views I believe that protectionist policies help in times like these. They help save forex and they help boost local industry. Such policies should get people thinking. They should get banks to refocus from generating revenue on forex commissions to making interest on money they lend to locals to produce. Protectionist policies should get people’s creative juices flowing, remind people how important it is to recycle and be efficient.

But will we come out of all this thinking along or at least some where along these lines? I am yet to see!

Charges Multichoice can't seem to explain

The other day I went to Multichoice to make a payment of K1700. I had written the cheque beforehand and upon reaching the till the conversation went as follows
Teller: The amount today is K1722
Me: Can I pay the K22 in cash?
Teller: Then you will have to pay K522
Me: On top of the K1700?
Teller: Yes
Me: Why?
Teller: Well you have to ask over there (pointing to the customer service attendants)
Me: So if I pay the whole amount in cash what will I pay?
Teller: K1722
Me: So where is this extra K500 coming from?
Teller: Ah, well you will have to ask over there
Me: I am just surprised where this K500 is coming from!
Teller: ……………. i.e. silence

When I asked the Multichoice guy (the tills are contracted out to First Merchant Bank) he was understandably disappointed that the teller failed to explain himself. In his explanation he implied that FMB collects commissions on every transaction and that on the K1700 bouquet their commission is relatively low. It was a vague explanation but I assumed my K1700 cheque and K22 cash would have been treated as two separate transactions both attracting a commission. The K500 was to cover the commission for the cash.

It’s just interesting and quite sad at the same time that I was expected to pay so heavily, a third of the bill, for wanting to top up with cash. What is even sadder is the fact that no one was willing or able or both to explain where these charges were coming from.

Power all day, party all night!

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has finally succumbed to public and consumer rights pressure and changed it’s slogan from Power All Day, Every Day to Towards Power All Day, Every Day. A rarity in Malawian corporate history? Can’t really tell being in a society that rarely takes service providers to task for poor service.

So what does this change mean? To me it practically means nothing. Escom board chair Davies Katsonga said, and we have heard it all before, that once Kapichira and Tedzani II power plants are up an extra 40 megawatts (or there about) of power will be added to the power grid and reduce, if not eliminate, power shortages. I however take issue with that assertion. Currently there are many households in the country without power and not for dislike of that source of energy. It is because Escom simply just can’t supply! I tend to believe that the extra 40 megawatts may go someway in addressing current usage problems but does not take into account the currently unconnected and those still constructing.

I have argued before on this blog (New Year, same old power problems) that Malawians need to look to other sources of power like solar, bio-gas and possibly wind. Others have argued for nuclear power. My suggestion may be crazy since they are not backed up by any research whatsoever but imagine if all factories in the country used part of their huge roofing surface areas to install solar panels for lighting purposes within their facilities and fed the excess to neighbours? Imagine if every new household was encouraged to install solar water heaters that would have been either subsidized or been untaxed by government? How about if commercial structures used either natural air conditioning methods or some other natural cooling methods? For the amount of investment being put into factories and commercial structures, a solar investment is not too much to ask for and neither should a subsidized geyser for a residential property. If everyone made small changes like these, we could improve the current situation.

The other issue that seems to dog Escom is it 2008 K80 million end of year party. For arguments sake let us say that the corporation has 5,000 employees. This would translate that a whooping K16,000 was spent per head for this party. Now unless each employee was treated to a dish of caviar and a bottle of the finest French bubbly, the figure just does not add up. I have always had my doubts that all that money was spent on Christmas crackers. Don’t ask me what my suspicions are as am not about to reveal them.

So this year Escom has indicated that it will go ahead and organize yet another end of year party, much to the outrage of certain sections of the public. I personally feel every institution needs a little celebration and staff networking and parties are one of the best ways to achieve this. After all all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! Let them celebrate but this time with locally produced sea food and beverages – as tax payers we won’t accept another outrageously expensive gig!

Gomani's last dance

Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani IV is dead. It was only two days ago that we danced Ngoma together in Bawi.

Retired Colonel Alex Kanjedza Gomani became the new Ngoni paramount chief in mid 2008 to replace his father the late Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani III who died in 2006.

Rest in peace.

Ngoni Festival or Ngoma

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Ngoma in Bawi. It's a traditional Ngoni Festival held once every two years and features traditional ngoni dances from Ntcheu, Dedza, Mzimba and Mozambique to mention a few. The function is organised by the Katola family.

The guest of honour was Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani IV, Paramount Chief of Ntcheu Maseko Ngoni's. Also present were Traditional Authority Kwataine, Traditional Authority Makwangwala, First Deputy Speaker Jones Chingola, Peoples Progressive Movement president Mark Katsonga Phiri and RBM deputy governor Mary Nkosi just to mention a few. A few pictures from the event below. A video to follow soon.

Kanengo lost the plot

He has lived up to his word. President Mutharika has expelled, in his words, four colonialists for working against him and his governments development agenda. Bosses at Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company, Alliance One Limited and Premium TAMA Tobacco have been sent packing for consistently offering lower than agreed prices for tobacco. Opinion is divided on whether deportation was the best approach to follow.

It is a known fact that in recent years buyers have offered less than satisfactory prices for leaf and this year it has been made worse by the fact that buyers are rejecting good quality leaf opting to scramble for the poorer quality. Why they are doing this remains a mystery. It is also alleged that tobacco firms buy leaf at rock bottom prices, sell it at a high profit and at the end of it all they get hefty salaries and big bonuses. In one persons words, they live in opulence at the expense of the poor farmer. Recently there have been allegations that Limbe Leaf provided the Malawi Congress Party with millions of kwachas in donations to run it’s 2009 elections campaign with the sole aim of getting Mutharika out of the way, their sworn enemy. Limbe Leaf denied it. There have also been other allegations, true and imaginary, including illegal externalisation of funds.

President Mutharika had repeatedly warned the buyers he would take stern action, a warning that probably fell on deaf ears in recent times. But the whip has been cracked and four families had 24 hours to pack up and go. ‘They were warned’ was phrase on the proponents lips.

But are the expulsions all it will take for farmers to get better prices at the floors? Yesterday it was reported that there were better prices on offer although farmers said the prices were only slightly better, zasinthako pang’ono, while the news anchor said the prices have changed drastically. Which ever was the case government can say they have been vindicated. But people tend to react out of fear. Next week we could very well see prices dropping yet again and it’s not like it has not happened before.

Government needs to stamp it’s authority on the situation but without causing fear or panic. There has to be a proactive master plan to get favourable prices for our leaf without using what some have termed as heavy handed tactics. It is only hoped that these deportations were an unfortunate and unavoidable first step of that plan. The last thing investors need, foreign or local, is an environment of uncertainty, one where families are given 24 hours to go. After all government is no scarecrow that sends people scampering for cover, tail between legs, each time it says ‘boo’!

Time to reclaim my bookshelf

As a young boy I was good with mathematics and my twin was good with English. My mother encouraged me to impart some of my number skills to my sister but since practically it is difficult to impart English skills from one to another, I was encouraged to read novels much to my disliking. If I obliged and read as much as my mother had wanted me too I would have no time for magalimoto amwaya (wire cars) and the almost daily treks up Nyambadwe hill. So each time I was told to read a novel and tell my mother the story after a few days, I would turn to my twin (who would have read it before), ask her what the story is about and tell my mother. I would then do my sister a few favours and everything would be cool. Well this was until mommy discovered our little evil scheme!

Today I take great joy in reading if and when work does not get in the way. And I am about to engross myself into novels even more with the discovery of Grey Matter, a relatively cheap and well stocked bookshop in town. They have a great collection of novels, professional books and children’s literature. I went in today and got myself a copy of Richard Branson’s Screw It, Lets Do It. And there were many other titles from Stephen King, Jeffery Archer and other well known and upcoming African writers. A good collection of autobiographies of Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Jack Welch, etc. And all at unbelievable bargains.

My immediate worry is where I will keep this new anticipated collection. I ‘loaned’ a bookshelf to my young boys to put their books, toys and other junk. I even painted it bright red! Time to get some paint stripper, a brush and some white gloss and paint it. I need to reclaim that bookshelf of mine.

The (mini)case for more city roads and better public transport

The other evening I was meeting up with a mate for a business discussion at Chameleon bar across town. I set off from Area 47 at 6:25pm for the 6:30pm meeting. I expected to make it on time or at least a minute late. I ended up arriving 10 minutes late and all because I had underestimated the amount of traffic I would encounter on the way. The roads were clogged as if it were still 5pm rush hour.

Yesterday at lunch I found myself making a trip from City Centre to Old Town. By the time I reached my destination my feet were sore from the fifteen minutes of constant braking and accelerating.

We have too many cars on our roads and it’s affecting the environment and our health. I have the pleasure of working from home so don’t share the pain of those who have to make daily commutes to work. There is need for our city fathers to work on getting cars off the roads or making the road infrastructure better.

Provision of more dual lanes and increased parking lots is one way of dealing with it. Some of the illegal parking that takes place actually causes traffic jams. Property developers should also be forced into providing bigger parking areas than is currently the case. An example is the Blantyre City Assembly’s move to clamp cars that park ‘illegally’ but not providing enough public parking facilities. One tends to wonder where all the money from parking tickets and fines goes to.

Alternatively the newly introduced dual lanes should have a lane dedicated to high occupancy vehicles, buses and cyclists. The rest can use the other lane. This will encourage car pooling and also allow people to use buses other than their cars. It requires lots of civic education but it is very feasible. Cities like Johannesburg and Copenhagen have dedicated lanes for buses and cyclists and they work. It won’t happen overnight but it will work if everyone works together to make it happen.

If we don’t deal with this problem sooner rather than later it we will be heading for a gridlock!

When ‘Email marketing’ goes horribly wrong

It all started one quiet Friday morning when I received what was supposed to be a promotional email from a hotel in Chirimba. The sender, who never signed off, sent an email titled “Dorvic Hotel (Blantyre - Malawi)” and the body was simply written “PLEASE FIND THE ATTACHED DOCUMENTS. Regards”. Attached were three power point files and a word document. I found this approach rather amateurish but thought that someone somewhere will buy it. But what I saw next sent alarm bells ringing. The sender had sent this email to some 500 people or so and placed all the addresses in the TO: section for all to see. It was a recipe for disaster!

While I was still thinking why the sender had decided to send off an email in that way an email acknowledging receipt came in. Within a few minutes another acknowledgment came in. Then two other people responded at almost the same time asking people to send their acknowledgments to the sender and not to everybody. Then all hell broke loose. People started to second the idea that people should not respond to all. One of the first people to acknowledge receipt then sent out his ‘social message’ to the whole list. Then someone else sent out a party invitation. People shouted out loud to be removed from the list. Others continued to urge people not to respond to all. The emails went on and on and on and they came from far and wide. A gentleman south of the Limpopo wondered why he had to be abused for simply providing his email address when he patronized the hotel some time back.

Some semblance of normality seems to have set in but not without our hotel getting a bloody noise. An official apology from the hotel was sent out days later assuring email recipients that the whole episode was an error that had now been fixed and would never happen again. They then went on to extend a 10% discount to all email recipients for services at the hotel till 31st December 2009.

This apology no doubt was an attempt at crisis management but the damage had already been done and it was third parties that did the brand the most damage. The hotel provided the fuel for the flame that two people lit and burnt a pretty young and potential brand. The confidence that so many people had put in this institution by providing their email addresses on the assurance that their privacy would be guaranteed was lost at the press of the Send button.

This is one of many bitter lessons that organisations that choose cheap over professional, shortcut over doing it the right way have to deal with time and again. We can only hope that they will lead to better practices in the future!

My hour in one MTL shop

I told myself I would never go into that shop again. I swore that shop had a curse. But I did and boy oh boy did I regret it. MTL city centre shop is that kind of shop you almost always leave angry for one reason or another.

Well yesterday I happened to be in the area and thought I would buy a LibertyNet internet voucher from there. I noticed they had moved into another building so thought new premises should translate to a new customer experience. I was dead wrong!

I walked into the shop just after 3pm, found three people on the queue and the shop had five employees that I could see. A sixth one walked in about 15 minutes later.

Employee 1. She was handling customer service. She gave me a form you have to fill with your name and address to purchase a voucher (and to date I wonder why). The only other person she assisted was a mzungu gentleman who came in the inquire about broadband internet which she rightly said they don’t offer.
Employee 2. Also handling customer service. Assisted one mzungu lady who had come in to inquire why her application for a phone line in August 2008 had not been attended to. He quickly fished out her application from a folder, referred her to a back office and sat down to browse the net. At one point he sent a document to the printer and quickly dashed over to retrieve his documents. I noticed that the printout had pictures of plenty women. When he returned to his computer he maximized a screen and what did I see? A pink coloured screen with plenty pictures of ladies. Now am not jumping to any conclusions here but my creative mind tells me something not work related was going on. I don’t come across many business related websites with pink backgrounds and pictures of women! He obviously had no idea that I could see part of his screen.
Employee 3. Not sure what work he does, if any, because he was sitting slouched and motionless in his chair the whole time I was in the shop. The only thing I could see moving were his eye lids, consolation he had not died in his chair! He is obviously an extra piece of ‘furniture’ worth disposing of!
Employee 4. A cashier who only assisted one gentleman and referred us all to her colleague.
Employee 5. The cashier who eventually assisted us.
Employee 6. A gentleman who walked into the shop at around 3:15pm. He came in a jovial mood and immediately sat down to make a call. He then received a cheque from a customer so this customer could go off do other things. After that he made another phone call. I then asked him if he there is any other way we could be assisted being that I and a colleague had been on the shop for over 30 minutes and still had not been assisted. He said the ‘system takes a long time to print receipts hence the delay’. (Boy, some people just specialize in giving the most feeble excuses on earth!). Then after this he escorted a friend out of the shop and never came back.

I was finally assisted at 4:03pm!! I spent a whole hour in a shop where it seemed only one person was working a lot harder than the others. This shop and it's staff never cease to amaze me!

Can’t wait for 2010

Last week the majority of South African Union of Mine workers downed their tools and these included some construction workers upgrading or building new stadiums for the 2010 world cup. The western media jumped on the story and predicted gloom and doom for the soccer festival. It is not the first time though that the games have been given such negative publicity. After the xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg, Cape Town and other areas of South Africa, a few friends and colleagues of mine were not amused and neither was I. There was a strong consensus that the games should be moved with others suggesting that Germany should host them again. The media had a field day. FIFA president Sepp Blatter came out in South Africa's defense to say the games are in Africa to stay.

Recently a contributor in a UK newspaper wrote of his apprehension of attending the games in South Africa saying the country has the world’s highest crime rate and that this had forced Group4Securicor to turn down a contract to provide security services at the games. He went on to describe how the FIFA Confederations Cup had exposed security and transportation issues and how these flaws will negatively impact on the main fiesta next year. He talked of South Africa not having enough dual lane highways, lack of street lights and of advice given the foreigners not to use public transport especially at night. He even talked of a brutal death of a European journalist covering the confederations cup although later on the circumstances of the death were corrected to state he was killed in a traffic accident. This accident was however used to justify his argument that South African roads are unsafe. He suggested the games be moved to Egypt because it is safer than South Africa despite having chaotic transport and choking pollution in the capital Cairo.

I have been to South Africa on a number of occasions over the years. I have driven on the streets of Pretoria, walked the streets of Bloemfontein, Sandton (at night) & Blairgowrie and have had a few beers in the bars of Soweto, Randburg and Pretoria. I may have been extremely lucky I didn’t kill my family in a car crash or was not mugged walking down the street at 8pm or was not harassed by a tsotsie in one of the night clubs. Or ‘my friend’ is just being a pessimist, suggesting that once you step out of that plane at OR Tambo Airport, you are at the mercy of the locals.

I intend to visit South Africa again next year to be part of the world cup. I had initially wanted to watch the few games I could on big screen from pubs or parks in Soweto, Mamelodi or Thembisa. The reason was simple – all games in Johannesburg and Pretoria have been sold out and now people have started selling their tickets in the UK for as much as £150! However my close friend I intend to travel with to SA has managed to convince me that I should buy a ticket even if it is for some game involving king makers. And here is why. We might never have a chance ever again to watch a world cup match live. So I will be scouring eBay, and if the worst comes to the worst, the queues outside the stadiums to get myself a ticket at a premium.

Now that union members have agreed terms and construction workers have gone back to work, all I can tell them is get the job done and do it well. Like MTN, the majority of South Africans and millions of soccer fans, I CAN’T WAIT FOR 2010!

Just write, don't type! After all who cares?

My mother loves a good movie and like me has no qualms watching a really scary horror or a flick that’s infested with pythons, crocs and komodo dragons. But unlike me, she has little time for TV or so I thought. So last year I got her the entry level package from DStv so maybe she gets a little more news from Al Jazeera than the dose she got from BBC radio.

Earlier this year she enquired about National Geographic channel and I promised to upgrade her package for her although I kept putting it off. In the past two weeks I saw an article in the press that DStv had introduced the Access package that had a good number of extra channels, including NatGeo Wild, for around $10 a month. I decided it was the time to make that upgrade. So I walked into Multichoice offices in Lilongwe lat week to upgrade her service. I was told I would need to pay for the new package although there were still five months to run on the other package she already has. The customer service office tried to explain why I could not upgrade but it didn’t make sense. Since I wanted to give my mama the NatGeo Wild she wanted I didn’t see the point in arguing. I was then given a list of the channels that come with Access. The list was written by hand on a plain A4 paper and had been photocopied! The handwriting was not necessarily the best (at least it was better than mine) and channel numbers were not indicated (the numbers you can see on the picture were written by me). This was so unprofessional!

The next day I went in to make the payment. I asked the cashier (whom I believe is a First Merchant Bank employee) how much I should write on the cheque. He quickly turned to his colleague and asked “kodi cheque chitheka?” (will paying by cheque work?). They discussed and then me mulled over it for such a long time I could sense Christmas was fast approaching. As I was about to pose my question again he shouted “K1,700!”. I can't recall the last time a dollar fetched K170 but I wrote the cheque anyway and he produced a hand written receipt! Had he not stamped the receipt I would not have accepted it.

At the end of the day I concluded that someone at Multichoice either rushed to the press to announce this new product or someone had not communicated internally in good time to get brochures ready and inform the cashier to setup that product in his system. Or they simply do not care anymore after all there is no competition! A typed list of channels on headed paper would have at least been nice. The confusion about cheque payments was also unnecessary. It all left a really bad taste in my mouth … the kind when you eat a rotten roasted peanut! Multichoice can do better, much better actually!

African Time

The other weekend my wife and I were running mad. We had a formal function to attend at 18:30 but at 18:00 we were on the other side of town in casual gear. We made a mad rush home to find a blackout. We quickly dressed in the dark and made it to the function at 18:50 only to find the function had not started yet. We asked an organizer who said that he hall was half full and that they were waiting for some more people to come so the proceedings could start. I felt bad that I had contributed to this delay but was a bit more pissed off with those who had not arrived yet.

A week earlier I attended the commissioning of a new printer at a local print shop. The function started an hour late because there were only five of us at 5pm, the time the function was meant to start. By 6pm there were in excess of fifty people.

Today my wife was attending a lunch scheduled to start at noon. At 12:15 there only a handful of people and table cloths were still being laid out and cutlery was nowhere to be seen. The function only started after 1pm!

The list of functions that start late because either people or guests of honor arrive late is endless and I have attended many. Sadly the organizers of such events let the culprits off the hook too many times saying ‘after all this Africa, we follow African time’ or some other flimsy excuse like that. African Time is an attitude of the past and should be buried in a very deep grave like all similar attitudes and things of the past (Off Topic: Actually we should consider burying JZU Tembo in the grave too!). It’s time we learnt to kept time. If we can’t for one reason or another, we should accept the consequences other than punish my wife who went to lunch on a very empty tummy or me who had to wait for over an hour before I could wet my throat with a very cold beer at the printer launch!

This alien language

I never cease to be amazed by quality of English you sometimes find in the local press. Over the years I have seen crush being used instead of crash (the car crushed into the wall), have seen jealousy being used instead of jealous (He said the woman was just jealousy of him) and other such injustices to this alien language. More recently I read that a popular singers nun had flown in to pick up a little orphaned girl. I was like 'Huh, she even has a nun?' only to realise the scribe was talking about a maid or nanny.

Makes me wonder that the editors are up to.

Bingu victory: Clever marketing mix, lack of alternatives and protest vote

Unless you are JZU Tembo, Brown Mpinganjira, Loveness Gondwe or a blindly loyal supporter of theirs, you will know that Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party gave their opponents a thorough thrashing at the polls, hands down … or should we say fingers up! There are a number of factors that led to this convincing victory.

Clever Marketing Mix

In part the Bingu and DPP election victory was a result of an effective election campaign based on a strong political brand and a record of service delivery. The marketing mix used a variety of media platforms ranging from billboards, television, radio, posters, mobile video, slogans, music and whistle stop road shows with a fleet of branded buses and pickup and Hummers. This allowed the party to sell its policies and programmes to all country's diverse communities. Online party supporters used email, sms and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to advance the DPP’s campaign. It is only fair to say that there has never been a campaign quite like this one.

The only time Malawi came close to such a campaign was in 1994 when MCP came up with some ingenious campaign tactics. This time around they failed to even produce t-shirts or party cloth, the ‘presidential convoy’ was sad and posters quite dull. James Nyondo and Loveness Gondwe at least had some cloth.

No Alternative

The UDF/MCP Alliance wasted too much time attacking the president for acquiring a fleet of Hummers, saying they would arrest the ruling elite and advancing nonsensical promises such as reverting to the old seating capacity of minibuses and allowing vendors back onto the streets. The MCP only released their manifesto two weeks before the end of the campaign and when it did, it had inconsistencies with what the party leader was saying at public rallies. The NARC party of Loveness Gondwe gave unworkable promises such as the abolition of city and municipal rates, free fertilizer to women and other equally crazy promoses. Independent James Nyondo also had his list of nonstarters such as free iron sheets for the poor and converting all government 4x4 vehicles into ambulances. The other presidential candidates were rarely seen let alone heard. Kamuzu Chibambo admits he only visited four districts where he promised people his government would introduce cable cars! The DPP, while also at times getting involved into unnecessary mudslinging, communicated their solutions to bread and butter challenges. Their manifesto was released early and sold to the electorate in all the four political regions. They were really the only alternative.

Protest Vote

In the past four years, the Bingu administration has been like a cat on a short leash trapped in a corner. They were either fighting off threats of impeachment and Section 65, having bills rejected or trying to get the national budget passed. Despite these insurmountable hurdles, they managed to implement a number of developmental programmes and brought the economy back into check. On the other hand Bakili Muluzi threatened to deflate the tube (Bingu) he had inflated. He forgot that it is the voter that ‘inflates and deflates tubes’ not party chairmen or presidents.

People saw all this and decided it was time to register their protest vote. And as former vice president Cassim Chilumpha right said ‘We politicians should now know that it’s the people that know better than we do’.

All we can now do is hope that all those electoral promises will be translated into developmental projects. I am very optimistic that Bingu will make good use of the current political capital and can proudly look forward to a future of progress – economically, socially and politically.

Congratulations!!

It was a thorough thumping!

Four Reasons to fire Bakili Muluzi

All seems calm and quiet in the UDF and it comes as no surprise if history is anything to go by. Bakili Muluzi has always had the last say in the party and each time has gotten away with it. But it is time for the real owners of the party (if they are any) to stand up and claim back what is rightfully theirs - their party! There are more reasons than one now than at any other time to fire Muluzi and get the party back on it’s feet.

Reason 1. There has never been a time where UDF has faced such uncertainty before in it's history and especially with only two months before a general election. This uncertainty has been caused by the greed of one Bakili Muluzi who wants to stand again for the presidency, a post he already served twice. And why does he think he is the only suitable presidential candidate? See reason 2 below.

Reason 2. Muluzi has failed to nurture a leader to succeed him. The job of a leader is not only to lead but to produce other leaders. We are not indispensable and sooner rather than later we need replacements. Muluzi has failed miserably in this area.

Reason 3: Muluzi continues to cause uncertainty in the party but pursuing a court case against the Malawi Electoral Commission while at the same time engaging himself in alliance talks with Malawi Congress Party. He is clearly showing the party he feels no one is fit enough to run the affairs of the party or government other than himself. The ‘madeya’ issue at play here? Maybe.

Reason 4: By pursuing alliance talks with Malawi Congress Party, Muluzi is effectively securing himself the post of UDF presidential candidate come 2014.

Now someone tell me the UDF faithful have no reason to fire it’s leader and all reason to rally behind him!

New year, Same old power problems

Last Tuesday many residents of Area 49 in Lilongwe and other townships rushed home to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the US of A. But it was all cut short when they faced an electricity blackout. The power was only restored at the point when Obama was escorting Bush to Executive One, the helicopter that would take Bush to Andrews Airforce Base. Naturally many people were angry that they could not watch this historic moment live. On Wednesday I visited the profile one such person who hit out at Escom and the numerous comments below it also took a swipe at the corporation.

I have learnt to take a different view of the electricity supply body. The ESCOM-customer relationship is kind of like a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship. The girlfriend (Escom) is tired of her over-demanding boyfriend (Escom customers) and keeps trying to show him that she is not interested in him any longer. But as dumb as the boyfriend is he can't read the body language and she is not willing to tell him in his face for fear of the backlash.

I believe Escom has capacity problems and I believe it would love if we could all find alternate solutions to satisfy our power demands. There are alternatives like solar, gas and bio-gas we could use but we fail to embrace those technologies. If all of us currently building or who have just built houses decided that our houses will use a solar gyser and solar lighting, gas or bio-gas for our cooking and Escom to power the fridge, microwave and iron ONLY we could relieve Escom of the constant load shedding we are subjected to throughout the year. We have a young man in Kasungu who ‘invented’ a wind powered solution to supply lighting to his small house there. We even have (or had) an organisation called Malawi Industrial Research and Technology Development Centre (MIRTDC) that normally pioneers research into low cost technologies. Why can’t we tap knowledge and implement solutions from this body?

I doubt if Escom will ever come out in the open to tell us to look elsewhere. The supposedly 'poor' customer service is most probably Escom's body language that even if we went elsewhere they would not be very concerned and for good reason too!

If we don’t start looking for alternative sources of power Malawians will continue to face the same old problem – power blackouts!

The politics of fuel prices

There has been a multitude of calls in the local press regarding fuel pump prices. The calls have come against the backdrop of the fall in crude oil prices on the world market in the past few months. People have argued that the Petroleum Pricing Committee (PCC) should reduce the pump prices by up to 40%, some circles argue. Government on the other hand has argued that it was/is building up the stabalisation fund that was severely depleted when the PCC refused to raise prices last year when the price of crude oil sky rocketed. Others have said that the PCC should wait to see how the Gaza conflict and Russia gas row will play out as they have the potential to send the commodity sky rocketing again and this has been evident in the price movements in the past two weeks.

I say our focus should be on this price stabalisation fund ... at least for now.