Vol 55 No 7 | MALAWI Bandas, Bingu and Goldfinger 4th April 2014 Malawi's first President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, ruled Malawi with an iron rod for 31 years. He left an estate worth an estimated US$50 million including the country's tallest towe...
Vol 55 No 3 | MALAWI Scandals to dominate polls 7th February 2014 The trial of those accused of stealing state funds could hurt the President in the elections. Insiders accuse Britain of playing politics with aid Anxiety is growing in presidential circles about the trial of prominent politicians and civil servants in the ‘Cashgate’ scandal over the theft of some US$100 million i...
Vol 55 No 3 | MALAWI Banda and the jets 7th February 2014 Beleaguered President Joyce Banda is suffering substantial political damage from what many Malawians are calling hypocrisy after she was found to be using the presidential private...
Vol 54 No 24 | MALAWI Political class in turmoil 20th November 2013 The Cashgate scandal is roping in most politicians in a storm of corruption so severe that donors have halted aid payments The reputations of almost all members of the political establishment – with the possible exception of the opposition United Democratic Front – have been severely batter...
Vol 54 No 21 | MALAWI Shooting triggers reshuffle 17th October 2013 The spreading repercussions of September’s gun attack on a senior official have led the President to sack the whole cabinet. Donors are angry When three gunmen shot down Finance Ministry Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo outside his home in Area 43 in Lilongwe on 13 September, officials initially blamed criminals who wanted t...
Vol 54 No 21 | MALAWI Banda's fortunes turn 10th October 2013 The President is reaping political benefit from an improving economy but stands accused of planning underhand ways of winning the 2014 polls The political fortunes of President Joyce Banda have seen an unexpected turnaround. A win in the May 2014 parliamentary, presidential and local elections had looked highly unlikely...
Vol 54 No 14 | MALAWITANZANIA Digging in on the Lake 5th July 2013 Malawi will not give up an inch of its lake, sources close to President Joyce Banda say. At issue in the row with Tanzania is where the frontier on Lake Malawi/Lake Nyasa should li...
Vol 54 No 12 | MALAWI The hill Banda must climb 7th June 2013 If economic conditions don’t improve, the President’s prospects for next year’s elections look poor President Joyce Banda opened Parliament in May and announced a strong budget in an attempt to regain ground lost to an opposition that is already in election mode. While donors and...
Vol 54 No 7 | MALAWI Lilongwe’s treason trial 29th March 2013 A year after they tried to derail Joyce Banda’s accession to the presidency, the old political elite are in the dock President Joyce Banda's faces her toughest political test with the arrest on 11 March of eleven former top officials who have been linked to a treason plot. The arrests, which prom...
Vol 54 No 7 | MALAWI Rifts over lake 29th March 2013 Resolution of the dispute over the border between Malawi and Tanzania on Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa to Tanzanians) seems no nearer. The Africa Forum, an advisory body of former Africa...