PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Vice-President’s woes continue ruling Malawi media
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The expulsion of Vice-President Joyce Banda from President Bingu wa Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a fortnight ago once again dominated the Malawi media this week with the ruling party’s apparatchik continuing justify the move as the country's Citizen Number 2 maintains her characteristic silence.
"DPP North Bashes Banda, Kachali" and "DPP North Faults Veep" were headlines in The Nation and The Daily Times respectively.
Both newspapers reported on a press conference where some top DPP officials in Banda's northern region stronghold took turns bashing Malawi's first female vice-president and her alleged lap dog parliamentarian Khumbo Kachali.
"Those people fired themselves and the (National Governing Council) NGC just facilitated the firing because they were only failing to say farewell to the party to start their own party," The Daily Times quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. Etta Banda as saying.
Although Banda has not uttered a word since her dramatic fall from grace her sympathisers were not as reticent.
"DPP Fuelling confusion - Prodeyom" was the headline in The Nation quoting the Progressive Democratic Youth Movement (Prodeyom) as accusing the ruling party for creating misunderstandings with the Mozambican government for suggesting that Vice-President Banda connived with President Armando Ghebuza to detain a barge doing the test-run on
President Mutharika’s pet project, the Shire-Zambezi Waterway.
"This allegation is belittling the sovereignty and political independence of the Republic of Mozambique and, more seriously, demeaning its foreign policy decision making machinery," the daily quoted Predeyom National Chairperson Joseph Chikwemba as saying.
Former president Bakili Muluzi bounced back to the headlines this week with The Nation reporting on the government's decision not to fund his medical review trip to Cape Town, South Africa, until he submits to an independent examination by local physicians.
"I have not been well for some time that's why my doctors asked me to return by end November or early December this year to assess how I'm recovering from my operation," the paper quoted him as saying.
Muluzi is currently in court answering for an US $11m corruption charge but his health is delaying the progress of the case and the state Anti-Corruption Bureau thinks the former president is hiding behind his illness to delay the case.
The tri-weekly Guardian and the Weekend Nation dedicated a considerable amount of space this week on the unveiling of a multi-million Kwacha mausoleum for former First Lady Ethel Mutharika who succumbed to cancer in 2007.
The week also saw news of the Chinese government refuting allegations that it sends prisoners to work on construction projects in third world countries.
But the week ended on a rather raunchy note with the scandal sheet, The Weekend Times, reporting on DPP Member of Parliament, Henry Shaba, who reportedly had his son locked up for challenging him on his unquenchable appetite for young girls.
Incredibly, the weekly quoted the randy MP as saying: "My taste for young girls is not newspaper business. I'm used to being bashed in the media over young women. Actually in some cases the media has used wrong names of the alleged girls I sleep with."
-0- PANA RT/MA 25Dec2010
"DPP North Bashes Banda, Kachali" and "DPP North Faults Veep" were headlines in The Nation and The Daily Times respectively.
Both newspapers reported on a press conference where some top DPP officials in Banda's northern region stronghold took turns bashing Malawi's first female vice-president and her alleged lap dog parliamentarian Khumbo Kachali.
"Those people fired themselves and the (National Governing Council) NGC just facilitated the firing because they were only failing to say farewell to the party to start their own party," The Daily Times quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. Etta Banda as saying.
Although Banda has not uttered a word since her dramatic fall from grace her sympathisers were not as reticent.
"DPP Fuelling confusion - Prodeyom" was the headline in The Nation quoting the Progressive Democratic Youth Movement (Prodeyom) as accusing the ruling party for creating misunderstandings with the Mozambican government for suggesting that Vice-President Banda connived with President Armando Ghebuza to detain a barge doing the test-run on
President Mutharika’s pet project, the Shire-Zambezi Waterway.
"This allegation is belittling the sovereignty and political independence of the Republic of Mozambique and, more seriously, demeaning its foreign policy decision making machinery," the daily quoted Predeyom National Chairperson Joseph Chikwemba as saying.
Former president Bakili Muluzi bounced back to the headlines this week with The Nation reporting on the government's decision not to fund his medical review trip to Cape Town, South Africa, until he submits to an independent examination by local physicians.
"I have not been well for some time that's why my doctors asked me to return by end November or early December this year to assess how I'm recovering from my operation," the paper quoted him as saying.
Muluzi is currently in court answering for an US $11m corruption charge but his health is delaying the progress of the case and the state Anti-Corruption Bureau thinks the former president is hiding behind his illness to delay the case.
The tri-weekly Guardian and the Weekend Nation dedicated a considerable amount of space this week on the unveiling of a multi-million Kwacha mausoleum for former First Lady Ethel Mutharika who succumbed to cancer in 2007.
The week also saw news of the Chinese government refuting allegations that it sends prisoners to work on construction projects in third world countries.
But the week ended on a rather raunchy note with the scandal sheet, The Weekend Times, reporting on DPP Member of Parliament, Henry Shaba, who reportedly had his son locked up for challenging him on his unquenchable appetite for young girls.
Incredibly, the weekly quoted the randy MP as saying: "My taste for young girls is not newspaper business. I'm used to being bashed in the media over young women. Actually in some cases the media has used wrong names of the alleged girls I sleep with."
-0- PANA RT/MA 25Dec2010
