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Thursday, when President Lazarus Chakwera opened this year’s International Trade Fair at the Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds in Blantyre, I made it a point to avail myself of the occasion. I availed myself of the occasion because trade fairs are, to me, a momentous occasion.
I actually remember— when I was staying in Chitawira Township, Blantyre, in those days— that my mother took me to the Trade Fair grounds. That was way back in 1989. It happened to be the first Trade Fair I, being young, ever attended and remembered.
Otherwise, there are other events I, being young at the time, have blurred memories of. Take, for instance, the East and Central Africa Senior Challenge Cup final match that took place at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre in 1988. The match was between the Malawi National Football Team and the Zambia National Football Team. My father, who was an avowed Hardware Stars [Michiru Castles] fan, took me to the match.
And I remember sitting in the eastern terraces. And I remember Malawi National Football Team fans standing up and jumping up and down in ecstasy after what I now believe were goals scored by Malawi. At that time, I did not understand why hirsute men and respectable women would throw all caution to the wind and jump like children.
It is only now, now that I am grown up, that I understand that fans were celebrating Malawi National Football Team’s goals. In fact, it is just 10 years ago that I, having shed off the innocence of childhood, understood that, on that night way back in 1988, the match ended 3-1. Indeed, I have come to learn that Malawi won courtesy of goals from Frank Sinalo, Peterkins Kayira and Young Chimodzi, with Beston Chembeshi being the scorer for Zambia’s goal. That was in 1988.
In 1989, I visited the Trade Fair Grounds. Needless to say, for the first time ever. For this reason, I regard the Trade Fair event I attended that year as special because I have never needed a reminder to understand what happened that day I visited the Trade Fair grounds with my mother. The activity is etched deeply on my memory. What happened that day? We visited an Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation pavilion which featured ‘Mr Kachimanga’, the famous character that oozed maize seeds.
How can I forget the white seeds of maize making their way through what we were made to believe were body parts, all the way to porous hands and porous fingers.
Anyway, I was talking about how important trade fairs are to me, hence, yesterday, I trekked to the Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds to learn about what industry players and State actors have in store for us. One of the State actors that spoke is Vitumbiko Mumba, who is the Minister of Industry and Trade.
In my view, Mumba was failing to make himself clear on some issues. No wonder, only a handful of people were cheering him as he spoke, with the rest looking at him without any hint of excitement. Maybe my eyes and ears were deceiving me.
But this did not stop Mumba from speaking on and on. One of the issues he alluded to pertains to the ban on imports that the government of President Lazurus Chakwera, apparently dancing to the melody of Mumba, imposed on some goods earlier this year. Some of the banned products include fresh milk.
Yesterday, Mumba said the ban on imports had started bearing fruit, saying one local—read , Malawian— manufacturer has started producing powdered milk. He also said the ban has resulted in the creation of employment opportunities. Of course, he was, as expected, mum on how many jobs have been created. Who could have questioned him, when the President—and his bodyguards—were close by?
The truth is, there are some things local manufacturers of milk products, including fresh milk, cannot manage to do. That is, whether Malawian manufacturers produce fresh milk or powdered milk, they simply have no capacity—and the machinery—to remove lactose from the milk, hence, due to the current needless and arrogance-fuelled ban on lactose-free fresh milk products, some Malawians are being denied their right to food.
Today, the one retailer that was importing lactose-free fresh milk into the country has stopped doing so because it has pleased Mumba—who was not even in the limelight in October 2024 when he was not a Cabinet minister— to ban that important commodity when no Malawian manufacturer can extract lactose from fresh milk.
Surely, this administration is out of touch with reality. It has some people who speak about issues they do not understand let alone know anything about. We have, in this country, public officials who do not even appreciate some of the consequences of their hasty and highly personal actions.
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