LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Airtel Money, Malawi’s leading mobile money service, has partnered with Farmers World, to introduce a seamless digital payment solution.
This collaboration enables customers to pay for goods conveniently and securely using Airtel Money across 90 Farmers World outlets.
The initiative aims to enhance customer experience by reducing cash-handling risks and offering a faster, safer payment option.
Customers can now shop without worrying about carrying physical cash, while Farmers World benefits from reduced cash management challenges.
Speaking during the launch, Airtel Money Managing Director Thokozani Kamkondo Sande said: “This partnership reflects our commitment to driving financial inclusion and convenience for Malawians.
“By digitizing payments at Farmers World, we are making everyday transactions simpler, safer, and faster.”
Farmers World Retail Executive Manager- Philip Bence added, “We are excited to partner with Airtel Money to enhance the in-store customer experience at Farmers World by offering a seamless, modern payment solution.
“This initiative makes transactions faster and more convenient for our customers while ensuring a secure and efficient payment process within our shops.”
This partnership marks a significant step toward a cashless Malawi, offering customers a secure, convenient, and innovative way to shop.
Airtel Money and Farmers World remain committed to delivering solutions that make life easier for Malawians.
With Airtel Money, businesses can collect and sweep funds online to their bank accounts easily.
The enterprise portal offers self-service onboarding with a lot of modern features including reports for ease of reconciliations, wallet to wallet transfers and more.
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The blocking of a search warrant targeting Namuleri Farms Limited, owned by former Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda, has once again thrust Malawi’s justice system into the center of a heated national debate on transparency, accountability, and the independence of the judiciary.
At the heart of the matter lies a fundamental constitutional question: why do search warrants exist, and under what circumstances should courts restrain their execution?
The Constitutional Purpose of Search Warrants
Under Malawi’s Constitution and criminal procedure laws, search warrants exist to strike a delicate balance between two competing interests.
On one hand is the right to privacy and protection from arbitrary state intrusion, guaranteed to every citizen regardless of status or political affiliation.
On the other hand is the public interest in investigating crime, particularly when allegations involve the plundering or misuse of public resources.
Search warrants are not instruments of punishment. They are investigative tools, designed to preserve evidence, prevent its concealment or destruction, and enable the State to establish whether criminal conduct has occurred.
When courts block or delay search warrants, they are not merely protecting private rights; they are also shaping the trajectory of criminal accountability itself.
Criminal Suspects and the Presumption of Innocence
It is constitutionally correct that criminal suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Former ministers, businesspeople, and politically exposed persons enjoy the same rights as ordinary citizens.
However, the presumption of innocence does not mean immunity from investigation.
Nor does it justify erecting procedural barriers so high that investigators are effectively paralyzed before evidence can even be examined.
In corruption-related cases, evidence is often perishable, movable, or easily concealed.
Blocking a search warrant at a preliminary stage risks undermining the very purpose for which the warrant was sought.
Blocking Search Warrants: Legal Safeguard or Tactical Shield?
Courts have the lawful authority to stay or set aside warrants if they are defective, vague, or obtained through abuse of process.
In this case, the argument advanced was that the State failed to provide batch numbers or serial identifiers for the allegedly stolen fertilizer.
Legally, this argument has merit.
But context matters.
Search warrants are often sought precisely because investigators lack full details and need access to premises to confirm or disprove suspicions.
If courts begin to demand near-conclusive proof before a search is conducted, then the investigative process is reversed and weakened.
The danger is that judicial caution, while well-intentioned, may inadvertently become a tactical shield for those with resources, lawyers, and influence.
Judicial Independence Versus Public Perception
Malawi’s judiciary is constitutionally independent, and that independence must be protected at all costs.
Yet independence does not place courts beyond public scrutiny.
Repeated judicial interventions that appear to benefit politically connected individuals, while ordinary citizens face swift and unforgiving processes, inevitably raise questions.
These questions are not attacks on the courts. They are symptoms of eroding public trust.
When citizens begin to believe that the law moves slowly—or stops entirely—when powerful figures are involved, confidence in justice collapses.
Political Bias or Structural Weakness?
It is tempting to label such court decisions as politically biased.
However, the more uncomfortable truth may lie in structural weaknesses within Malawi’s criminal justice system:
Overreliance on technicalities
Poorly prepared applications by the State
Weak investigative capacity
A legal culture that favors form over substance
These weaknesses combine to produce outcomes that look biased, even when courts may be acting within the letter of the law.
The Cost to Transparency and Accountability
When search warrants are blocked in high-profile corruption cases, the immediate beneficiaries are not constitutional rights alone.
The broader effect is a chilling signal to investigators, whistleblowers, and the public that accountability is negotiable.
For a country struggling with economic hardship, donor fatigue, and public anger over corruption, this perception is deeply damaging.
Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done, especially where public resources are concerned.
Conclusion: A Constitutional Crossroads
Malawi stands at a constitutional crossroads.
The courts must continue to safeguard rights and prevent abuse of state power.
But they must also be conscious that excessive procedural insulation of suspects—particularly politically exposed persons—risks turning constitutional protections into obstacles to accountability.
Search warrants are not convictions. They are questions.
And when courts consistently prevent those questions from being asked, the nation is entitled to ask a harder one in return:
Who is the law truly protecting?
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“Survivor” Season 48 contestant Eva Erickson narrowly dodged the gunman who opened fire at Brown University Saturday afternoon, but she says she’s not overly worried about another shooting there. Check out our interview — the Ph.D. candidate…
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International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2025
To celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2025, the leaders of organisations of persons with disabilities and developmental organisations across Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi exhibited unity of purpose speaking with one voice to affirm that now is the time to act on the African Disability Protocol (ADP).
The ADP entered into being on 7 June 2024, establishing a legally binding framework to protect and enhance the rights of over 80 million persons with disabilities across the continent.
This milestone redirected responsibility from the continental level to individual national governments. The Protocol is now legally binding, and it is up to member states to ratify, adopt, and put it into action.
In a joint statement the leaders said across the three nations, they recognise that national policies and frameworks have made progress towards promoting disability inclusion.
However, they said millions of persons with disabilities still face barriers that prevent them from fully exercising their rights.
They called for the aligning of country efforts with the ADP is necessary for a full and enforceable approach to inclusion.
For example, the Protocol requires access to quality education at all levels, with reasonable accommodations and assistive technologies.
Yet today, countless children with disabilities in our countries remain out of school, not due to inability but because systems are designed without them in mind.
Read full statement below:
To mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2025, we – leaders of organisations of persons with disabilities and development organisations across Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi – spoke with one voice to affirm that now is the time to act on the African Disability Protocol (ADP).
The ADP entered into force on 7 June 2024, establishing a legally binding framework to protect and promote the rights of over 80 million persons with disabilities across our continent.
This milestone shifted responsibility from the continental level to individual national governments. The Protocol is now legally binding, and it is up to member states to ratify, adopt, and put it into action.
Across our three nations, we recognise that national policies and frameworks have made progress towards promoting disability inclusion. However, millions of persons with disabilities still face barriers that prevent them from fully exercising their rights.
Aligning country efforts with the ADP is necessary for a full and enforceable approach to inclusion. For example, the Protocol requires access to quality education at all levels, with reasonable accommodations and assistive technologies.
Yet today, countless children with disabilities in our countries remain out of school, not due to inability but because systems are designed without them in mind.
The ADP calls to eliminate discrimination in employment and promote entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities. As it stands, unemployment rates among persons with disabilities remain high in parts of our region, perpetuating cycles of poverty and dependency that the Protocol could break. The Protocol guarantees the right to vote, contest for office, and participate in public affairs on an equal basis. Too many persons with disabilities in our countries remain excluded: their voices absent from decisions that affect their lives. These are not aspirations. They represent the difference between exclusion and inclusion, between poverty and productivity, between invisibility and citizenship.
Where things stand
In Zambia, years of advocacy have built momentum. The launch of the National Policy on Persons with Disabilities and Mainstreaming Guidelines in 2025 shows the government’s commitment to inclusion. However, without ratifying the ADP and submitting the required documents to the African Union, these efforts remain disconnected from the continent’s legal framework. We call on the Government of Zambia to complete ratification of the ADP without further delay.
Malawi has ratified the ADP, but the critical next step is to make it enforceable into law. The estimated 1.7 million people aged five and above who have a disability in Malawi deserve to fully enjoy the rights enshrined in the Protocol. We urge the Government of Malawi to prioritise this process and allocate resources for implementation.
In Zimbabwe, we stand at a historic moment. With a new Disability Act enacted in the month of November 2025. We call on the government to establish strong implementation mechanisms that ensure the law translates into real change.
These are not only administrative steps; they are life-changing decisions for millions of persons with disabilities. Every day of delay means more barriers to education, jobs, healthcare, and participation in public life that could have been removed.
We also call upon the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Pan-African Parliament (PAP), and the African Union to exercise leadership in this critical moment. These regional bodies must:
• Actively support member states through the ratification, domestication, and implementation process
• Develop and fund disability inclusion programmes aligned with their own treaties and charters
• Lead by example by embedding disability inclusion within their own Secretariats, demonstrating commitment through accessible policies, meaningful representation of persons with disabilities in decision-making, and barrier-free operations
The human cost of delay
Behind every statistic is a person. A child denied education. A graduate unable to find work despite being qualified. A voter turned away from a polling station. A pregnant woman unable to access maternal care because the facilities are inaccessible. The ADP provides a clear roadmap to challenging these barriers. Political will must now match political rhetoric.
We represent millions of persons with disabilities whose potential remains untapped, whose voices remain largely unheard, and whose rights remain mostly unrealised. But we also represent resilience, expertise, and a vision of an inclusive Africa where no one is left behind.
Our task: To the governments of Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, to all partners, and stakeholders: ratifying and implementing the African Disability Protocol is not about doing people with disabilities a favour. It’s an investment in inclusive development that benefits everyone. It upholds constitutional promises of equality. It’s the right and smart thing to do.
Nothing About Us Without Us.
Signed by:
The RAD-P consortium
– Sightsavers – Africa Disability Alliance (ADA) – National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH) – Federation of Organizations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe (FODPZ) – Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD) – Albinism Foundation of Zambia (AFZ) – Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA) – Disability HIV & AIDS Trust (DHAT)
and
U4ADP consortium
– Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe (LCDZ) – Development Aid from People-to-People ( DAPP) Zimbabwe – Development Aid from People-to-People (DAPP) Zambia – Chesire Homes Society of Zambia – Development Aid from People-to-People (DAPP) Malawi – Human Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Malawi (WAG-Disability Rights)
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