President Joyce Banda journey From rural to royal

As Banda whisks through the presidential palace in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, people rise and greet her with an honorific "Her Majesty." But it wasn't long ago when her life was dramatically different.

Banda's modest background earned her the nickname "mayi wa mandasi," – woman who sells fritters. And it was in her village that she dreamed of something more for herself and other women. Banda recalls how a close childhood friend, who she says was "much brighter" than her, couldn't finish school because her family couldn't pay the $6 registration fee. Her friend, instead, married at 15.

Ahead of presidential elections in May, Banda has just as many detractors as she does fans.

"She's still where I left her," Banda said of her friend. "She has seven children and is in poverty. And I am where I am."

Banda married young, too, like most Malawian women. But at 25, she escaped an abusive relationship and fled with her three children. She then dedicated her career to spearheading grassroots efforts to improve the lives of Malawi's beleaguered women.

"My mother would ask me, 'Why are you in the villages?' Even I couldn't explain. All I knew was that it not acceptable to see my fellow women abused," she recalled. "These women relate to me, and I relate to them...it's a love affair."

She has stridently taken on domestic abuse and the decriminalization of homosexuality – both taboo issues in the country. And she has continuously sacked cabinets over corruption rows.

"I was warned by my colleagues across the continent...they said the people you are tackling have a lot to lose, they'll fight you back and they'll drag you down. They'll suck you in. You might die, they might even shoot you," she said. "But my greatest achievement is that I make bold decisions and take risks when other people won't."

But for Banda—whose "mayi wa mandasi" nickname is used adoringly by fans, and condescendingly by the political elite— those risks might prove her demise.

"We're optimistic," says Brian Banda, the president's press officer. "But she has told us and her family to get ready to pack their bags. We're in for the fight, but it's up to the people.

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President Joyce Banda from The eyes of a foreign reporter

CHIRADZULU, Malawi: Sixteen-year-old Rosa Nowayga is like most girls her age — she likes to dance and hang out with friends. But she's also married with two children. Her eyes sparkle with youthful optimism, but her shoulders prematurely slouch with exhaustion.

"Malawi is [full of] girls like me," she says, waiting in line at a rural healthcare clinic. "We can't change our situation. Poverty eats you."

LAUREN E. BOHN / FOR NBC NEWS

Sixteen-year-old Rosa Nowayga poses at a field clinic in Chiradzulu, Malawi, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013.

The landlocked southern African country is racked with challenges, its people accustomed to hanging on by a thread. Roughly the size of Pennsylvania, three-quarters of Malawi's 16 million live below the poverty line. Just nine percent of the population has access to electricity. The country's life expectancy hovers around 49. While primary education is free, only 16 percent of girls finish.

But one ambitious woman, who was born in a village not far from Rosa's, vows to change all that.

"All the ills that have dragged Malawi backwards must be stopped now," said Malawi's 63-year-old president, Joyce Banda, who was Vice President until her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, died 21 months ago. "We're at a transition point, and I am a part of a crop of new leaders on the African continent that worry about the people first."

As the second female president of an African nation, Banda is a beacon of hope. She isn't afraid to take on challenges that have weighed her country – and a continent – down for decades. But ahead of presidential elections in May, Banda has just as many detractors as she does fans. And time is running out to convince her country that she's the one who will walk them back from the edge of survival.

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PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA GAINS SUPPORT FOR RECOUNT

FRAUDULENT ELECTION CLAIMS IN MALAWI AS PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA GAINS SUPPORT FOR RECOUNT

LILONGWE, May 29 2014 (IPS) - When Malawi’s President Joyce Banda said that last week’s elections were fraudulent and riddled with rampant irregularities, social media went viral calling her a loser.

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Banda had nullified the elections and ordered that voting be repeated within 90 days, triggering public anger and resentment. But a legal challenge from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) prevented the nullification of the results as she had no lawful basis to annul the election.

But now it appears that Banda has rallied support for a recount even from her worst critics, which include the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and various other opposition.

“MCP cannot accept these results because they are fraudulent,” MCP vice president Richard Msowoya told IPS. Malawi went to the polls on May 20 in its first tripartite elections. Banda contested the presidential seat against 11 other candidates. The MCP’s head, retired evangelical pastor Lazarus Chakwera, was one of Banda’s main challengers for the presidential seat.

“We cannot allow people to steal our vote just like that and we have evidence and agree with President Banda that the election has been rigged,” Msowoya added.

The High Court in Blantyre is expected to make a ruling on Friday, May 30, to either order the MEC to declare the winner based on the current votes or initiate a recount as demanded by Banda and some opposition parties.

In a quick interview with IPS, Banda said that she was ready to leave office if the court ruled that the MEC should rather announce the winner of the election and not initiate a recount.

“I am ready to leave, whichever way this goes. But I am happy that the people of Malawi know that I wasn’t lying when I called this election fraudulent,” she told IPS.

On Sunday, May 25, the MEC admitted it had received overwhelming complaints about the election and could not proceed with announcing the winner.

Last week’s poll had been plagued by problems from the outset, with voting materials turning up hours late and ballot papers being sent to the wrong parts of the country. Organisers had to extend voting in some urban areas for a second day and initial counting was delayed by power outages and a lack of generators at polling stations.

Voters went on the rampage in the capital Lilongwe and in the commercial city of Blantyre burning tyres and shops before the military moved in and intervened.

To date the MEC has only released 30 percent of the official vote count, which showed that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), lead by Peter Mutharika, brother of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, was in the lead with 42 percent of the vote. Banda followed with 23 percent.

But Msowoya pointed out that across the country there were cases of having more votes than voters. He said that in the constituency of Machinga, in southern Malawi, 184,223 people voted — this was 33,778 more than the total number of people on the voters’ roll for the area.

“In another constituency jn Dowa West were 70,845 people registered the final tally sheet shows only 1,164 voted which is very strange,” Msowoya said.

Banda’s ruling People’s Party (PP) also stated that several polling centres across the country recorded more people voting than the number of registered voters for those areas.

United Democratic Front presidential candidate Atupele Muluzi told IPS that his party had also received complaints from several centres. “In one instance, a presiding officer for a polling centre ended up signing for the results of two other centres, which is illegal,” Muluzi said.

The push for a recount of the vote has also now gained traction with several leading civil society groups.

The Malawi Council of Churches, an influential grouping of protestant churches, joined the chorus to push the elections body for a recount. The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, a leading rights NGO here, and the Association of Media Owners have also called for a recount.

“President Banda has been vindicated because she took a bold and brave move to challenge the MEC and ask for investigations into the electoral process. No one wanted to listen but now its clear that she was right,” Shyley Kondowe, one of Banda’s most trusted aides, told IPS.

However, if the MEC institutes a recount of the vote, it faces a legal challenge from the DPP.

“There is an invisible hand controlling everything because we are surprised that three political parties have formed a post-electoral alliance to fight our presidential candidate because he is in the lead,” the DPP’s lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale told IPS.

He said that the MEC and the courts had no power to extend the eight-day period outlined in the constitution for the electoral body to announce the results. The constitution, he said, can only be amended by parliament.

Whatever the outcome, Onandi Banda, a political commentator and human rights activist, believes that this is a major test for Malawi’s democracy.

“The president was after all right that the election was rigged. But how we move forward from here is what will make or break Malawi,” he told IPS.

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President Joyce Banda influenced by TB Joshua’s prophecy About choice of vice presidential candidate

Malawi President Joyce Banda  influenced by TB Joshua’s prophecy About choice of vice presidential candidate

Malawi President Joyce Banda nominated youthful Minister of Trade and Industry, Sosten Gwengwe, to become her running mate in the May 20 elections following a prophecy by Nigeria’s T.B. Joshua, it has been learnt.
Members of Banda’s inner circle have revealed that the President has openly told them she picked Gwengwe after a prophecy by her spiritual father, the renowned Nigerian Prophet.
“The President has said clearly that her choice was influenced by Prophet TB Joshua and she prayed for it,” a member of JB’s inner circle is quoted saying by http://peoplespartymalawi.net
Banda surprised the nation when she announced that she had picked the 36 year old minister as her running mate leaving out her state Vice President Khumbo Kachali as well as two other vice presidents for her People’s Party (PP) – Uladi Mussa for the centre region and Brown Mpinganjira for the south. Kachali is also the party’s vice president for the north.
News that JB would pick Gwengwe started making rounds weeks ago and Nyasa Times was the first to break the news before it was confirmed Thursday evening when Banda officially announced it during a news conference at Sanjika Palace.
JB told the nation she has been grooming Gwengwe for the position beginning with his shift from a deputy minister to full minister and according him the MG 3 ministerial vehicle immediately after his appointment as trade and industry minister.
According to http://peoplespartymalawi.net, the Nigerian prophet told President Banda to consider a youth in cabinet as a succession plan and openly rejected some ‘fake evangelists’ and ‘foul-mouthed’ ministers.
The member of Banda’s inner circle told the online newspaper, after the prophecy the president had no choice but to settle for Gwengwe, who is the youngest cabinet minister.
Gwengwe, just like President Banda, is a believer of prophetic ministries. He is a member of Inter Pentecostal Fatih.
In his prophecy, the respected Nigerian Prohpet, fully named Temitope Balogun Joshua of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), also urged African leaders to create job opportunities for the youth and consider them in leadership positions if they are to avert the protests that would eventually degenerate into a revolution.
“I am seeing people taking to the streets protesting all over the world. When I say protests I’m speaking in parables they will start as protest but will later turn to revolution. You can stop protests, but you cannot stop revolution,” warned Prophet TB Joshua in his prophecy.
“In politics, the youth should be considered in higher positions such as “Assistants” to the elders. When the elders are Ministers, the youth should be Deputy Ministers. In every government department and political position, the youth should be deputies to the head of such departments,” he said.
Prophet TB Joshua said any nation that will start including the youth in higher positions will avert these protests from becoming a revolution.
President Banda’s frequent trips to Nigeria have raised questions amongst Malawians after she visited The Synagogue Church Of All Nations seven times in the 22 months she has been in office. She also visited Nigeria more than once before she ascended to power.
Her ascendancy to power is somewhat connected to the prophecy of the Nigerian preacher who is said to have predicted the death of former President Bingu wa Mutharika.

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