On a Friday night in Lilongwe, a roomful of guests heard a pointed message from the founder of an organisation with "politics" in its name: stop expecting politicians to save you. "Many people have placed too much hope in politicians," said Vitumbiko Mumba, an engineer, as he launched the People Over Politics Foundation and its [...]
Nyasa Times News Desk
Nyasa Times Reporter
2d ago · 2 min read
On a Friday night in Lilongwe, a roomful of guests heard a pointed message from the founder of an organisation with "politics" in its name: stop expecting politicians to save you.
"Many people have placed too much hope in politicians," said Vitumbiko Mumba, an engineer, as he launched the People Over Politics Foundation and its Student Stipend Fund.
He has pledged K1bn over five years to keep disadvantaged students in university.
His case is simple and blunt. Malawi is wasting its best resource, he argues, because young people enter higher education in extreme poverty with their minds fixed on getting through the day.
"Their imaginative and innovative minds are focused on survival rather than developing ideas that can propel economic growth," he said.
He described young Africans as driven by a "righteous anger" at unequal opportunity and a lack of direction, and said the fund grew out of that realisation.
This is not a promise made from a standing start. The scholarship programme already supports 150 students at universities across the country, and more than K200m of Mumba's own money has gone to needy students in public institutions. The new fund is meant to widen that reach.
The guest speaker, Lathitha Mbuzwana, said the money will cover accommodation, food and other basics that struggling students cannot afford, and will go to the underprivileged regardless of political affiliation.
Mumba also pointed to the demographic clock: by 2030, he said, a large share of the world's young people will live in Africa, which makes education all the more urgent.
Agnes Hara, a lecturer at Mzuzu University, called the fund a major relief for students with nowhere else to turn.
She urged beneficiaries to use the chance well and, once they graduate, to help others in the same position.
The launch was held under the theme "Turning Scars of Pain into Symbols of Resilience".
GPGrace Phiri
2h agoFinally some clarity on this. Thanks for the detailed breakdown.
JBJames Banda
1h agoI hope the authorities actually follow through this time.
Malawi's fuel crisis has sent bus fares through the roof — leaving skint commuters hitching lifts on the back of pickup trucks just to get to work. Fares have DOUBLED on some routes almost overnight, with passengers from Area 25 to Lilongwe's Old Town now stung for K6,000, up from K4,000. It's even worse heading [...]
There is a kind of honesty that only arrives once denial has become impossible, and Malawi's health system produced two versions of it in the space of a single news cycle this week. At Kamuzu Central Hospital, it took the form of a number: nearly 5,000 people now waiting for surgery, a queue grown so [...]
Standard Bank Malawi has thrown a lifeline to league leaders Blue Eagles FC, unveiling a blockbuster K250 million sponsorship deal in a glittering ceremony at the Malawi Police Service Headquarters in Lilongwe. The timing could hardly have been sweeter for the Eagles, who were handed the eye-watering cheque just as they sit proudly at the [...]
The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening and institutionalising collaboration between the two institutions. The signing ceremony took place on Monday at the Ministry's headquarters at Capital Hill in Lilongwe. Minister of Natural Resources Patricia Wiskes said the MoU [...]