Zodiak Online

Police in Neno district are keeping in custody a 33-year-old woman, Grace Samuel, for allegedly injuring a fellow woman on allegations that she was dating her husband. According to Police investigations shared to Zodiak Online on Thursday, Samuel who is married was suspecting her husband of having an affair with the victim who is also married but her husband is in South Africa.

As dawn breaks over Njalo Island on Lake Chilwa under Traditional Authority Chiwalo, in Phalombe District, fishers push their wooden boats into the water. From a distance, the island presents a picture of tranquility—calm waters, green vegetation and a close-knit community. However, beneath this serene landscape lies a story of neglect, hardship and extraordinary resilience. For the people who call Njalo Island home, every day begins with uncertainty. A simple illness can become a medical emergency.

He left home with a bicycle and two pieces of firewood. He arrived at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital with a bullet wound in his buttocks. For 46-year-old Samuel Njoka, a security guard from Ngamwani 2 Village under Traditional Authority Kapichi in Thyolo, the evening ride to Luchenza on July 2, 2026 was meant to be ordinary. He works at Astep Private School. Strapped to his bicycle were two pieces of timber planks for firewood.

UTM President Dalitso Kabambe has called on the government to reverse the recently approved 100 percent tuition fee increase for public universities, arguing that the decision will place higher education beyond the reach of many students from poor families. Speaking during a news conference in Lilongwe on Tuesday, Kabambe urged government to reprioritise spending within the K11.8 trillion national budget instead of transferring the cost to students.

Malawi has made notable progress in human rights, political freedoms and access to education since attaining independence, but corruption continues to deny citizens the full benefits of that progress, the Lost History Foundation has said.

As Malawi marks 62 years of independence this July 6, current and former presidents have called for renewed efforts to achieve economic transformation, saying political freedom must now be matched by lasting economic independence. In separate interviews with Zodiak Online, former presidents Joyce Banda and Bakili Muluzi together with immediate past president Lazarus Chakwera have reflected on the country's journey since attaining independence on July 6 1964.

China and Malawi are two nations separated by over 10,300 kms but brought together by mutual respect and a genuine and unquenchable craving for knowledge and prosperity. For many years now, the government of the People’s Republic of China and Malawi have been cooperating in many spheres of life for the mutual benefit of the peoples of the two countries.

As Malawi pushes to restore its forests, some villagers in Thyolo lament a sacred graveyard is being turned into charcoal and timber. The graves lie quietly beneath the winter sun. In most areas in the country, the graveyards keep thick trees.

For three years now, families of Nsambambizi in Traditional Authority Changata, Thyolo, have lived between memory and fear, trapped on what survivors now describe as “an island”, cut off by the swelling Limalimanja and Chizindi rivers after the devastating passage of Cyclone Freddy in 2023. Their houses were swept away. Their gardens disappeared beneath raging waters. Livelihoods collapsed overnight.

On a small plot in Katundu Village, Traditional Authority Chimaliro in Thyolo, John Grant counted his 4,000 tomato plants, applied fertilizer twice and invested another K15,000 in three kilograms of NPK 23-21-0+4S fertilizer from an agro-dealer at Goliati Trading Centre. A neighbor’s warning about that unscrupulous vendor sent him home to rub the granules between his fingers. The particles dissolved into ash and Urea, not NPK.