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APM, others mourn journalist Tenthani

Malawi President Peter Mutharika yesterday led Malawians in pouring tributes to journalist Raphael Tenthani who died in a road accident along the Lilongwe-Blantyre M1 Road on Saturday night.
Tenthani’s 23 years spell in local and international journalism ends today with his burial at Agabu Village in Sharpevalle, Ntcheu off the Balaka-Salima Road.
His send off yesterday at College of Medicine mortuary in Blantyre for Ntcheu turned into a communion of sorrow when politicians, civil society organisations (CSOs), Blantyre City Mayor Noel Chalamanda, media managers and journalists paid their respects to Tenthani.
Many knew he had died, but they hated it were true for, as Chalamanda eulogised, everybody wanted him to have lived beyond yesterday because his writings were a ‘mirror of society’.
Tenthani died after sustaining head injuries when the car he was travelling in from Ntcheu to Blantyre overturned at Kammwamba along the M1 Road. He was in the company of his cousin, his two children and a colleague, who all sustained minor injuries and were treated at Mlambe and Queen Elizabeth Central hospitals.
His death has stirred a wave of tributes that, bounded together, underlining a giant well fallen in Malawi’s media memories.
Mutharika said he learnt of Tenthani’s death with “deep shock” and finds his loss as a huge blow to the media fraternity and the entire nation.
Said the President: “I will remember him as a man of immense talent, who courageously sought ways of making a positive contribution to the discourse of national unity and development.”
Through his Muckraking on Sunday in The Sunday Times, Mutharika added, Tenthani liked to argue with charm and delight.
“He will long be remembered for his eloquence, humour, warmth, progressive ideals, intellectual heft, toughness and concerns on issues of national interest,” he said.
Vice-President Saulos Chilima agreed with Tenthani’s younger brother, Kizito, saying: “This [Tenthani’s death] is not only a great loss to his family and the media fraternity, but also the entire nation”.
Said Chilima: “He was a great journalist, activist and columnist who wrote with style, pace and precision. May God be with his family during this trying time.”
But, as Kizito revealed, his elder brother had always cherished writing.
“When our mother gave us money, I could buy clothes but he [Ralph] could buy books and pay for newspaper subscription,” he said.
Tenthani—who until his untimely death was British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) correspondent and columnist for The Sunday Times—died on arrival at Mlambe Hospital, according to a statement by Medi Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Malawi signed by its chairperson Thom Khanje.
“Tenthani travelled to his home village with his brother, two sons and a friend. The four others sustained various injuries during the accident. His two children are admitted to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre,” he said.
Khanje remembers Tenthani as one of Misa Malawi’s most dedicated members and his demise is a sad day for Misa as an organisation and the fraternity as a whole.
Concurring with Misa-Malawi, his long-time friend Horace Nyaka added that Tenthani was a rare breed in journalism.
“He was fearless but also truthful and honest. He fought for real democracy till after his death. When everyone else was clapping hands for our politicians and other leaders, Ralph always stood up to remind them about their obligations.
“What is worrying is the fact that there seem to be no-one more courageous to speak up like he did. He united everyone and did not choose a friend,” he said.
In his 23 years journey as a journalist, the 44-year-old won many accolades to his name. In 2012, he was voted the best columnist at the Misa Malawi awards; and in 2010, he won the United Nations Media Award for Associated Press Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as a correspondent.
In 2005, he reported in a news article that former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika had moved out of the presidential palace due to the fear of ghosts. In his article, he quoted the president’s religious affairs adviser, the Reverend Malani Mtonga, who had reported that Bingu had left the presidential palace because he was hearing “strange noises” and “felt a strange presence hanging around him” at night.
Mtonga denied making that statement, but another renowned journalist, Mabvuto Banda, had reported the same story in Weekend Nation. Tenthani and Banda were both arrested.

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