Driver’s licenses and vehicle number plates to change again

Malawians are expected to again change their driver’s licenses and vehicle number plates to portray the old flag following parliament’s decision for the country to revert the old flag.

Parliament on Monday passed the Protected Flags, Emblems and Names (Amendment) Bill effecting a change of flag and a reversal of the 2010 decision to change to a new flag.

Leader of the House Mr. Henry Phoya who moved the motion told parliament that the public will be given ample time to change to driver’s licenses and vehicle number plates with the old flag.

According to Mr. Phoya, people will be given ample time to change to the new driver’s licenses and vehicle number plates because they have changed lots of things within a short period of time.

“Reverting to the old flag will help us embrace the freedoms, symbols and respect that the flag carries for Malawians, since its introduction in 1964,” said Mr. Phoya.

The current Malawi flag was adopted on 29 July 2010, after the Democratic Progressive Party-led government had proposed a new flag.

The rising sun at the flag’s top was replaced with a full, centred white sun representing the economic progress Malawi has made since becoming independent.

Former Malawi President late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika endorsed and approved the flag change on 29 July 2010.

In the process to the change, there was much public outcry about whether there was a need to change the flag, but the process continued despite Malawians expressing discontent.

On July 29 2010 President Bingu wa Mutharika told a rally in Lilongwe where he unveiled the new flag among others saying that: “Things have changed and the country is in a new era,”

He told the gathering then, that the new flag depicts developments the country has achieved.

A full sun over black, red and green replaced the independence flag’s half-rising sun which he said was “inherited from the British as part of their claim that they had brought light in darkness”.

“We cannot continue to be at dawn in 2010 as we were in 1964. We don’t have to live permanently in the past. There comes a when time things have to change and the change of the flag was no exception,” said Dr Mutharika amid hand clapping and ululation.

With the new flag, the stripes were altered from the original Pan-African Flag layout to another with the red stripe at the top, the black stripe in middle, and the green stripe at the bottom.

The rising sun at the flag’s top was replaced with a full, centred white sun representing the economic progress Malawi has made since becoming independent.

But with the amended bill, the stripes revert to the original Black-Red-Green with a rising sun.