Barely a few weeks after pop star Madonna was dragged to the Malawi Industrial Relations court by former employees of her Raising Malawi Academy for Girls (RMAG) another controversy has surfaced on her activities in Malawi.
Latest developments indicate that the sensational US songstress remitted only US$ 854,630 into the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls account contradicting earlier reports in the US media which indicated that the material girl had spent around US$ 4 million for the project.
In her recent statement published in the New York Times Madonna claims that she has spent US$ 3.8 million for her projects in Malawi, the latest revelations by the former RMAG employees corroborate with a recent report by the news week which stated that US$ 854,630 was sent to Malawi.
Madonna’s Raising Malawi Inc is reported to have collected US$ 18 million in donations for the girls academy whose construction at Chinkhota village in Lilongwe central Malawi has since stopped.
In a press release posted on its website, Raising Malawi Inc announced that it has stopped funding the construction of the US$ 15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls which was supposed to accommodate 500 students from across the country.
Raising Malawi Inc said it had reached at the decision to change its operational strategy in Malawi after US$ 4 million was spent on the girls’ academy project with little progress to show.
At a ground breaking ceremony for the academy in October 2009, Madonna said she had decided to build a state of art girls academy after noticing the plight of Malawian girls who she said were denied the right to quality education.
She however surprised many Malawians when she announced that she was stopping work on the controversial site that went into a land dispute after some residents’ cried foul play when they were ejected from their land without compensation to pave way for the project.
Raising Malawi Inc said it was not going ahead with the project following change of strategy in its Malawi operations.
The pop star’s Malawi charity was recently dragged to the Malawi Industrial Relations court over discrimination and unfair dismissal charges by eight former employees of Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.
In their case filled under matter no.224 of 2011 the former employees led by Chief Executive Officer Anjimile Opoyo argue that their employment was apparently terminated following RMI change of strategy in Malawi.