Mzuzu councilors fail on  vendors, illegal pubs

The Mzuzu Civil Society Network (MCISON) an umbrella body of the majority of non-profit organizations in Mzuzu  City says that ward councilors in Mzuzu City Constituency  have failed to bring policies that address the challenges of illegal street vending and the mushrooming of illegal pubs in Mzuzu.

Peter Mumba, Governance Coordinator  at MCISON said this in a telephone interview in Mzuzu.

Mumba also faulted the councilors for failing to control the mushrooming of illegal pubs in locations, a situation which is said  to be posing a risk  to  the well-being of girls of school-going age in the City.

Mumba blamed the  failure  on the weakness of  the councilors to exercise authority over the Executive of Mzuzu City Council. MCISON has however,  applauded the councillors on infrastructure developments and rehabilitation of  the existing road networks.

“What we were expecting is  that we will see  the councilors  coming up with policies , by-laws, to regulate pubs in the locations like Chibanja as a way of protecting the girl child  because you find that most of the people who are drinking they are just girls.

“We were expecting that the Council will also create  good places to do businesss  for entreprenuers, since these vendors are just selling anywhere,as it was in their mandate to make sure that the City is very very clean, but they have not done much.

Mumba who attributed this failure to the weak leadership of the councilors called for careful voting on the part of the electorate come May 21.

Said Mumba:”The challenge has been that our Council has done very little in terms of accountability, they were not that powerful,    the Executive was more powerful than the Councilors.

“As Malawians let’s be carfeul how we are choosing these  Councilors, councilors are the ones to make Mzuzu City to go forward, this is very very important.”

But the Councilors  have refused to shoulder all the blame.

Lusubilo Mwangonde  aspiring Member of Parliament (MP)and sitting Councilor for Jombo Ward which encompasses Mzuzu’s central business district blamed vendors for refusing to be moved to designated market spaces.

“ We have a lot of markets that are not occupied by the vendors, it is not a lack of markets and trading places, it is a lack of willingness by these vendors to move to these markets as they want to trade in specific places in Town,”said Mwangonde.

Mwangonde says that once he is voted in as MP, he will address the City’s challenges through infrastructure development.

And Mzuzu City Mayor, William Mkandawire who is also contesting  as an independent MP for the City  told reporters in a recent interview that the Mzuzu City Council (MCC)’s failure to address various challenges in Mzuzu emanate from insufficient government funding. Mkandawire pledged to solicit donor funding for the Council to implement it’s development strategy when voted in as MP.

As the  Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) opens the official  campaign period next month, political aspirants in the May 21 Tripartite are expected to bombard  Mzuzu residents with messages of a better City.

Meanwhile, street vending in the City has reached unprecedented levels with illegal vendors stacking their goods in doorways of shop and in the middle of some main streets, giving motorists and other shoppers a nightmare experience when maneuvering the City’s streets.

 

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