Contractors moves to vacate RFA injunction: “Our business are paralyzed, give us our money.”

Indigenous contractors under Malawi Building, Civil Engineering and Allied Trade Association (Mabcata) say they will vacate an injunction Roads Fund Administration (RFA) has obtained stopping its members from taking over tollgates to recover their dues.

The contractors planned to take over the running of Chingeni Toll Plaza in Ntcheu and Kalinyeke Toll Gate in Dedza to recover their outstanding payments.

In an interview yesterday, Mabcata Blantyre Chapter executive member Alex Chimwala said the association will vacate the injunction because they want to get their money.

He said: “They [RFA] are not serious and honest with our issue. Our businesses have been paralysed because of their delay to release our payments. So we will engage our lawyers to vacate the injunction.”

RFA obtained the injunction after Mabcata planned to take over the two tollgates today to force the administration to pay them over K50 billion owed to them.

Granting an injunction on Friday, the High Court of Malawi sitting in Lilongwe set October 1 2024 for an inter partes hearing.

“If you disobey this order, you may be found guilty of contempt of court and may be sent to prison or fined or your assets may be seized,” reads the ruling in part.

Meanwhile, an all-inclusive stakeholders meeting summoned by Ntcheu District Council yesterday ended prematurely following the injunction.

Few minutes after the meeting started, RFA director of audit Francis Haiya told delegates that there was a court order stopping Mabcata from proceeding with its intention to take over and open the tollgates.

He said they obtained an injunction because they were not sure what Mabcata really meant by “taking over and open” the tollgates.

Haiya, who was accompanied by other RFA officials, including public relations manager Masauko Mngwaluko, said: “In our earlier communication in a letter, we notified Mabcata that we would take a legal action on the matter, hence the injunction.”

In response, Ntcheu district commissioner George Ngaiyaye, who was chairing the stakeholders’ meeting, called it off to avoid a contempt of court.

“With the injunction at hand, we cannot proceed with our discussions to avoid a contempt of court,” he said.

The meeting was also attended by representatives from Mabcata, as well as Ntcheu Police Station officer in-charge Isaiah Mulowoka

From September 3 to 6, the indigenous contractors conducted a vigil at RFA offices in Lilongwe to push for payment of over K50 billion to the fund owes them.

The association clarified that the amount reached K50 billion after factoring in a 40 percent increase in project cost escalations following the kwacha devaluation in November last year.

But Mngwaluko is on record as having said that the delay in payments is due to the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority’s (Mera) failure to remit the road maintenance levy.

He said RFA owes K11.8 billion to indigenous contractors implementing RA projects.

In July this year, RFA also bemoaned Mera’s failure to remit road levies, saying it was affecting its capacity to fund the maintenance of roads, including the M1.

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