Gov’t renews Nandolo’s contract at BT City: Showered with praises at JB rally

In what could be described as scoring a double, Emmanuel Ted Nandolo, got some massive praises on his first municipal appearance in his second term of office as Blantyre City Council (BCC) Chief Executive Officer.

Nandolo’s contract with BCC, offered to him on 8th January 2011 by the former President late Bingu wa Mutharika, officially expired on 7th January 2014 after serving the council for three years.

Last Friday, after the expiry of his contract, Nandolo did not even bother to attend President Joyce Banda’s rally in Chileka (Blantyre) but when news of the renewal started making rounds he availed himself for the President’s Sunday rally at Makheta Township also in Blantyre.

At Makheta, Nandolo, who married President Banda’s relation, got applauses from traditional leaders and the President herself for his role in ensuring that prolonged disputes between government and natives of a proposed site (at Chief Nanthako area) for the magnificent health centre in area were resolved amicably.

President Banda greets CEO for Blantyre City Council Ted Nandolo
President Banda greets CEO for Blantyre City Council Ted Nandolo

First to shower the praises was Senior Chief Kapeni, who in his soberly delivered speech that centred on development issues other than rebuking others as is the norm with most traditional leaders when they are given the platform at presidential rallies, expressed pleasure over the manner in which the land wrangle was resolved.

For some years, construction of a state-of-the-art Health Centre at Chief Nanthako’s area has halted because the people who had occupied the land challenged government they would not vacate as the land belonged to their ancestors.

“We are happy and proud of the Blantyre City Council for the role they played. Finally beacons have been erected a signal that the health centre is now coming after prolonged battles with people who clung to the place.

“This facility, Your Excellency will help a lot of people since it will have very good facilities, and I would like to personally thank the Chief Executive Officer for the Blantyre City Council [Mr Nandolo] for making it possible  for this to come to pass,” praised the traditional leader.

Also in her brief remarks, the president applauded Nandolo saying: “I must thank you the Chief Executive for managing to resolve the mess that also troubled me since it impinged on development. By erecting the beacons at the site it means all is well and that is great.”

According to sources in the area, the confusion erupted after inhabitants thought the City Council had allocated the plot to the area’s Member of Parliament, John Bande, as an individual as his zealots were the ones used to remove the people who settled there.

“The way the land was initially handled it was as if Honourable Bande had been given the land and wanted the villagers to stop farming on the land and leave so they had some reservations and played all sorts of tricks to thwart the health project,” a resident of Makheta told Nyasa Times.

For a number of times, there have been running battles between city officials and the villagers, sometimes even with the police as the two parties tried to reason over the matter.

The highly populous Makheta Township is served by a small outpatient clinic and the coming of the state-of-art facility will greatly assist the people of the area.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
12 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Read previous post:
Robbers loot Dzenza CCAP Church: Gang rape pastor’s house maid

What began as a beautiful Sunday ended fatefully for the family of Pastor Evans Majoni of Dzenza CCAP Church in...

Close