…dusty capital gets more dusty roads
..MP Zulu brings grader in the affluent area
One would think with all the dust of Lilongwe, residents would warmly welcome another dusty road at their gates- but residents of the affluent of sector 5c of Area 47 are angry, too angry with the Lilongwe City Council that they are threatening to stop paying council taxes.
The anger has been rooted in poor service delivery (assuming the Council has ever delivered any service) and Parliamentarian for Lilongwe City West George Zulu has rubbed salt into an existing wound when he sent a tractor to “upgrade” the roads- from potholes to dusty ones.
The residents rejected earlier consultation and attempted to do the same, but on Monday this week, Zulu sent the grader, turning some of the streets into dusty roads, increasing the volume of dust that can swallow per day.
Zulu, apparently without consulting the block leaders and residents, sent his MCP constituency youth chairperson, only identified as Kaliwo, to communicate and ask them to identify roads that needed urgent “upgrade.”
One of the block leaders, a retired security official, communicated to the residents’ groups on WhatsApp, noting that the “upgrade” had been rejected and communicated to authorities that it was surprising it was still being pushed.
“Esteemed members, during our last meeting, the above issue was brought forward, and the issue of grading the roads was rejected by residents who attended the meeting. I went back and relayed the message of our rejection, and now that this has come back again, what do you say? I would ask Hon. George Zulu to grade our roads,” read a message from the two block leaders.
The residents rejected this and suggested starting a boycott of city rates as the road was under the City Council and not the parliamentarian. They also questioned the use of the Constituency Development Fund without consulting the constituents.
Residents wondered why “fuel and hiring” had been pushed to the CDF without consulting the residents on their needs.
“The action of grading is very suspicious especially this time around CDF funds usage should be participatory and not imposed. Let us not allow this… we want quality roads.. bitumen in this area,” charged one of the residents.
Another was more cynical, “komatu fuel wa CDF akuyenela atuluke…, may be more serious question is whether the Malawi Housing Corporation, Lilongwe City Council or the Roads Authority (or whoever is responsible for roads in the capital city) has relegated responsibility of maintaining roads in our area to Constituency Youth Chair?”
In March this year a petition was sent to the Lilongwe City Council through the Mayor and the Chief Executive Officer demanding service delivery improvement and that roads be maintained to bitumen standards.
Apart from roads, they asked for refuse collection, streetlights, a sewer line connection, and the removal of liquor shops and illegal structures that were a source of noise pollution in the neighbourhood. The Council has been pretending it has yet to receive the petition.
They threatened to stop paying city rates by 30th April.
Zulu and City Council have yet to respond to our request for comment.
Already, most of the Capital City’s main roads are being upgraded, and none have been completed for over three years, which has contributed to considerable dust absorption, now estimated to be around a kilogramme per resident per year.
