Malawi Congress Party Secretary General Elsenhower Mkaka has branded Malawi president Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera as the most visionary and great leader.
Speaking at a development rally in Chikwawa, Mkaka said he was happy to see developments which Chakwera has initiated almost at every corner of the country.
The SG said Malawi will never be the same under the leadership of Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
Mkaka
Mkaka has since assured Malawians that they are in safe hands.
The SG cited numerous developments which Chakwera administration has initiated in the lower Shire and East Bank.
President Chakwera is in the Southern region where he is undertaking different development initiatives.
National Construction Industry Council (NCIC), says it is now working on a National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy(NIMS) for it to achieve its mandate of service excellence, regulation and compliance, promotion and development as well as strategic partnership.
Chief Executive Office at NCIC, Gerlad Khonje made the sentiments during an interface with network of journalists in construction held in Salima where he disclosed that the strategic plan has some core values which are quality driven, integrity and professionalism, partnerships, agility as well as stakeholder focus which will help in accelerating delivery in the construction industry.
“As NCIC you are aware that our mandate is on promotion, development and regulation of the construction industry, basically we are here for the fourth pillar in our strategic plan which is strategic partnership, for us to ensure that there is quality infrastructure in the country it requires the participation of various stakeholders, and the media are very key in that regard, that’s why we are here.
Khonje
“So we want to share with the media in terms of various interventions that the council is doing, as well as sensitize stakeholders in terms of various aspects concerning infrastructure development, taking in mind that the infrastructure development is a very unique Industry taking that it is a complicated Industry and it involves alot of processes, so in that regard we have put together, Malawi infrastructure delivery standards, these are guidelines which will help every stakeholder in terms of how projects can be conceived, planned, designed, procured, executed as well as maintained so we are sharing with the media on that,” Khonje said.
He also mentioned infrastructure delivery management standards, where the council will be looking at how projects should be planned, how projects should be budgeted for, as well as in the issue of managing costs where they developed Costs Indices which will be working as a guide on what could be expected in terms of costs.
On the part of quality standards in different construction projects Khonje said as a Council they have been proactive in ensuring that the projects are planned and executed with the quality mind set.
“The strategic plan which i have just highlighted to you has a vision of transforming the construction industry to a quality driven and sustainable construction industry that means all the processes leading to infrastructure delivery has to have quality in mind, that being the case, we have not stopped there, we are actively monitoring various projects, and you are also aware that we introduced infrastructure technical Audit, and that Audit meant to be mainstreamed in every project, as NCIC, we piloted those audit in just three projects and the findings are very reveling in terms of challenges that are there, in project implementation and in ensuring that there is quality in infrastructure delivery,” Khonje highlighted.
On her part Vice, chairperson for the network of journalists in construction, Rose Kamera said evidence based reporting in issues of construction is very crucial to every journalist in order to make sure that the information that is being mainstreamed is bringing impact to the public.
Minister of Agriculture who is also Member of Parliament for Dowa North East Constituency Sam Dalitso Kawale, has expressed gratitude to government for committing resources to go a long way towards rehabilitation of Mwangala Health Centre in his area.
Kawale said government has given to the people of the constituency something which they did not expect and it is beyond their expectation claiming that the health facility was built in 1972 and was in very dilapidated state.
Speaking at the launch of the rehabilitation project, Kawale said the health facility will now wear a new face totally different from what it was before claiming that the situation was a mess and today, it will have more structures such as Out-Patient Department (OPD), Washing room, maternity, laboratory and staff houses.
Hon Sam Kawale
Kawale said the health facility has received an overwhelming response and is beyond what they requested for saying the people of the area requested for a new Health Centre but government has provided more.
He said the rehabilitation of Mwangala Health Centre is timely because there was no laboratory, maternity and the structures were all in bad shape as they could have fallen down and injuring people looking at the year it was built in 1972.
The legislator said he had time to talk to the contractor to finish everything on time as the duration is 16 weeks and the communities who agreed to assist not to divert any building materials for personal use.
“The communities have agreed to assist the contractor in looking after the building materials from being diverted for personal use,” said Kawale.
In his remarks, District Director for Health and Social Services for Dowa Dr. Peter Makoza, said the health facility is number one dilapidated in the district starting from the structures, which pose danger to the patients using it.
Dr. Makoza said with the coming of the new facility in the area, people are assured to be provided with good quality health services as it will have components with external works with five more staff houses to be constructed.
Mwangala Health Centre was built in the border benefiting the people of two districts; Dowa and Ntchisi.
Malawians have been asked to start exploring other strategies of sustaining their lives instead of depending on government opportunities.
Prophet Francis T. Samuel of the Light of Life international church (LOLIC), said this in an interview during a day long business seminar which his church organised in Blantyre.
According to the reknowned Blantyre- based prophet, dependency syndrome has not helped to develop the country but made many malawians to be lazy as they wait for the handouts.
Prophet Francis T. Samuel
” Malawians need not solely depend on politicians for their survival. They need to find ways of sustaining their own lives because these politicians have also many things to do to sustain their own lives during this time when our country is facing economic challenges,” he said
Among others, the pentecost church prophet urged malawians to invest in skills development avenues that he said can compel foreign based companies to support them.
” Enterepreneurship is the way to go during this time of economic challenges rather than to depend on employment and handouts from politicians,” said the prophet
The founder of Light of Life ministries international further urged christians across the country to balance between physical and spiritual life to survive in the economic challenges the country continues to face.
The prophet noted that many christians solely depend on prayers rather than venturing into fields that would make them survive while on earth.
” The bible says God shall bless the work of your hands and will answer prayers. So it is very important to pray and work hard to sustain both our spiritual and physical lives,” said the prophet.
Light of Life international ministries was founded in 2009 and officially launched in 2013 with its headquarters in Blantyre.
The government has said it is intending to abolish the death penalty which has been in the Malawi constitution even though no execution has taken place since 1992 when it was implemented.
Speaking during the commemoration of World Day Against The Death Penalty, Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo said everything that is needed to be done has been done and what is remaining is to draft the bill which they will pass to cabinet committee and parliament for implementation.
Mvalo said, ” Through the consultation, the meetings we have had shows that the majority view is in favour of abolishing the death penalty and there are also strong voices against it.
In her remarks Malawi Human rights commission (MHRC) Commissioner Habiba Osman said the commission has been involved in the Fanten project at particular time when some prisoners were released saying it was the same project which exposed the matters relating to death penalty that they are not incompliance with country’s constitution, vision and human rights standards.
On his part, Legal Aid Bureau Director general Trouble Kalua said homicide matters are challenging in the sense that they are handled by the office of Director of public prosecution (DPP) and the courts and legal aid comes in as the third supporting party to process. If the state is not ready with prosecution ,it is always difficult to proceed with the matter.
Kalua went further to say Malawi as a country need to take a stand on whether we want a death penalty which even though is in our constitution but we are not acting ok it “Apart from the sentence itself been inhuman, we torture the people on death row further by mentally subjected them to the fact that they are going to get killed at any point and yet they will not, which is a double punishment to those that have been sentenced to death.”
On his part human rights lawyer Alexious Kamangila said the government of Malawi has shown its interest in protecting the right to life saying the right to life is mother of rights. He said: ” so as advocacy we will continue to engage different stakeholders including the people to civic educate them on what it means by abolishing the death penalty.
Mvalo (L) chating with Kamangila (R) at Maula prison after the end of the World Again The Death Penalty
“It doesn’t mean that a person who has killed someone will be innocent or will be free no. They will be punished heavily but not killed through the death penalty.” Argued Kamangila
On his remarks Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani five said it is a pitty that death sentence is still used, but not being implemented which is inhuman saying the death penalty brings anxiety and grief to the communities especially members of the family that are related to the person that are put on death sentence.
One of the ex- convict who was sentenced to death penalty two decades ago but was released through Fanten project of MHRC former Member of Parliament Nasser Kara said death penalty is a serious issue saying it was not an easy journey for him during his life in imprisonment
He later further hailed the MHRC for coming up with Fanten project that saved him from prison as well as facing the death penalty.
The World Day Against The Death Penalty was commemorated under the theme ” A Road Paved With Torture”
