There was a heated debate among members of Parliament (MPs) from Blantyre District on Friday on where to construct seven community day secondary schools.

Blantyre District Council secretariat, through the office of the district education manager, identified areas where to construct the schools.

However, tempers rose during a full council meeting when some MPs questioned why some constituencies were allocated two or three schools while others had none.

Blantyre City West MP Steven Mikaya said it was unfair to allocate more than one school to one constituency.

“We need to rework  this; otherwise, we will not accept that one MP should have more schools when some of us have none,” he said.

Blantyre Rural East MP Fidson Chisesele and Blantyre South West legislator Keneddy Kachingwe agreed with Mikaya.

“This is a national cake and let everyone benefit from it. We need to share projects because we all represent people of the same district,” said Chisesele.

But this did not please Blantyre North legislator Francis Phiso, a cabinet minister, who said the schools were not meant for MPs to show that they were implementing development projects in their respective areas.

“Let us run away from politics here. I have been allocated two secondary schools but if it pleases members to take away the schools, so much the better because we all belong to Blantyre,” he said.

Meanwhile, the MPs have agreed to propose areas where the schools will be constructed. Blantyre Rural has eight constituencies.

Britain’s Prince Harry exchanged gifts with Malawi’s president during his first official visit to the country on Sunday, where he also visited a college and was joined by his wife Meghan via video call.

The Duke of Sussex had left the duchess and their four-month-old son Archie in Cape Town, where on Saturday Meghan met with a group of female activists, to visit Botswana, Angola and Malawi.

Though Harry has visited Malawi several times privately, this trip is his first visit in an official capacity, marking the final leg of his solo tour across southern Africa before rejoining his family in Johannesburg

On Sunday in the capital Lilongwe he met with President Peter Mutharika, who presented Harry with a large gift wrapped in green paper and received one from the duke in return.

He later attended a reception at the British High Commissioner’s residence, where he delivered an address in front of a union jack backdrop.

Earlier in the day, the duke visited a college to meet young women whose education is partially supported by The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT), of which Harry and Meghan are president and vice president respectively.

Harry was greeted by a line of students waving British and Malawi flags before entering the college, where Meghan joined proceedings via Skype while, she said, Archie took a nap.

A post on the couple’s official Instagram said the project was changing the lives of many young women.

“As president and vice president of the QCT, the Duke and Duchess both believe in the power of education to empower young girls, and change society as a whole,” the post said.

Reporting by Reuters