Vendors plying their trade at Karonga Boma main market have given Karonga District Council a seven-day ultimatum to resolve grievances over market state threating to boycott paying market levy if the council fails to meet their demands.
According to a letter addressed to the council chairperson, Belliam Msukwa, which 247 Malawi News has seen indicates that the market committee has been wanting to present their grievances over the state of the market to the council but the later showed disinterest. “It was our intention to engage you on matters of the state of the market but since you are not interested to see us, this serves as a seven-day notice to your office to resolve them.
Failure to resolve them, the committee will mobilise all market vendors to boycott payment of market fee from Wednesday, February 2.” Reads part of the letter. The grievances include, floodlights that are not working due to failure of the council to purchase electricity units for floodlights, blackout over two years because the council is unable to replace a faulty fuse and failure of cleaners to ably clean the market and failure to remove waste from strategic bins.
When asked to comment on the matter, Msukwa asked for more time to see full content of the letter.
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) has expressed its preparedness in dealing with disasters by activating early warning system clusters that deal with such issues in the prone areas.
Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba, said in Lilongwe on Monday during a press briefing under the banner Government Faces the Press that the search and rescue cluster, headed by the Malawi Defence Force, has already been activated to be on alert.”We have all the necessary resources needed in terms of maize, equipment for search and rescue, boats among other things.”What we may not have now, if need arise, is the air equipment but we are sure that we will get assistance from our neighboring countries under SADC,” said Kalemba.
Deputy Director of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, Lucy Ntilatila, said the Cyclone is in Mozambique channel from where it is going to move towards Malawi particularly through Mulanje.She added that although the centre is far from Malawi, it has already started affecting the country and the effects are huge.
She, therefore, advised the public to move to safer and higher areas, avoid crossing flooded rivers and walking through running water as well as staying away from power lines and electrical wires among other measures to reduce damages due to disasters.
Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) has on Saturday disbursed cash relief to community members that were affected by strong winds in Traditional Authorities Kilupula and Kyungu in Karonga District with a call to make proper use so as to get back to normal life.
The donation saw 245 community members receiving cash ranging from K26, 000 to K65, 000 based on findings of assessment conducted in the district on effects of the strong winds to the households.
National Restoring Family Links (RFL) Officer in the department of disaster at MRCS, Steven Seleman, said MRCS saw it necessary to provide assistance and called on the communities to use the money properly. We saw it important to provide assistance to people that have been struck by disasters and we urge the recipients to make sure that they use the money to buy materials so that they rebuild houses that were damaged during the disaster, it is pitiful to see people getting money and use on other issues, he said.
Seleman symbolically giving cash relief to a woman
He has since pointed out that MRCS expects people to be able to rebuild and repair their houses and pleaded with them to plant trees to reduce the effect of strong winds and consider moving to safer areas.
People living in disaster prone areas should move to higher places, they should also consider planting trees around their areas to make sure that the strong winds do not come with force to destroy their houses, he said. District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer, Shepherd Jere, hailed MRCS for the support provided to community members who were affected by the strong winds.
As a council, we are very grateful for the support, we believe the assistance will help the affected households to maintain and rebuild the houses that were damaged and live a normal life again, he said. Jere added that as a council, they are engaging communities, warning them about how the weather will be and through committees on the ground they are able to share information with community members.
Steven Selemani
On her part, one of the recipients, Beauty Mwangolera, thanked MRCS for supporting them financially saying the assistance is timely and of great significance. We are very thankful to MRCS because the strong winds really pulled us from living normal life but with this support which has come in time, we will get back to normal life after maintaining our houses, she said.
On January 16th, the area of Traditional Authority Kilupula was hit by strong winds rendering some household affected. MRCS injected cash amounting to K10, 800 000 with financial support from European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) and Malawi Government to make sure that people in the District are assisted.
In a dramatic action, Malawi Police Service say it will move to court to cancel the warranty of arrest for Political Activist Bon Kalindo who is allegedly accused of Insulting the State President Lazarus Chakwera when addressing demonstrators in Blantyre on Friday.
In a statement, National Police Spokesperson James Kadadzera says the cancellation decision of Kalindo’s warranty of arrest has been done independently without pressure from the public or public pronouncements made by politicians.
He says, as the security service, MPS remains committed to respecting the right to freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstrations
Youth clubs in Karonga District have commended Pamoza Tingakwaniska Organization for conducting a training on sexual and reproductive health rights, describing it as an eye opener in the fight against Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies.
This came to light on Friday when the organisation through its project dubbed ‘Fiska Ulato’ engaged leadership of youth clubs at Baka Residential Training Centre in the District to train them on sexual and reproductive health rights.
In an interview, Vice Chairperson for Ngala Youth Club, Milliam Mkandawire, described the training as significant to youths as it has enlightened them on sexual and reproductive health and rights. “This training has been of great significance to us because it has enlightened us on sexual and reproductive health rights of which we will impart to our colleagues in our communities, Ngala is a busy place with many activities, so we will be able to protect ourselves from STIs as well as unwanted pregnancies,” she said.
Pamoza Tingakwaniska officials, facilitator and youth club leaders
She added that as leaders, they will make sure that they teach the youths in their clubs also to teach others the knowledge pertaining to sexual and reproductive health. Echoing Mkwandawire, Vice Chairperson for Better Vision Youth Club at Nyungwe, James Nyirongo, said the training has cleared knowledge gap that existed amongst youths. “We are very thankful for this training because it has bridged the gap on issues around sexual and reproductive health rights amongst us the youth, and we will now be the light to other youths in different clubs we have represented here today,” Nyirongo said.
On his part, Youth Friendly Health Services Coordinator for Karonga District Hospital, Davis Chelewani, who facilitated the training, said as leaders of youth clubs, they ought to have more knowledge on sexual and reproductive health rights, hence the training. “As youth club leaders, they need to have the knowledge so this training was important to them, so as leaders they need to lead their subjects according to sexual and reproductive health rights and this will health them today and in the future,” he said.
Davis Chelewani
On her part, Project Officer for the organisation, Gomezgani Mhango, said the organisation aims at equipping youths on how best to take part in sexual and reproductive health rights realising misconceptions about contraceptives in the communities. “We want to train youths through their leaders in the District on how best they can take part in this matter because we have so many misconceptions about contraceptive methods amongst the youths, so these leaders are key people that teach other youths in communities,” she said.
She has since pointed out that the organisation expects to see leaders who are able act as role models in their communities and lead vibrant youth club activities pertaining to sexual and reproductive health rights issues in their communities.
The training brought together leadership of from six Youth Clubs, three from each Traditional Authority in Karonga. Pamoza Tingakwaniska Organisation is implementing Fiska Ulato project with funding from Bruekmann Foundation from Germany.
