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CZ councillors seal DC’s office

Chiradzulu District Council members who recently threatened mass action against district commissioner (DC) Memory Kaleso, on Friday threw all caution to the wind and closed the DC’s office.

And following this development, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has said it will come up with a decision this week after receiving a legal opinion on the same from the Office of the Attorney General (AG).

Sealed: Kaleso’s office

There has been bad blood between the DC and the councillors, who allege that Kaleso is a People’s Party (PP) sympathiser.

Last week , Principal Secretary for the ministry, Kiswell Dakamau, warned the councillors in a strongly-worded letter that the ministry would invoke sections 21(1) and 21(3) of the Local Government Act, to dissolve the council if the situation did not improve.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa said his ministry had already sought a legal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General on how to resolve the issue which has paralysed operations of the council.

“We have sought legal advice from the AG on our proposal to dissolve the council in Chiradzulu. As such the ministry will announce its stand on the matter next week. But until then, we cannot speculate what will happen,” said Nankhumwa.

The warning letter addressed to the chairperson of the council, came in light of allegations that the councilors mostly belonging to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were interfering in the operations of the council.

Among other things, the councillors have been accusing the DC of not supporting activities involving the DPP, which is in majority at the council.

According to Kaleso, she is yet to report to the office which is in disarray as it cannot carry out its administrative duties for all public services since the action was taken by the councillors.

“By the time they were sealing the offices I was on my way to Lilongwe and I only returned on Friday, so I am yet to report to the office. The fact is that I cannot say the reasons for my being closed out of office because that was not communicated to me by the people who did that. The matter is now in the hands of the police,” she said.

But the DC insisted that the councillors had no powers to prevent her from carrying out her duties. In an earlier interview, Chiradzulu District Council chairperson Emmanuel Kamwendo, whom we could not reach for comment on the latest development on the matter, summed up the councillors’ concerns as political and technical.

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