Blantyre City Council confiscates food

Blantyre City Council on Monday confiscated ready-to-eat food and cooking equipment from vendors for allegedly defying the ban of selling such food in the city.

In an interview yesterday, the council’s spokesperson Deborah Luka said the exercise is part of the measures to mitigate against further spread of the cholera outbreak in the city.

She said the council in collaboration with police will continue to enforce the measures until the ban is lifted.

“We will not relent until we make Blantyre cholera-free. We will confiscate ready-to-eat food along city roads and in townships,” said Luka.

Limbe Police Station operations officer Israel Kwalira said in an earlier interview police were geared to enforce the ban in the city.

On December 22 2022, Blantyre City mayor Wild Ndipo announced the ban of ready-to-eat food following a surge in cholera cases and deaths in Blantyre. The ban came three days after data showed that Blantyre and Lilongwe cities were registering high number of daily cholera cases.

As of Monday, Blantyre had recorded 3 077 cholera cases with 119 deaths.

Cumulatively, the country has recorded 21 522 cases and 716 deaths since the first cholera case was recorded in Machinga in March 2022