Blantyre City Council says it has recovered about K103 million or 1.4 percent of the K9 billion property owners owe the council in outstanding city rates within five days of launching an enforcement drive.
The council’s spokesperson Deborah Luka said in an interview on Sunday that the enforcement campaign, which was led by mayor Isaac Jomo Osman last week, was yielding positive results with several property owners rushing to clear their arrears after their premises were sealed.
She said that as of Friday, the council had collected about K103 million from defaulting institutions.
Said Luka: “Some of the offices that were sealed following the enforcement exercise have been reopened while some property owners have made full payments while others have made partial payments with commitment to settle the balances within the specified period.”
But Luka declined to disclose how much Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) has paid against the approximately K433 million the corporation owes the council in unpaid city rates.
When contacted for comment, MHC spokesperson Ernestina Lunguzi asked for more time before giving a response.
During the exercise last week, the council sealed properties such as MHC head office in Kwacha, Pacific Limited Building and Nacala Logistics offices in Limbe as well as Malawi Congress Party (MCP) offices at Chichiri and Clock Tower in the commercial capital.
The Nation spot-checks on Friday revealed that most of the affected institutions have since reopened their offices after settling part or all of their outstanding bills. The only premises that remained closed were the MCP offices.
Osman is on record as having stated that MHC owes the council about K433 million in unpaid city rates while MCP has K133 million arrears, Nacala Logistics K68 million and Pacific Limited about K52 million.
However, it later emerged that Nacala Logistics had no outstanding city rate payments.
Lilongwe City Council acting chief executive officer Hilary Kamera last week told The Nation that property owners in the capital city owe the council about K14.8 billion in unpaid city rates.
He said the council has since begun holding town hall meetings to sensitise residents to the importance of paying city rates.
In Mzuzu, city council spokesperson Macdonald Gondwe said property owners owe the council about K2 billion while Zomba City mayor Christopher Jana said property owners in his city have accumulated about K1 billion in unpaid rates.
Under the Local Government Act, city councils have legal powers to enforce compliance among property owners, including sealing premises belonging to institutions that fail to pay city rates.
