DCs outnumber available councils—Minister

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Trasizio Gowelo says Malawi has more district commissioners (DCs) than available councils, blaming the situation on “undeserved” promotions prior to the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections.
Gowelo said this on Friday when he opened a two-day national conference of Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi.

Said the minister: “Additional DCs were hired in 2014 before the elections and these additional officers have increased the number of DCs and yet we only have 28 districts.
“We are doing everything possible to reassign these additional DCs to various positions although we have been facing legal challenges, but discussions are still ongoing to resolve the matter.”
According to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development spokesperson Mahlabase Mughogho, there are currently about 40 DCs in addition to seven chief executive officers of councils.
On government’s delays in disbursing loans to ward councillors, Gowelo said the ministry is consulting commercial banks and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development on how best to administer the facility.
He said: “We are still discussing with our colleagues in banks and those in Finance on the issue of interest rates. As you may be aware, the issue of loan is a long- term issue which needs to be handled properly, very soon the councillors will be granted the loans.”
Malga president Samson Chaziya said government could have been specific as to when local government representatives would get the loans as they have already waited for a long time.