Higgins pledges Irish support
Visiting Irish President Michael Higgins has urged Malawi to count on hard work and its booming friendship with Ireland to overcome development hurdles such as hunger and poverty.
Higgins said this during a State Dinner hosted in his honour by President Peter Mutharika at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on Monday night.
“I take great encouragement from the spirit of cooperation that infuses the relations between our two nations and I know that we will continue, together, to find solutions to great challenges that we face jointly in our increasingly interdependent and globalised world,” Higgins stated.
He expressed joy that eradicating hunger and poverty is one of the main overarching objectives of Ireland’s development cooperation with Malawi, adding that Ireland has experience in how it broke free from such vices in the past.
Welcoming Higgins and his delegation, which includes Ireland First Lady Sabina Higgins, Mutharika commended the people and the Government of Ireland for proving to be special friends in promoting Malawi’s quest for self-reliance, development, modernisation and poverty reduction.
Yesterday, Higgins and his delegation undertook a busy programme that included visiting Saopa Mpeni Village in Salima to sample an Irish Aid–funded resilience programme.
Last evening, the Irish Ambassador Aine Hearns hosted the visitors to a reception at her residence in Lilongwe.
Court orders Soche Hill encroachers out
MERCY MALIKWA , Staff Reporter
The Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday ordered illegal settlers at ‘Long Live Kamuzu’ on Soche Hill to move out of the area within six months from November 10.
The order, made by senior resident magistrate Jean Rosemary Kayira but read on her behalf by chief resident magistrate Thom Ligowe, was made following the conviction and sentencing of Isaac Chitsa who was posing as chief of the area and illegally selling land.
According to a statement from Blantyre City Council (BCC) public relations manager Anthony Kasunda, the court has ordered BCC to execute its undertaking in relation to the 64 settlers who were offered relocation to Machinjiri.
In 2007, BCC had offered to relocate the 64 families that had settled illegally in the area to South Lunzu, but they refused.
“Now the number has grown to over 1 000 families because the convict continued to sell land. On October 30 2014, the court convicted Isaac Chitsa for undermining the lawful power or authority,” reads the statement.
