Interview: Samson Maziya, Malga chairperson

Eight months after councillors assumed office, some Malawians feel their presence is yet to be felt in terms of development in their wards. I spoke to chairperson of the Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) and chairperson of Lilongwe District Council, SAMSON CHAZIYA about this observation and other matters.
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Q:
There is a feeling among some Malawians that councillors seem to be doing nothing eight months after they assumed office. Would you say councillors are doing what is expected of them?
A:
The fact is that councillors are not sitting idle. Rather, the situation as of now is not conducive and is not allowing us to show our potential. We are facing huge challenges in terms of mobility. Our conditions of service stipulate that councillors are entitled to motorcycle loans but until now no councillor has accessed the loan and this forces us to walk on foot to execute our duties. Every time we approach government we are told there are no funds.
Q: The assertion that government has no funds sounds incorrect because there have been reports in the media that councilors have been rejecting the loans, saying the amount is too little…
A:
We are not refusing the loans. What we are saying is that the amount allocated in our provision is far too little to enable us purchase durable motorcycles. We were only asking government to adjust the amount upwards. For your information, when government told us that it has no money we asked for the release of the original allocation, but they are even failing to give us that.
Q:
During last year’s campaign most of you sounded very passionate about the job and your subjects would never have guessed that today, you would be complaining about motorbikes. Where has the passion gone?
A:
The passion is not gone and we didn’t intend to give a wrong impression and most councillors never promised such. However, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to urge organisations of good will to come to the rescue of councillors.
One way could be to teach them how to write proposals so that they should get funds for their development endeavours from private donors rather than relying on government alone. Nonetheless, for every donor to release their money they also look at the receiver’s capacity; at the moment we are building our capacity and this also partly explains our so called passivity.
Q: Most councillors think it’s high time members of Parliament (MPs) stopped controlling the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Local Development Fund (LDF). Do you share that view?
A:
The fact that MPs are the brains behind CDF and LDF shouldn’t mean they are life financial controllers of the funds. Anything to do with development must be left to the councillors. But I understand that some MPs are clinging to this because they are afraid that people’s attention will shift to the councillors, but that is just a fallacy.
Initially, these two funds were set aside mainly to cater for small projects and councillors are champions of such minor projects. It doesn’t make sense to see a whole MP inaugurating a box culvert.
Leaving these funds in the hands of councillors will enhance transparency and as a matter of fact, CDF and LDF should be made into one fund called Ward Development Fund (WDF).
Q: Most councillors also want MPs to relinquish their voting rights during council meetings. What’s your take?
A:
It’s complete duplication of duties for MPs to vote in council meetings. They already vote in Parliament and related committees and it’s unfair to continue allowing them to vote during council meetings.
Q:
Seemingly MPs and councillors are at each other’s necks, just what is the root cause?
A:
Some MPs are too greedy and they fear that councillors are stealing the limelight from them. It’s not a matter of belonging to different political parties, rather it’s greed.
MPs should borrow a leaf from teachers who don’t feel jealous when a pupil aspires to be a teacher after their education.
Q: So you are one of the counillors who want to contest for a parliamentary seat in 2019…
A:
No, no, no, but we are living in a democratic society where anyone can contest for any position. But as Samson Chaziya I am not harbouring such ambitions.