Karonga Council suspends school block handover

Karonga District Council chairperson Misheck Mwaijengo has postponed the handover of a classroom block at Zgeba Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in Senior Chief Wasambo in the district.

The school also has another classroom block which was constructed in 2016, but is yet to be handed over to the community. The school block has since developed cracks and its window panes are broken.

Speaking when council officials inspected the school on Tuesday, Mwaijengo said he did not want to hand over a substandard structure to the community.

He said: “As you can see, that classroom block was built in 2016, but without toilets and teachers’ houses and is yet to be handed over. This new classroom block has cracks on its floor but with no toilets and teachers’ houses as well.

“Let the contractor redo the works within three months before we hand it over to the community. Again, I ask the community to dig pit latrines so that the council should concentrate on renovating the old classroom blocks to enable us commission the school.”

Karonga district chief planning officer Khumbo Mkandawire said the council will use funds from the 2024/25 budget to complete the project.

Group village head Mwenemambwe said they were ready to receive the school block, saying the nearest CDSS is at Fulirwa, about 14 kilometres away.

Zgeba Ward councillor Isaac Kalambo said traditional leaders have moulded 80 000 bricks for an office and toilets.

The school block was funded by Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) to the tune of K63 million.

Gesd is a World Bank-funded performance-based grant that enables district councils to implement development projects.