MHC evict MEC chair
Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC), the State property development and management firm, on Wednesday sealed the official residence of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson MaxonMbendera in Sunnyside, Blantyre allegedly for unpaid rentals.
But MEC Secretariat has said the problem is a result of misunderstanding between the commission and MHC.
Mbendera, who is also a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, was forced to leave the house.
A source told The Nation about the closure.
“It happened on Wednesday around 2pm. The family is now staying in Lilongwe, nobody is in the house since the departure,” said the source on Thursday last week.
MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga confirmed the development on Monday this week and said the commission has since settled the outstanding bill.
Kalonga explained that the closure happened due to a misunderstanding between MHC and MEC.
Said Kalonga: “The time we took the house, it was in bad condition. It had no power and we renovated it at a cost of more than K2 million. We thought the money we spent would offset the rentals, but this was not the case.
“In December [2014], the chair [Mbendera] paid K2.6 million for the house and we wonder why they have closed the house and they have given us a bill of K4.6 million. Are they serious?”
He said although they have paid for the house, the commission would engage MHC on the matter.
“We have just paid the money to end the case and that we wanted the house to be re-opened, but otherwise we will have a talk with them,” Kalonga told The Nation.
“And you should know that this has happened while the chair [Mbendera] is not in the country.”
MHC public relations officer Ernestina Lunguzi refused to comment on the issue, saying she is on leave and referred The Nation to her chief executive officer who could neither confirm nor deny the corporation’s action. She then pushed the matter to administrator Wellington Kazembe.
But Kazembe referred this reporter back to the CEO.
When The Nation on Friday visited the CEO’ office, the secretary told us that we cannot meet her since she was in a meeting.
Mbendera is in Zambia to monitor the January 20 2015 presidential elections that ushered in Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front as that country’s sixth president.
