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Ministry proposes guidelines on declaration of councils

Malawi’s presidents will in future be required to justify decisions to declare areas as cities, districts or any local council if Parliament passes into law the proposed Local Government (Amendment) Act of 2015.

Effectively, the proposed law seeks to trim the powers of the president or Cabinet minister to declare willy-nilly an area as a district, town, municipal or city council.

Currently, Section 4 of the Local Government Act gives the minister powers to declare an area a township or municipality and the president to confer the title and dignity of city on any municipality. However, the Act does not provide guidance as to when and how this has to be done.

Phalombe District Council civic offices, one of the districts declared  at a political podium
Phalombe District Council civic offices, one of the districts declared
at a political podium

But in the proposed amendment, the law provides guidelines on factors to be considered before giving a local government area a status such as township, municipality or city.

The ministry says the change is necessary because experience has shown that local government areas have been declared townships, municipalities or cities and districts even where there is no meaningful infrastructure development and revenue base to support the administration of the areas.

Reads in part the recommendation: “[In the past] Local government areas have been declared even where the geographical and population sizes do not justify such declarations. Thus, there has been no justification from the social-economic or administrative point of view for declaring areas as local government areas or indeed for declaring local government areas as townships, municipalities or cities.”

The ministry adds that some places were given their present status to create more parliamentary seats in areas where then governing parties were popular.

Further reads the proposal: “In order to ensure that there is transparent, justifiable and accountable process of the powers of minister and the President in the matters above, the draft bill proposes to provide general guidelines and considerations that have to be taken into account by the minister or the President when exercising such powers. The considerations include the geographical and population size of the area, the infrastructure and economic development and the revenue base of the areas concerned.”

Commenting on the proposals, Edge Kanyongolo, associate professor of law at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, yesterday said the move to put guidelines is welcome as it will bring sanity to the system.

He said: “It will help to reduce the overwhelming powers of the president because they are open to abuse.”

Malawi’s first multiparty president Bakili Muluzi declared Balaka, Phalombe, Likoma and Neno as independent districts delinked from Machinga, Mulanje, Nkhata Bay and Mwanza in that order.

Muluzi’s successor, Bingu wa Mutharika, who ruled between 2004 and April 2012 when he died, elevated the status of the colonial capital of Zomba from municipality to city and that of Luchenza in Thyolo and Kasungu from township to municipality. He also reinstated Karonga and Mangochi as townships.

Kanyongolo: There will be sanity
Kanyongolo: There will be sanity

However, critics of the declarations have argued that save for few local government areas such as Balaka and perhaps Kasungu, most of the other areas were upgraded with little or no infrastructure and, subsequently, no adequate allocations to reflect their status in terms of infrastructure development.

Neno and Phalombe, for example, still lack all-weather access roads as well as district hospitals while Zomba does not have infrastructure befitting a city, some observers say.

Other proposals include stopping the minister from appointing and transferring chief executive officers (CEOs) and district commissioners (DCs) of councils.

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