Mention Chitawira Private Hospital in Blantyre, widely known as ‘kwa Gombwa’ after its founder Dr. Randy Gombwa, and those familiar with the place will immediately connect it to medical services.
However, if you visit the facility today you will not escape the sight of women selling tomatoes, vegetables and other foodstuffs on the pavement leading to the hospital’s entrance.
You would be excused to think they are targeting patients or their guardians. But that is not the case. There is a new market within the hospital premises comprising at least 100 students housed in structures turned into hostels.
Behind the structures smoke rises from the former outpatient department (OPD) now turned into a student accommodation facility and barricaded from the main hospital carpark by a fence made of iron sheets.
In an interview last week, Chitawira Private Hospital director Chipiliro Gombwa said the conversion of the former OPD into student accommodation was a strategic business decision.
He said the hostel section and the hospital’s operations are physically separate; hence, no cause for worry.
Gombwa said the hospital’s management was yet to inform the Medical Council of Malawi about the arrangement, but insisted that the regulator has no jurisdiction over the student accommodation arrangement because the two operations are separate with clear demarcation.
“As far as the regulator is concerned, we are operating in different places. We have demarcated where the two are far from each other,” he said.
Gombwa said the hospital has since relocated the OPD into the main hospital building, where it continues to provide services, including laboratory, maternity, dental and physiotherapy in addition to wards and theatre services.
He said student safety was a key consideration in separating the accommodation from the hospital’s clinical operations.
Medical Council of Malawi chief executive officer Dr. Davie Zolowere said the council would need to check the relevant regulations before responding to the matter. He said the council would revert once it had established what the regulations provide.
The situation at Chitawira Private Hospital mirrors the shortage of student accommodation in public universities which are now selecting students not based on available bed spaces to increase access to tertiary education.
During a visit to the area, The Nation established that property owners now prefer students from Malawi College of Accountancy, Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas), National College of Information Technology, Malawi College of Health Sciences, Malawi Institute of Journalism and Soche Technical College over conventional tenants.
In some cases, families are ordered out of houses to take in students who pay per bed and not the entire unit, creating more revenue for the owners.
Jack Simbeye, one of the victims chased out by landlords, bemoaned being evicted.
“Houses are becoming very scarce in these areas. I think something must be done, especially where landlords would opt for students. I feel it is unfair, especially because of the higher returns,” he said.
For some students, the search for accommodation has pushed them into houses that offer little in terms of space, comfort or basic amenities despite the high rents they pay.
One of the female students bemoaned the lack of enough toilets.
“We have informed our matron of this. We are over 100 around here, yet we have to compete for one toilet,” she said.
Some of the structures are made of unfinished or poorly finished brickwork, with narrow passages and limited space between rooms.
The houses can easily be mistaken for low-income settlements, yet they generate substantial returns for landlords because of the growing demand for student accommodation, with each bed fetching between K80 000 and K150 000 a month.
Property expert Geoffrey Wawawanya said the sector needed proper regulation to protect both property owners and tenants.
He attributed some of the problems to the absence of a comprehensive legal framework regulating private residential property and landlord-tenant relationships.
Wawanya said a Landlords and Tenants Act would clearly define the rights and responsibilities of both parties, including protection against arbitrary evictions and unreasonable rent increases.
He said: “There is laissez-faire towards management of property and landlords don’t respect their tenants. They can increase the rentals or evict the tenant anyhow. We have the Act which is in draft form, gathering dust at the Ministry of Justice.”
In a separate interview, Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Mkondowe and engineer Washington Chimuzu said the problem stems from student intake growing faster than the supply of institutional accommodation.
Both said the country missed investing in hostels form 1994 when primary schools had been declared free.
On his part, Chimuzu , however, cautioned against simply converting ordinary residential houses into hostels, arguing that the infrastructure supporting those houses was designed for fewer occupants.
He called for greater investment in purpose-built student accommodation, including through partnerships between government, universities, private investors and housing institutions.
Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) chief executive officer Bob Chimkango said construction of hostels has started at the University of Malawi, with plans underway for similar facilities at Mubas, Malawi University of Science and Technology and Catholic University of Malawi.
He said the hostels will provide accommodation specifically designed for students, reducing reliance on ordinary family houses.
Chimkango said MHC is also identifying land suitable for hostel development, stressing that land must be properly planned and serviced with adequate water, sanitation, sewerage and other amenities.
“Having land is one thing, but having land that is meant to serve the purpose is another,” he said, describing student accommodation as “serious business.”
Public universities face severe student accommodation shortages driven by soaring enrolments and limited campus bed spaces, forcing many students into overcrowded, off-campus housing with hiked rents, poor utilities and safety risks.
