The sadists in our city halls

City councils in Malawi are sadists and their callousness prays on the poorest of the poor in their areas of jurisdiction in heart-breaking ways.

For decades, people living in dirt-poor locations such as Bangwe in Blantyre, Chikanda in Zomba, Mtandire in Lilongwe and Zolozolo in Mzuzu pick out what they believe to be ‘idle’ land in various places and till it to grow crops to feed their starving families.

Some of this land belongs to the city council, Ministry of Lands, Malawi Housing Corporation and even private developers. A good chunk of it is in reserved areas for future developments.

I have no problems with the cities prohibiting anyone from tilling these pieces of land. In fact it is the right thing to do as encroachment brings a lot of issues, including conflicts.

The problem is the timing of their enforcements, the selective application of the bye-laws, the unjust and unfair manner they execute their decisions.

Take Lilongwe City Council’s (LCC) behaviour this week, for example. LCC waited for these ‘encroachers’ to prepare the land, make the ridges and plant their crops. Even then, they went ahead to watch these folks apply fertiliser and weed their crops. LCC did nothing.

Then the maize started to silk and the cobs began to mature—that is when LCC sent their zealous enforcement teams to cut down the maize after all the efforts from the growers.

Why, for goodness’ sake, did they not stop the people in the earliest stages of their efforts? Why didn’t they raze it down soon after germination?

Why did the city fathers watch the people suffer for nothing just when they were about to enjoy the fruits of their labour?

And in a year that is likely to experience crop failure due to wide-spread and prolonged dry-spells, how can city authorities allow good maize crops with potentially high yields to be razed down by crazed enforcers? How can they be so wasteful?

LCC clearly wanted these folks, who were specifically targeted for their powerlessness, to suffer. The council cynically preyed on their low social standing to cruelly lord over them.

The farming encroachers are not the only ones the cities pounce on. I have met women who are in tears because city authorities have grabbed their mandasi, for example, because they were found vending in non-designated places.

The cities have not even come forward to explain what they do with the goods they grab from these weak and desperate souls.

Chances are high that the enforcers share the ‘spoils’ from the streets and no one is held accountable.

Meanwhile, the families of the poor folks who will have lost their little capital would be starving for days.

Yet, throughout the cities, I see a lot of ‘encroachers’ being allowed to go about their businesses freely.

You have, for example, second hand car dealers who have given themselves ‘markets’ for the cars in undesignated and sometimes reserved lands, especially in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.

Some of the dealers, especially those in central business districts (CBD) spaces, even cause traffic congestions and parking space shortages as they permanently station their ‘for sale’ vehicles in the parking spots throughout the day.

Cities would claim that these car dealers pay some fees for the space, but the money paid is so low compared to how much they make from these ‘showrooms’ of theirs that they can as well be operating from there for free.

These folks are allowed to operate without a fuss because they have deep pockets and are able to make ‘donations’ to city officials and continue to operate without the encumbrances exacted on the little man and woman from the shanty towns.

It is the type of cruelty that is hard to explain, especially when the same city councils look away when those eye-sore mobile money sharks blind us to the beauties of our cities, even in CBDs.

No city official has grabbed their scratch cards or burned down their makeshift ‘shops’ that should have no business in the middle of CBDs.

And, oh, the cities would embark on so-called operation red stars to identify buildings that should be demolished for various violations but rarely enforce such!

Some of the targeted buildings are still standing decades later and making their owners—especially those of Asian origins—billions of money.

Others do not even pay city rates, owing the cities for years. Yet, our city fathers allow these folks to do as they please, but unleash, with gusto, their negative energies on the little guy with no money and no power.

If this is not sadism, I don’t know what is.