Blantyre District Council hands over K17m market shelter

Blantyre District Council on Wednesday handed over a K17 million shelter to Chilobwe Market vendors.

Council chairperson Carol M’dala who is also councillor for Chilaweni Ward, advised people to look after the facility so that it benefits others in future.

“The council plans to build three more shelters here to accommodate more vendors and construct a brick fence around the market,” she said.

M’dala said this can happen if there is transparency and accountability by revenue collectors. She appealed to vendors to pay their market fees.

Senior Chief Kapeni asked Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to speed up construction of three other shelters.

“The shelter will only accommodate 40 out of 100 vendors in the market. So, we need the remaining three completed soon,” he said.

Nevertheless, Kapeni commended the donors for the shelter.

Ireen Salani, a revenue collector, said there are many defaulters in the market.

“When we give them tickets in the morning, they disappear in the afternoon when we come to collect the fees,” she said. The shelter was constructed with funding from USAid in conjunction with UK Aid through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development