National News

Council seals MCP offices over unpaid city rates

In its bid to recover outstanding rates owed by property owners, Lilongwe City Council yesterday sealed Malawi Congress Party (MCP) headquarters at City Centre in Lilongwe.

Business at the premises ground to a halt and it took the intervention of Lilongwe City Mayor Juliana Kaduya to have the offices reopened after some negotiations.

City council officials sealing the premises

Kaduya, who tried hard to distance herself from MCP despite being a member of the party, said the action was part of a normal enforcement on all properties with accumulated bills.

She said the reopening of the offices followed a discussion between MCP and the council. She said she attended the meeting in her capacity as mayor.

Kaduya said: “We were in a meeting with the two parties and I attended as a mediator and it quickly became clear that the city council rushed in sealing off the offices at the party’s headquarters as the issue of MCP rates is still in court.

“That was when the parties agreed to have offices open giving room for discussion between the two parties or a conclusion at the court.”

In a statement issued later, MCP expressed shock with the development.

Reads the statement: “The party believes that the council flawed in its action as it overrides and contradicts the earlier court ruling. The Malawi Congress Party is currently utilising all channels at its disposal to ensure that its concerns on the matter are addressed quickly by all stakeholders involved.”

MCP is a key partner in the governing Tonse Alliance administration. It was out of power since 1994.

In October this year, it emerged that property owners owe the country’s four city councils a whopping K14 billion in unpaid city rates, a development that is choking service delivery and pushed some of the councils to pounce on defaulters this week.

Lilongwe City Council is owed the highest at K12 billion and the council indicated at the time that most of the cases were in court.

Reacting to the developments in an earlier interview, Malawi Local Government Association acting executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said it is unfortunate that the central government was also in the forefront choking councils in payment of property and city rates.

In the 2020/21 National Budget, all city and district councils projected to collect K6 billion and as at March 31 2021, they had collected K4.3 billion, representing 62 percent of the amount.

Of the projected K6.9 billion locally generated revenue, K27 million is from central government property rates, K2.4 billion income from market establishments, K3.4 billion from fees and service charges, K1.1 billion from licences and permits while K159 million is from other property rates.

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