Councillors urge chiefs to operate within boundaries
Councillor for Mlonda Ward and chairperson for Nsanje District Council Mavuto Kamba has appealed to chiefs to stop interfering with councillors’ work for the country to enhance the decentralisation policy.
Speaking at the district stakeholders meeting on Tuesday, Kamba said Malawi is failing to consolidate democratic governance from the grassroots level because chiefs are being allowed to overstep their boundaries.
“In the absence of councillors, you are allowed to assume their role. You committed a number of mistakes, but we are able to understand you because that’s not your field. But now that people have elected councillors, please step aside and allow us do our work,” he pleaded.
Kamba warned that “any disregard of this advice” by the chiefs could result in conflicts between councillors and traditional leaders and between councillors and Members of Parliament (MPs).
His warning forced Nsanje district civic education officer for National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust, Kondwani Malunga, to ask the council to organise an orientation workshop for the councillors and chiefs where their roles and responsibilities could be clearly defined.
But district commissioner Harry Phiri pushed the ball back into the court of the civil society, saying his office does not have funding to cater for the training.
