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Govt, company differ on MV Chilembwe launch

While the government wants the launch of new ship, MV Chilembwe, to be done before May 20, officials at the company building the ship say water levels are still very low.

Malawi Shipping Company, a subsidiary of Mota Engil, which is building the new ship at the Monkey Bay ship building yard, says the MV Chilembwe will be put in water between the end of May and early June.

Mendes (L) accompanied by others on the ship
Mendes (L) accompanied by others on the ship

In an interview on Thursday, Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure Ulemu Chilapondwa said the ship will start sailing on the lake before May 20 and that President Joyce Banda will preside over its inauguration.

“As government, we are very optimistic that the ship will be put on water before we go to the polls. Most of the works are almost through and what is remaining is just to fine tune one or two things. In ship building, there are two phases: assembling the ship on land and finalising of everything is done on water,” said Chilapondwa.

He, however, said they were not pressurising the company to complete the job haphazardly as some people are alleging.

“We know there is a problem of water levels and we understand that but we are optimistic that a way will be found to take the ship on water,” said Chilapondwa.

However, Malawi Shipping Company adviser Austin Msowoya differed with Chilapondwa, saying the ship could not go into the waters before May 20 because the water is below the required levels.

“The ship is ready for any official purposes but not to be taken into the waters. If the [water] levels do not rise to one metre in the next two weeks then it will be impossible to do that,” said Msowoya.

He, however, admitted that they were not getting any pressure from government and that they will finish the job according to their schedule.

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One Comment

  1. Desperate politics from the minister here. Unfortunately, rushing such a delicate project will result in only one thing; sinking of the ship on its maiden voyage like the Titanic. Do we really want to put lives of passengers at risk in the name of scoring political victory by the PP or indeed the minister? Some of us say NO. Leave the engineers alone so they can do their work properly. Political interference, intimidation and manipulation is recipe for disaster .

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