Hiccups rock Sadc summit

Problems have rocked preparations for Malawi’s hosting of this year’s Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) summit in August, Weekend Nation has established.

Cabinet sources say accommodation challenges have dogged the Cabinet committee—chaired by Malawi Vice-President Khumbo Kachali—organising the summit that is also set to crown Malawi President Joyce Banda as its new chairperson, taking over from Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.

The first hiccup is that the Ministry of Tourism has told the administration that the Presidential Hotel—which has been earmarked to accommodate some delegates—will not be ready for use in August, but the committee has ordered the ministry to make it habitable at all cost.

Secondly, the country’s hotels and lodges—worried about government’s inability to honour bills on time and smarting from the last minute cancellation of the African Union summit after the industry had already invested ahead of the gathering—are refusing to book delegates without upfront payment.

The week-long summit—to run from August 10 to 18 at Bingu International Conference Centre—is expected to attract about 2 000 delegates, including Heads of State and Government from 15 Sadc member States, officials have said.

Panic preparations

The panic over preparations comes roughly six weeks before a Sadc team visits the country in July to make a final assessment on Malawi’s readiness to host the regional body’s annual meeting.

On a positive note—at least to taxpayers—Weekend Nation has learnt that organisers of the summit wanted to hire top range vehicles, including limousines, from South Africa for use during the summit but President Joyce Banda rejected the proposal, citing high hiring costs.

Instead, the President has ordered that Cabinet ministers should surrender their Mercedes Benz to be part of the fleet locally sourced for the summit, according to a communication to ministers dated May 16 from Chief Secretary to Government Hawa Ndilowe.

“In a bid to reduce operational costs, Her Excellency the President has directed that government should not hire limousines from abroad for use during the summit but, instead, source vehicles locally, including from government’s own fleet.

“In this regard, I wish to respectfully request you, Honourable Minister, to release your official Mercedes Benz vehicle for inspection at the Plant and Vehicle Hire Organisation [PVHO] who will, in turn, take it to the dealers to obtain quotations for repairs,” reads Ndilowe’s communication in part.

Three Cabinet sources confided in Weekend Nation this week that a proposal to hire limousines from South Africa was made to beef up the limited number of government vehicles to be used by Sadc Heads of State and Government during the summit.

Malawi is expected to provide transport to all delegates, food and accommodation to some of the 2 000 delegates and meet costs of other logistical arrangements during the summit, according to the Cabinet sources.

Presidential Hotel

The sources indicated that the main challenge concerning the summit preparation is in line with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture’s position that the newly- constructed Presidential Hotel at Umodzi Park would not be ready for usage by the time the government would host the Sadc summit. But Weekend Nation has learnt that Cabinet is pressurising the ministry to ensure the hotel is ready by August to accommodate some delegates.

One of the Cabinet sources said the Presidential Hotel would not be ready for use because government was yet to finalise arrangements to engage a long-term operator and that the hotel does not have adequate refrigeration and other necessary equipment for kitchen and bar.

However, last Friday our sister paper, The Nation, reported that government has offered the lease for the management of the facility to South Africa’s Legacy Holdings.

According to the source, Cabinet observed that there is need to ensure that the Presidential Hotel and the Presidential Villas are made available so that they can be used during the summit.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture has been asked to work hard in liaison with officials from her ministry and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that both the Presidential Hotel and the Presidential Villas are made available for use during the Sadc summit.

The source also said Cabinet plans to push Umodzi Holdings Limited—the special purpose vehicle set up to manage the Bingu complex built with a commercial loan from China—to allow it use the Presidential Hotel and the Presidential Villas for free or at reasonable rates during the summit.

Another Cabinet source said hotel owners in Lilongwe are refusing to confirm bookings for delegates to the summit because they want government to pay them in advance for the bookings.

Hotel owners’ refusal to confirm accommodation bookings for the Sadc summit’s delegates comes about a year after most of them invested heavily to improve their facilities in readiness for Malawi’s hosting of the African Union (AU) summit which was cancelled when Malawi denied entry to war crimes indicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir.

No budget for the summit

The source said Malawi Government “is running helter-skelter” trying to raise money to secure accommodation places for delegates given that there is no budget for the summit at the moment plus the need to locally source vehicles and make advance payment for the summit’s fuel.

The price tag for the meeting is yet to be finalised but indications are that hundreds of millions of tax-payer’s money will have to be spent.

For example, a source told Weekend Nation that government arranged to buy 70 000 litres of fuel and source 260 vehicles for the summit.

The 70 000 litres would cost between K47.4 million (about $118 500 if all fuel is diesel) and K48.6 million (about $121 500 if all fuel is petrol).

If, for arguments’ sake, government hires 100 vehicles for seven days to beef up its own fleet to provide transport to the delegates, it would cost taxpayers between K28 million (about $70 000) and K42 million (about $105 000), taking into account hiring charges for a wide range of vehicles including 4x4s and Mercedes Benz from reputable local car hire firms.

On accommodation and food, Malawi will have to pay for the stay of all Heads of State and Government and some members of their delegations, the Cabinet sources said.

In an interview last Thursday, Minister of Tourism and Culture Rachael Zulu said apart from the presidents, Malawi will also foot costs for the stay of three or four other senior officials from every Sadc country in attendance.

With government footing accommodation and food costs for about five delegates from each of the 15 countries, this would cost taxpayers about K45 million (about $112 500), taking into account average accommodation and meal costs in standard hotels in Lilongwe.

Zulu said Lilongwe has enough places to accommodate 2 000 delegates to the summit even when the Presidential Hotel would not be ready for use.

“We are fully prepared as a ministry. Sadc summit is not a big summit like AU summit. We may not be using the Presidential Hotel, but we have enough and good accommodation for all the delegates,” she said.

She said there is a special Cabinet committee on hosting of the summit which is currently mobilising resources to pay for advance accommodation bookings in different hotels.

“Most of the delegates will pay for their own accommodation and meals. We will only cater for the Presidents and about three or four other top officials from every country,” said Zulu.

In a separate interview, vice-chairperson of the Cabinet committee on the Sadc summit and Minister of Defence Ken Kandodo said government has advanced its preparations for the summit but he could not give details of its overall budget.

Minister of Finance Dr Ken Lipenga said the Cabinet committee on the summit is yet to finalise working on the budget for the event.

“The budget for the summit is still being worked on. There is a committee chaired by the Vice-President that is working on that,” he said.

We have learnt that government is also working on provision of a conveyor belt at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) to facilitate luggage offloading for delegates.