Speed up road rehab project, residents say

Residents in Mzuzu have given authorities seven days to complete rehabilitation of stalled road projects in the city.

The ultimatum follows the delay to release funds for the city’s rehabilitation programme. Out of the K4.1 billion allocated for the project in the 2021/22 fiscal year, only K525 million was released.

Reading the petition at Mzuzu Civic Offices, a resident Kinear Mlowoka  said out of the K525 million, only a kilometre(km) of the nine-km bypass road that connects the M1 at Lubinga to M5 at Mzuzu Government Secondary School has been constructed.

“We have noted that Mzuzu struggles to access funding for developmental activities. We are just being used in the national budget because government does not honour our allocation,” he said.

Mzuzu City Council spokesperson Macdonald Gondwe said they used the funds for the rehabilitation of the bypass road that connects M1 at Lubinga via Zolozolo to M5 at Mzuzu Government Secondary School,” he said.

Gondwe said part of that money was also allocated for the Dunduzu-Nocma Road and Dunduzu-Mzuzu Academy Road.

“We didn’t have challenges with the Lubinga-Mzuzu Government Road because we already have Plem Construction on site,” he said.

Gondwe said the council is yet to finalise the procurement process for the Dunduzu-Nocma Road and Dunduzu-Mzuzu Academy Road.

The meeting was funded by a consortium of non-governmental organisations, including Voice of Livingstonia, Church and Society and Find Your Feet under Enhancing Urban Governance Through Active Citizenship and Stakeholders Engagement Project.