Tempers flare at Chikwawa full council meeting

Emotions and finger-pointing marred a full council meeting in Chikwawa on Monday when the district commissioner (DC), chief accountant and the procurement officer failed to convince participants on how they managed District Development Fund (DDF) and Local Development Fund (LDF).

The councillors, chiefs and members of Parliament openly faulted the secretariat for allegedly failing to be accountable, citing failure to explain how they utilised K15 million from LDF for public works projects.

The councillors further quizzed the secretariat why some projects under DDF were not complete, yet government disbursed K130 million for the works.

As more questions and answers kept coming, tempers flared, forcing the council chair Betason Tito to suspend the meeting for 20 minutes.

As people were waiting for sober discussions to begin, DC Bester Mandere said he was disappointed with the way councillors were flouting full council meeting procedures.

This did not go down well with chiefs Mulilima and Maseya and councillor Davie Josam, who told the meeting that it was not proper to threaten people because DCs come and go.

But Mandere hit back, saying he hated to be insulted. He said he was ready to leave the district if people wanted it that way.

Later, calm prevailed and the meeting adopted implementation of the emergency productive works programme.

The meeting also tackled other issues, including the land encroachment within Chikwawa Secondary School premises and the locusts that have attacked crops in some parts of the district.