Development Projects Stall as Community Participation Declines in Chikwawa South Constituency
Community leaders in Chikwawa South Constituency fail to mobilize participation, causing the delay and expiration of development project materials.
CHIKWAWA, MALAWI — The construction of eight teachers' houses for 16 teachers at Thendo and Tabwa Primary Schools under TA Ngabu in Chikwawa has stalled, writes Gerald Viola.
The Ministry of Education officials proposed these houses to attract teachers to stay in remote areas.
However, the Constituency Development Fund managed to provide cement and iron sheets, while the communities were tasked with providing quarry stones and sand.
The community leaders, together with their subjects, have failed to provide quarry stones and sand up until now. The cement has gone bad.
All this is happening when communities refuse to participate in development projects in the absence of handouts.
This resistance is happening in all schools where there are projects, which include Chidyamanga, Namizinga, and Khokhwa.
Senior group village headman Thendo has expressed sadness that because politicians spoil his subjects with handouts, he is finding it tough to complete a project of constructing four teachers' houses.
"I have tried to announce a gathering here. They came in large numbers, but they defied my call for them to participate in the fetching of sand and quarry stones. I have no control over them," said Group Thendo.
Khokhwa Primary School Head Teacher Peter Kazembe has revealed that 300 girls at his school are sharing three grass shelters as toilets after the Ministry of Education condemned the brick toilets, which were badly constructed at the school.
Efforts to construct better toilets for these girls are failing because the community is refusing to support the CDF contribution towards the cement and iron sheet provision.
"The situation is so pathetic here. One hundred girls are sharing one shelter as a toilet. I have written the MP to come in and help further, but there is nothing hopeful. The Cyclone Gombe caused all this damage, and it has been my prayer that some well-wishers could come in and help these innocent girls," said Peter Kazembe, who added that girls deserve better hygiene to contain challenges during cycles, but at his school, it is a fallacy.
Mphatso Nkuonera, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, said that, concerning the bathrooms at Khokhwa Primary School in Chikwawa, the ministry is aware of the problem because some of the school's infrastructure was already damaged by Cyclone Freddy.
Since then, the ministry has considered the school for new abolition blocks, with the building beginning once all preparatory operations are done.
“Regarding the postponed project for Thendo, we are still gathering details and will get back to you as soon as the response is ready,” he said.
A visit to Thendo School captured stalled projects, while at Tabwa School, the teachers took AfricaBrief into a store room where cement is expiring.
Some chiefs and other education experts are surprised that leaders in Chikwawa South are sabotaging their development projects for no apparent objective reason.
Some have suggested that it is high time the Ministry of Education found better ways of handling the situation because, the image of the Ministry is being dented by unfinished projects, and worse still, the cement worth K34 million is expiring just because some leaders are failing their responsibility to mobilise their subjects and engage in development projects.
One chief who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "What is happening in Chikwawa South is very strange, but I know the reason. Politicians have spoiled this constituency. I am not surprised at all. Next, it will be all Chikwawa Constituencies if we are not careful. This is refusing development, I am very sad."