Chileka airport staff forced to carry coffins from airplane

Jan 04, 2016 Business 117
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Chileka airport

Malawi’s Chileka International Airport ground staff were on Saturday forced to manually load and offload cargo which included 2 coffins containing human remains as well as baggage following the breakdown of two remaining conveyor belts, one of which stopped working some weeks ago.

This incident forced passengers to stand in the arrivals section of the airport for quite a longer time waiting for their baggage.        

Lilongwe Handling Company (LIHACO) has for so long been accused by airlines of using old unserviceable equipment which leads to delays and other ground incidents which put the carrier’s business at stake.

LIHACO station manager for Blantyre, Charles Nkhoma could not answer his ground phone when contacted in search for his input on the matter.

However, passengers commented negatively while questioning the credibility of keeping a company which is even failing to repair worn out equipment.

Chileka airport
Workers ferrying the coffin

One of the LIHACO’s  staff members who confided in us on conditions of anonymity, lamented on the tendency of unnecessary and extravagance expenditure by top management office holders, who had in two consecutive years bought eight state of the art KIA vehicles at over K40million each, with servicing wholly shouldered by the company.  

‘’It’s very disheartening to see them enriching themselves with unnecessary travel allowances each passing day as well as spending millions on their cars while they can’t even service a conveyor belt,’’ said the disappointed employee.

After efforts to talk to the station manager proved futile, we also tried to get through for the Motor Transport Manager MTM, Mr Chabaluka whose ground phone went unanswered for several times.

One passenger, a Malawian of Asian origin who disembarked Kenyan Airways, Rahmir Mahomed wondered over the silence surrounding the matter of privatisation and the search for strategic partners for underperforming government companies like LIHACO, an idea which experts recommended for efficiency of operations and growth of the country’s economy.

Chileka Airport is located about 4 kilometres northwest of the central business district of Blantyre and has no Passenger Aid Unit, Modern High loader, no functioning conveyor belt and has no reliable Passenger check-in equipment, which forces passengers to stand on the queue for a long time without getting assistance.

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117 Comments

  3. Typical…typical…..mmalawi sazatheka basi. 2010 nnaferedwa, am based in RSA. Nnaona cargo akutulutsidwa manually. Including the body I went for.

    Abale mpaka lero ziri mommo.

    Eiiiiish!!!!!!

  13. its a machine! that it can broken at anytime,and also that plain was also rushing for a time so it was due for anyone to carry the coffins, idont see anything wrong

  14. Anawauza ma ground workers pa contract yawo anawauza kuti when a conveyor mulfunctins ,You shall load and unload cargo, nde iwe ukuti chani,ine nilibe pulobulemu

  18. Stupid management! ! You went to a thefty school just like your leader. Be ashamed of yourself. Once again, Stupid management lead by ignorance managers & diretors.

  27. Zina ukamva chimanga anga mpunga…..24’s hiden agenda here is to uncover that the belts are not working.,,please kumalemba zothandiza…iwe basi ku typer mkupangadi publish zimenezi???

  37. conveyor belts normally breaks after being used for sometime without repair. how can a cargo handling company buys vehicles worthy more than MK40000000 and fails to repair conveyor belts.???

  43. aaaah James for how long the company is failing to buy the belts when they purchase vehicles worthy more that MK40,000,000.00 I don’t believe that official at OR Tambo carry goods by hands..

  44. Munthu imitators mumacheza naye bwino bwino alimoyo ‘kudya naye , kumwela limodzi komanso kugona naye ndiye mukamuwope kapena kunyansidwa chifukwa wamwalila Zoona? Iweyo siuzamwalila mtembo wako atazagwile ndani Tsopano .kupanda umunthu kumeneko

  52. Thats their job. Had it been there were no conveyor belts, how would have the cargo been carried?? Any other duty assigned!!

  57. Rubbish. There are no conveyor belts taking cargo straight from the plane to any part of the airport even at OR Tambo International Airport in RSA. Research properly before posting nonsense.

    3. James,are you outraged because of the ignorance displayed by the folk or the post itself? as man of your proffesion you would’ve been more knowledgeable of people’s inadqaucencies.

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  62. y dnt they replace the conveyin belt,,,,if i were one of the workers there at the chileka airport,i wud nt dare forced to carry the coffins……..hw much dd they charged,perhaps waz freestyle work,was it not so?…kkkkkkkkkkk……………..shame poor malawian,bt frankly,malawi has to change n strangthen her laws

    3. amalemba even pama interview *you will perform any other duties assigned to* ukabvomereza u sit for interv. Akakutenga umakhala kt wavomereza kale even a Malawi 24 amadziwa izi stop being ignorant

    5. i mean utha kugwira ntchito iliyonse bwana angakupatse kupatula ntchito unalembedwa sorry word ignorant ndimatanthauza kt udzidziwa zimenezi zimakhala zili mu MOU

    6. the word ignorant z nt big deal to me,they nvr say that they agreed abt dis in their documents,wat matters z,”they forced to road n unroad goods whch r inrelivant to their work, that z why workers r complenin.get mi?

    8. ntng,,,,bt they ddnt mention coffin only,they include couples in the coffin…if i ask u to carry that kind of coffin,will u obey wish? if yes or no,y?

    11. Inu musavutisane apa ife amene takhala kumudzi, kunyamula maliro kaya kusambisa opanda ma gloves sikhani, mwinaso ukamayenda pa njira kukumana ndi anthu atanyamula maliro oti sukuwaziwa umagowathandizapo kunyamula pang’ono kenako kumapitiliza ulendo wakko.

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