As the election fever continues to grip communities, shadow councilors from various political parties in Lilongwe Central Constituency’s Chitsime Ward battled it out on Wednesday during a public debate.
The political debate organized by the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust was held in the area of Group Village Headman Chalendewa, T/A Kalumba where the aspirants grilled each other on the problems facing the area.
Of focal point was the lengthy distance people have to travel to access medical treatment to Bwaila and the dilapidated state of the roads in Chitsime ward.
Speaking during the debate, immediate councillor for the area Amos Mbewe who is also MCP aspirant pledged to construct a health centre with proper staff houses in the area.
“I and my MP Robin Lowe are planning to construct a hospital here so you don’t have to travel all the way to Bwaila to get treatment. In fact, we have already started building staff houses for the hospital and we look forward to completing our development agenda,” said Mbewe.
He also referred to the yet to be opened telecenter in the area as one of his efforts to keep youths busy.
Reacting to Mbewe’s sentiments, DPP shadow councillor in the area, Lucas Sauzande described the last 5 years as a missed opportunity for the area.
“They have been constructing for us temporary infrastructure which get washed every rain season instead of giving us permanent solutions. We still have one CDSS here which is not enough to carter for the area and the telecenter my colleague want to campaign on was already in the plans of President Mutharika,” thundered Sauzande.
The dust refused to settle during the debate when UTM aspirant, Fanizo Msundwe, chided his opponents by reminding them that much of the development challenges in the area are due to lack of accountability and transparency with huge funds meant for development projects missing mysteriously.
“Chitsime ward is suffering because of the people we entrusted to develop our area. Just look at the substandard bridges and the huge amounts of cash they claim to have spent on it shows that these people do not have our welfare at heart,” said Msundwe.
The debate drew shadow councilors from all the five major parties contesting in the tripartite elections particularly the DPP, MCP, UTM, PP, UDF as well as independent shadows.
The aspirants nodded in agreement on the challenges facing the community during the debate and blamed each other’s past governments for not doing enough much to the charging of the audience.
