Phalombe District Commissioner Douglas Moffat says some people took advantage of the floods to steal other people’s property after the items were swept away.
The DC has urged people who took other people’s property to surrender them to police in the district.
Moffat made the remarks after a cultural grouping, Mulhakho wa Alhomwe, on Wednesday donated relief items to the cyclone’s survivors at Phalombe Secondary School camp in traditional authority Mkhumba.
In an interview, Moffat said most people lost property during Tuesday’s incident due to flooding and others through theft by some people who took advantage of the survivors’ situation.
“Some people have lost properties through theft by some criminals who took advantage of the situation, I am asking them to return the properties to the police so that owners should identify them,” said the district commissioner.
In her remarks, Senior Chief Kaduya concurred with the district commissioner saying culturally it is not right to take advantage of someone’s situation and steal their property hence the need for people to return the properties they got to authorities.
“It’s sad that some took advantage of these peoples’ situation which is inhumane, anyone who took any property during this time should return it to authorities so that owners should identify and own them back,” she said.
In a separate interview, board chairperson for Mulhakho wa alhomwe Evis Thodi said the organisation decided to come in quickly and assist the people considering that most of the survivors lost everything including essentials such as food.
“We have come with things such as maize flour, soya pieces, salt etc so that people should have something to eat here at the camp as many of them have been here for over two days without taking any food. We have also brought clothes and plastic sheets for them to elect temporarily shelters,” said Thodi.
One of the survivors, Rose Laelo, commended the cultural grouping saying the food will help them during their stay at the camp but she however appealed to other well-wishes to come in with more food and other relief items.
“At least today we’ll have something to eat because of these food from Mulhakho wa Alhomwe. I am asking other well-wishers to come in and help us as these are not enough with number of people we’re here,” said Laero.
In Phalombe, Cyclone Freddie has killed 35 people as per Thursday’s update and there are more than 40 camps where Cyclone Freddie’s survivors are staying.
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