By Isaac Salima:
State Vice President Michael Usi has said he is following up on the issue of the Red- Star Campaign, under which the city earmarked substandard buildings for demolition.
The Red Star Campaign is an urban renewal programme aimed at redeveloping the urban ‘decay’ areas of the city through the demolition and rehabilitation of buildings that do not meet city standards.
Usi said this when he met with officials at Blantyre Civic Offices, or Blantyre City Council (BCC) headquarters, Monday.
Few years ago, the council embarked on the exercise, only to be stopped in its tracks by ratepayers who sought the intervention of the courts.
“We are looking at infrastructure within Blantyre City. Most of the buildings are not befitting buildings in a city. We know and respect the existing [court] injunctions.
‘[That said], I have asked the council to give me names of individuals who are owning the so-called [substandard] buildings. The buildings do not look good. They will give me the names so that we can see how we can work together so that Blantyre wears a new face,” Usi said.
He added that they want to inculcate in Malawians the spirit of patriotism.
“We want to strengthen the backbone of patriotism. We want quality service delivery. When you look at the Malawi 2063 development blueprint, we want the country to become a self-reliant one. For that to be achieved, we [need to] have human capital that is relevant. The question is: Are we patriotic?” Usi queried.
BCC Chief Executive Officer Dennis Chinseu rated the Vice President’s visit as important.
He said that some of the individuals who obtained court injunctions had started cooperating with them.
“I would like to assure the people of Blantyre that we are moving in the right direction. As at now, a number of developers are expressing interest in working on their buildings. We will continue engaging them and we are sure that, with support from the Vice President, we will make progress,” Usi said.
0 Comments