DPP vacates from city council house
The change of government leadership from the late Bingu wa Mutharika to Joyce Banda has forced former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to vacate from the house of chief executive officer for Blantyre City Council which it took by force and used as regional offices for the party in the south.
The party made the decision after Her Excellency Joyce Banda was sworn in as Head of State following the death of late president Mutharika.
“We have moved to Maselema. We realized that with the change of government administration, it was prudent for us to humbly leave the house because we knew that eventually we would be booted out,” a senior DPP official from the southern region committee confirmed.
The party did not even pay rentals for all the time it used the house located in Sunnyside, Blantyre. It grabbed the house since it took power under Mutharika.
The action by the party to grab the house from the city rendered the city’s chief executive officer homeless. Instead of staying in the council city, he has been operating from his own house.
“Yes I have been operating from my house,” Blantyre City Council chief executive officer Ted Nandolo said.
Officials from the council could not tell the amount the party owes them but said now that the party is out of government, they will ask DPP to pay the rentals in arrears.
An official at the council said the party used its power to use the house without paying rentals and the concerned authorities that handle rentals were helpless.
The DPP office was also used to keep panga knives to be used to silence critics of the late president.
Regional governor for the south Noel Masangwi confirmed in a recent interview with a daily paper that the panga knives that were branded in Blantyre City during day to intimidate people to stop them from staging anti government protests on July 20 2011 were kept at the regional office.
