Community members along the Chingale Road are learning to live with the reality that construction works may take forever, a prospect that, as JARSON MALOWA writes, they are yet to embrace.
Mary Yusuf, one of the community members in Chingale, does not want to hear anything about Chingale road construction works.
“Never, in my life, have I been tired of hearing a story over and over again.
“I mean, growing up, I used to be enchanted by fairy tales and fables which my mother and grandmother used to churn out of their brains on moon nights. Even though I knew what they were saying had not actually happened, I found a sense of amusement from it.
“Not with the Chingale road; perhaps because politicians have lied to us for far too long. I remember hearing, at the onset of the project, that some funds had been set aside for the task. Years down the line, the project remains a dream. So, I do not want to hear anything about the project because I know that we are lied to, again and again,” she says.
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Samson Saidi, another community member, concurs.
He says Malawi cannot develop if projects take ages to be completed.
“If this were the case, it would have taken those that constructed the M1 Road 40 years to construct the same.
“I am, therefore, surprised that it is taking the government an eternity to give us a tarred road. This is sad,” he says.
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Over the years, community members have summoned community and district leaders to meetings, where they pinned them down with questions.
Public works ministers have also been, on their own volition, visiting sites earmarked for the project, perhaps to assure people that all is well.
However, Saidi said: “All is well when it ends well. Things have not ended well for us”.
He may have a point.
However, Transport and Public Works Minister Jacob Hara maintains that they are doing their best to restore works at Lirangwe- Chingale-Machinga road project sites.
While conceding that approximately 15 years is such a long time for the project, the minister says things are shaping up.
“People in Lirangwe, Chingale and Machinga areas must expect to have something tangible by next year. They must be aware that the government still has paperwork to do,” Hara explains.
He adds that, by referring to next year, he is referring to having a start of the actual works, in line with the project’s design.
In March this year, Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe irked members of the community when he indicated that construction works were at 53 percent.
While presenting the K3.87 trillion 2023-24 national budget on that particular Thursday, Gwengwe reiterated that there was some progress being registered on the project.
But Chingale Road Taskforce Chairperson Francis Gondwa maintains that what Gwengwe told parliamentarians was different from what was on the ground.
“I come from Gwaza Village in the Chingale area. I have been observing whatever was, is and will be happening. There is no progress and if there is any progress, it cannot exceed even 20 percent,” he said.
By August 20 2021, K12 billion was allocated to the project— albeit for the first time since 2018.
In 2018, the government allocated funds amounting to K5.3 billion upon commencement of the project.
The development saw former president Peter Mutharika laying a foundation stone at Lirangwe in Blantyre.
However, the situation repeated itself in 2019 and 2020, when the government allocated K2 billion for the project, before allocating the same amount in the 2020-21 national budget.
In the 2021-22 financial year, the government allocated K3 billion meant for the 62 kilometres stretch— hardly enough to make community members’ hearts beat with expectation as the long wait continues.
