A meeting that Ntcheu District officials organised to mediate in the standoff between Roads Fund Administration (RFA) and contractors that want to take over the country’s two tollgates failed to take place Monday.
The contractors have attributed the development to the court injunction that RFA obtained at the High Court Monday.
Ntcheu District Commissioner George Ngaiyaye is the one who invited stakeholders to the meeting ahead of the contractors’ planned action.
The meeting involved officials from RFA, police and the contractors.
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After failure of the meeting, some of the indigenous contractors vowed to vacate RFA’s injunction so that they can go ahead to take control of Chingeni Toll Plaza and Kalinyeke Toll Gate.
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Meanwhile, executive member for the contractors’ Blantyre Chapter, Alex Chimwala, has said they would vacate the injunction.
“It is unfortunate that they rushed to obtain the injunction without giving room for negotiations. We will vacate the injunction and later proceed with the takeover,” Chimwala said.
Chimwala said that they wanted RFA to feel the pinch of what they are feeling due to unpaid bills.
Monday, the High Court sitting in Lilongwe halted the intended plans after granting RFA an injunction, effectively restraining the contractors from proceeding with their action.
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In the injunction, the court has set October 1 2024 for an inter partes hearing.
Today, the contractors were expected to converge at the two tollgates, where they threatened to open them to traffic so that motorists could be passing through without paying anything.
This was in reaction to an outstanding bill of over K15 billion that RFA reportedly owes the contractors.
Earlier, a group of concerned citizens announced that it would join the contractors in taking over the tollgates.
The group’s chairperson Griffin Mwaruwasa said delays in paying the contractors were impacting the implementation of development activities which would, in the end, affect community members in the district.
