Vice President visits Blantyre Market fire victims
Vice President Everton Chimulirenji Thursday visited Blantyre Flea Market vendors whose property was destroyed in a fire that burnt part of the market on Tuesday night.
Chimulirenji, who is Minister responsible for Disaster Management, has donated 200 bags of rice and has also directed the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund to give soft loans to the 120 affected vendors.
Speaking during the visit, Chimulirenji said the government is concerned with the cases of fire accidents in the country.
“President Peter Mutharika is very concerned. Wealth is being destroyed now and again due to fire accidents,” he said.
Minister of Local Government, Benson Phiri, said the government will facilitate the renovation of the market by making sure that vendors have proper facilities that would provide security against fire accidents.
Phiri’s remarks were a response to suggestion of one of the affected vendors, Conley Kan’nonyere who said when renovating the market, the government should consider building benches using bricks as opposed to the previous ones that vendors mounted using timber which might have fuelled the fire.
Kan’nonyere said: “We don’t have any help now. We have parents and children who look up to us for support, if there can be a small amount of money to help us restart our business, we would appreciate.”
Minister of Homeland Security, Nicholas Dausi, was also part of government entourage, and gave an assurance that the government will make sure that the cause of the fire is established.
The fire also destroyed electricity wiring and poles leaving the market without power.
The government has promised that it will make sure that electricity is restored within one week so that vendors whose business requires electricity power, such as barber shops and salons, should resume their businesses without further delay.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
