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Blantyre City Assembly councillors have accused the City Mayor John Chikakwiya of trying to use their colleagues in his bid to get rid of the Assembly’s Chief Executive Sophie Kalimba who has reached retirement age but was interested to continue working for the assembly.
Chikakwiya is reported to have sent a recommendation to the Ministry of Local Government in August this year to have Kalimba maintained at the City Assembly but in a surprise move he has changed his mind and wants the chief executive not to be given the nod.
Sources said the Mayor has changed his mind after Kalimba was called by the Fiscal Police for questioning in the K400,000 ($3,704) case in which Chikakwiya is being accused of obtaining the money from a milling company in Blantyre.
The Mayor, not to be seen to be at the centre of the move, is said to have recently lobbied some of the councillors to move a motion not to endorse Kalimba’s new contract with government.
“Some of us were surprised that the issue came out during one of our meetings last Thursday. It came from within ourselves but when we tried to find out what had prompted the move, it transpired that it was the Mayor himself who had started the whole issue,” said one of the councillors who declined to be named.
Chikakwiya is said to have made the earlier recommendation without the knowledge of the other members of the assembly. One councillor said during the Thursday meeting, Chikakwiya surprised other members when he admitted that he flouted rules by endorsing Kalimba without their knowledge.
At the end of the discussions, the meeting resolved to withdraw the earlier recommendation so that it could be tabled and discussed by the City Assembly.
Chikakwiya in an interview confirmed the Thursday meeting and that the issue of Kalimba’s contract was tabled but denied that it was him behind the move.
“I signed the recommendation myself in August and how can I change my mind now? I have not reversed my decision. It is only that I realised that what I did was not in line with the Assembly’s requirements and did not know that Mrs Kalimba was due for retirement, I thought she was on contract,” said Chikakwiya.
He said the Assembly was only waiting for a response from the ministry on the request to review the recommendation.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government Willie Samute in a separate interview said renewing Kalimba’s contract has nothing to do with the ministry since such posts are governed by the Local Authority Service Commission.
“All what I know is that Mrs Kalimba has reached retirement age and it is up to the City Assembly, through the Local Authority Service Commission, to renew her employment,” said Samute.
Local Authority Service Commission Chairman Ben Phangaphanga in a separate interview said he was also not aware of Kalimba’s intention to enter into a new contract with Blantyre City Assembly. He, however, said the Assembly has no say on Kalimba’s employment.
“At the moment we are on recess but what I know is that if the Assembly wants to maintain someone like a chief executive that has to come from the ministry headquarters not from the Mayor. The Assembly can only have a say on a position less than that of a chief executive,” said Phangaphanga.
“The Mayor might express his views on his chief executive but we cannot take that seriously since he is a politician,” he added.
Commenting on the problem at the Assembly, Phangaphanga said it was not surprising in a situation where civil servants are working with politicians.
Kalimba is supposed to go on retirement after Friday.
Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito, commenting on a possible departure of Kalimba, said although the standards in the Assembly have deteriorated it could not be attributed to the Chief Executive since the Assembly was too much involved in politics.
“I can say that at the moment we do not have a City Assembly which we can call an Assembly, let’s call it a party branch. The eyes are telling us that everything has gone to the dogs. Probably she had ideas professionally but those ideas were engrossed in politics,” said Kapito.
Kalimba could not be reached for comment as she was reported to be in a meeting the whole of last Friday and Wednesday.
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