Responsible minister Professor Blessings Chinsinga told journalists in Blantyre on Friday that this will assist councils to have permanent ways of responding to various challenges including promoting hygiene and sanitation.

Professor Chinsinga believes that councils need to have sustainable ways of generating their own resources to implement their activities, unlike waiting for the central government.

“As a ministry, what we will do is to try to push for enactment of Local Level Framework for Taxation to ensure that the necessary legislation framework exists so that our councils can be in a position to mobilise resources locally,” Chinsinga said.

Meanwhile the Blantyre city mayor Councillor Wild Ndipo has called on the corporate world to assist the council with vehicles for refuse collection in order to make the city clean and disease free.

“We have purchased three vehicles as a start. We even want to purchase more. So I appeal to corporations to assist us because we need 23 vehicles since we have 23 refuse collection wards,” Ndipo said.

The sentiments were made on Friday in Blantyre during the unveiling ceremony of three trucks that the Blantyre City Council bought with funding of close to K538.12 million from Development Fund for Local Authorities to scale up garbage collection in the city.

(by Mathias Mkupasha)