Kabambe calls on solidarity to lessen trauma Cyclone Freddy victims are facing; Cheers displaced people at Manja and Chilobwe

A victim narrates his traumatising experience to Kabambe

* Describes what he had witnessed as tragic and traumatic for the victims

* Thus call on all Malawians of goodwill to rise to the occasion and assist the government to reach out with lots of support

* We need to work together with the government to mitigate this crisis and lessen the trauma that these people are going through

By Duncan Mlanjira

Dalitso Kabambe, aspirant for the post of president of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on Tuesday visited evacuation centres that are hosting people whose homes were destroyed through flash floods caused by effects of Cyclone Freddy that occurred on Sunday in Chilobwe Township in Blantyre.

He visited Manja and Naotcha primary schools to cheer the victims as well as present assorted food items that included maize flour, rice, cooking oil, meat, sugar, salt and others — worth K18 million.

The former Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor also visited a scene of the path of devastation of strong flow of water, mud and boulders of rocks that cascaded from Soche Hill where the flash flood occurred.

At Naotcha evacuation centre, Kabambe took time to cheer lots of displaced children accommodated in a classroom and offered them hope and encouragement that their problems would soon be solved for them to return to classes.

When engaged by the media, Kabambe described what he had witnessed as tragic and traumatic for the victims and thus called on all Malawians of goodwill to rise to the occasion and assist the government to reach out with lots of support.

“We need to, and we will work together with the government to mitigate this crisis and lessen the trauma that these people are going through,” he said. “This solidarity includes after the cyclone and going forward because these people need to rebuild their lives and the devastation caused has left them so destitute they cannot restore their livelihood alone.”

Kabambe also said going forward, the country’s citizenry needs to be vigorously inculcated with the spirit of conservation of the environment, saying the tropical storms keep resurrecting in stronger force because of climate change.

“We must manage our environment,” he said. “This tragedy is all about climate change — not just in Malawi but in all of our neighbouring countries.

“But we need to have a robust and effective way to manage our environment by engaging with the citizenry with tragedies like these as examples to impress on the people that we can mitigate this on our own.”

Kabambe also said going forward it is very imperative to now manage proper town planning, hinting that the path of destruction from Soche Hill is along a stream where people shouldn’t have been allowed to construct houses.

According to a report from Chilobwe Police Unit on Monday, the strong water flow, mud and boulders of rock that cascaded downhill from Soche Hill swept many some houses built along the banks of Chimaliro stream in the area of Kharika.

Kabambe made the appeal of solidarity following President Lazarus Chakwera’s declaration of state of disaster in the affected 10 districts of the Southern Region that have been hard hit in Blantyre City and its district, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Mulanje, Mwanza, Neno, Nsanje, Thyolo, Phalombe and Zomba City and its district.

A public notice from the Secretary to the President & Cabinet, Colleen Zamba assured the public that “government is already responding to the emergencies, rendering urgent assistance to all affected districts, and appealing to local and international support for all the families affected by this disaster”.

Chakwera constituted the emergency declaration as vested in him under section 32(1) of the Disaster Preparedness & Relief Act (Cap 33:05 of the Laws of Malawi.

The hard hit affected areas in Blantyre include Chilobwe, Ndirande, Manase, Chileka, Machinjiri, Chigumula, Soche and Bangwe.

At Manja, several other politicians, that included Leader of Opposition, Kondwani Nankhumwa — who is DPP vice-president for the South — also brought relief items and cheered the displaced people.

Another politician that visited was Homeland Security, Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, who was accompanied by a strong entourage of other politicians as well as a strong contingent of senior police officers.

Meanwhile, the DPP issued a statement offering its sympathy and condolences to Cyclone Freddy victims while at the same time thanking those that quickly responded to the disaster.

The statement from party spokesperson, Shadric Namalomba also applauding medical personnel “for the sacrifices they made and continue to make in ensuring that those injured are well taken care for”.

“The DPP, through its Members of Parliament and followers, is also on the ground assisting victims of the Cyclone,” Namalomba said. “As a nation, any calamity that affects one of us, does affect us all.

“It is appropriate that we share in the pain and anguish of our brothers and sisters — and most importantly we come to their aid. As Malawians, we are known to be warm people, let our warmth express itself through our ability to come to the rescue of our colleagues who have been unfortunate to have been attacked by the cyclone.

Thus calls upon on government, private sector, party members and individuals of goodwill to channel resources and materials to the highly affected areas.

Kabambe also indicated that he will visit Phalombe, Thyolo and other affected areas with relief packages as well as messages of hope and encouragement.

DPP also appealed to those living in disaster prone areas to relocate to areas of safety, saying: “Nature can have disastrous effects and it is high time that we consider the areas we stay in the interest of preventing future natural disasters.”