Narrow streets neglected to pits. Blocked drains with shattered slabs. A money van stuck in yawning manhole spilling sewage.
Vehicles scrambling bumper-to-bumper for shrinking parking space. Honking and fuming in incessant traffic jams. Gushing sewers polluting open spaces, waterways and air.
Welcome to Limbe Town in Blantyre where illicit vendors selling clothes along the jagged streets and people discarding leftovers anyhow contradict the tone set by Blantyre City Mayor Isaac Jomo Osman. City authorities do not seem to be in a hurry to fix the mess or fine polluters. It is just city rangers on the prowl here and there, collecting city council fees from markets, shops and scarce carparks.
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From the look of things, only Jomo seems to care, at least if his solo crusade on the breakdown in service delivery is anything to go by. The new mayor rose from a troubled boyhood on the streets of Blantyre’s busy town to become the city’s mayor. Since winning the mayoral race on November 14 last year, the Ntopwa Ward councillor has frequently returned to the streets to clean up and meet homeless children.
For two months, he has been photographed ordering shop owners to tidy their surroundings and urging street-connected children to avoid crime. On Monday last week, he was pictured rebuking latecomers at Blantyre City Council Civic Centre, a day before he joined ground labourers to clear drains at Maselema. The boots-on-the-ground spree has won him rare praises beyond Blantyre.
Even doubters who questioned his low education attainment as a dizzying downgrade from the standards set by his predecessors, notably private practice lawyer Noel Chalamanda between 2024 and 2027 now agree that action speaks louder than academic papers. “The new mayor may not be learned, but I’m impressed how he is shaking up council officials and service providers to keep Blantyre clean and put people’s well-being first. We lacked a mayor like him for years.
Can’t the councillors leave him to be a mayor for five years, instead of voting again after two and a half years?” asked Mayamiko Yonas, who arrived in Blantyre in 2007. She waxed lyrical about Osman’s work ethic on Wednesday morning when she passed him and some city council workers clearing choked drains along the Henry Masauko Chipembere Highway. Passers-by whistled, honked and chanted praise of the mayor, who promises never to relent until his tenure expires.
However, the continued mess in the city begs questions: Is Jomo’s hands-on approach bearing the desired fruit? Is it even sustainable? Does the mayor spend time in his air-conditioned office to strengthen his council’s systems and teams to continue delivering quality services regardless of who is watching or at the helm?
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