MPS Ponders Moving Nansadi and Bvumbwe Under Thyolo
The Malawi Police Service is weighing in options to have Bvumbwe and Nansadi police formations to be under Thyolo police station as requested by the District Council in April this year.
Though Bvumbwe and Nansadi areas are in Thyolo District, they remain under the policing jurisdiction of Limbe police in Blantyre, something the District Commissioner Douglas Moffat, observed was compromising security management in the district.
Meanwhile, National Police Spokesperson, Peter Kalaya has told Zodiak Online on Thursday that, the council's request is valid, but the police management is also looking into other areas before making a stance.
"I should state here that all the issues that were raised by the DC are valid and making sense. This is why the management is sitting down and see how they can go about it and action will be taken.
“But, I should be quick to say that there were also valid reasons that made Malawi Police to put these too police formations to be operating under Limbe police station," he assured.
In a letter to the Inspector General of the Malawi Police Service, Moffat cited developments that led to the torching of Bvumbwe police unit in January 2022, chief among the social factors, lack of dialogue between police and communities which could easily be handled by local leaders in the district.
Moffat said the incident could have been avoided if local leaders were entrusted to handle the disagreements between police and the irate community members.
"When we did our own analysis, we noted that the causative issue to that event was something that could have been handled by the council. But unfortunately, Bvumbwe Police Station reports to Limbe, which is an urban. So, issues to do with social relationships are not very much best handled in that area.
"Therefore, I thought it necessary to request that this station so as Nansadi be reporting to Thyolo Police Station so that issues or conflict that are social in nature, they can easily be handled by chiefs or the council," Moffat said.
Currently, following the damage of Bvumbwe police station, communities are reporting cases either to Thyolo or Limbe police station.