Cameroon:Mayor of Buea begins demolition of irregularly constructed buildings

 *Says time for urban disorder in Buea  is over

Buea Council bulldozer breaking down irregularly constructed building in Clerks Quarter 

By Christopher Ambe

David Mafani Namange, mayor of Buea , Thursday, March 26, swung into action by   launching a campaign of demolition of irregularly constructed buildings - especially those blocking public roads and drainage system in the council area.

Buea, capital of the southwest region, is one of the towns in Cameroon where some people build without respecting town planning regulations.

But Mayor Namange, who is less than two months into his five-year mandate, has vowed to put a stop to the malpractice, which his predecessors appeared to have fought against it with little success.  

The demolition exercise began barely one day after torrential rains in Buea provoked floods in some neighborhoods, causing material damage, partly because several water paths were blocked by irregularly constructed structures.

After their assessment visit to the flooded areas last Wednesday, Southwest Governor Bernard Okalai Bilai and Mayor Namange resolved to immediately check irregular construction in Buea, to pre-empt any such disaster in the future.

 Mayor of Buea  David M. Namange (wearing hat) giving demolition instructions to workers .

Then, the calm-looking and soft-spoken Mayor Namange, on Thursday, led workers of the council’s Technical Service to begin the demolition.

As he swung into action breaking here and there, it dawned on the Buea public that the mayor’s actions would speak louder than his words, in the execution of his development blueprint for the “Town of Legendary Hospitality.”

For a start, the mayor’s demolition exercise took him to Great Soppo Market (opposite OIC Buea), Clerks Quarters, CAMSIC entrance and GRA, where some irregularly constructed structures broken down, watched by onlookers with mixed feelings. 

“I did not expect that the new mayor would start doing this…but it is good so that people should respect building regulations”, remarked a female bystander as the council bulldozer dismantled a structure under construction by the roadside in Clerks Quarter.

At Soppo Market, the mayor regretted that “toilets have been turned into shops and passages occupied and reduced to less than half-meter wide.”

As the unauthorized stalls were being knocked down by the council, some traders rejoiced about the decongestion while their owners wore sorrowful faces.

Mayor Namange condemned the haphazard building in Clerks Quarter, a government residential area, without regards to town planning regulations.

 “How can people be building and blocking other houses behind without leaving [breathing space] or giving them access to sunlight?” he wondered.

The mayor regretted that some of the defaulters had earlier been warned, but they instead tried, to no avail, to induce council authorities into bribe-taking.

“When they came we told them to go and do just the right thing, which they did not .Now we have helped them do the right thing”, Namange told reporters. Can you imagine that towards CAMSIC, near GHS Buea people are building on the road and blocking a water way that was constructed more than 25 years ago?”

The mayor noted that Southwest Governor has given a 15-day deadline for all blocked water ways in the town to be cleared, and that the council was already set for it.

“Those who think they will bring urban disorder in Buea,I want to let them know that it is over,” the mayor told reporters.

 “I was born in Buea, educated in Buea,I have worked in Buea,I live in Buea and now Mayor of Buea.“Nothing will stop me from doing what is right and lawful to make Buea a beautiful town. Anybody who thinks he will flaunt building regulations is going to face us in the next five years.”

The mayor said those affected by his first demolition exercise are people who had been given prior notice to regularize their situation but they did not heed the advice.

Questioned by reporters about the water crisis in Buea for years, the mayor promised to begin alleviating the situation by establishing boreholes in some neighborhoods.

The demolition exercise was preceded by a brief crisis meeting chaired by the mayor, which focused on the current pandemic, Coronavirus, the recent flood in Buea and the unfortunate comeback of motorbikes in Buea .

Mayor Namange urged the public to respect to the letter Government’s safety measures against the pandemic and vowed that his office would not allow the circulation of commercial motor bikes in Buea.