LUSAKA CITY COUNCIL CONFERS FREE MAN OF THE CITY STATUS ON PRESIDENT LUNGU
Lusaka ~ Sun, 13 Dec 2020
By Brightwell Chabusha
The Lusaka City Council has conferred with the status of Honorary Freeman of the Greater City of Lusaka on President Edgar Lungu.
President Lungu has since accepted the honor which he said is very important to him.
“When I look back at the people that have been honored before such as First Republican President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, and the Former South African President Nelson Mandela, to name but a few, I acknowledge that this is an honour not lightly conferred, and therefore it is important for me and I shall highly value it for the rest of my life,” President Lungu said.
“Lusaka has seen rapid development during my tenure as Republican President and we hope to continue on the same trajectory not only in Lusaka but the rest of the country. I am poised to make Zambia and Lusaka in particular, a better place to live in. The people of this country entrusted me with the responsibility of leading this country and I will do my best to provide the much needed leadership.”
He said the last five years had shown that a city can still achieve its original status of being a garden city when it is guided by principle, consistency and loyalty to its ideals of development which embraces everyone by not leaving anyone behind.
Earlier, Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa said President Lungu has been working for the wellbeing of the people since he was a member of Parliament in Chawama.
He further said the Head of state come up with various initiative aimed at helping the country through use of technology in the delivery of services to the people of Zambia.
Mr Sampa said President Lungu has also built many mini hospitals across Lusaka District which has allowed people in the compound to have access to health services at their door steps and helped a number of schools to increase their enrollment capacity.
However, President Lungu said some of the achievements highlighted by the Mayor were started by others and he merely finished them.
“His Worship the Mayor Miles Sampa, in his address, highlighted the accolades leading to the Council decision to confer me with the of Honorary Freeman of the City in my tenure as President. Let me confirm that the highlighted attributes by the Mayor are as a result of well thought out policies by my team of Cabinet ministers under my leadership. Some of these achievements highlighted by His Worship the Mayor in his speech may not have been started by me and my team team but we picked the ideas from those who were there before me and actualized them,” President Lungu said.