Pamela Mwanza calls for a Lusaka Mayoral Candidate Debate Prior to Elections In August

LUSAKA City Council has been dead for so many years yet for so many years we have been having mayors of the city, says a Lusaka resident Pamela Mwanza.

In an interview yesterday, Mwanza called on the people aspiring for the mayoral position to participate in a debate where they will tell Lusaka residents what they intend to do for them once elected.

“The council has been dead for so many years and yet for so many years we have been having mayor after mayor. I suggested to a number of friends of mine that we should organize a debate for Lusaka mayoral aspiring candidates. In the past, these guys have just come on the scene, they have gone ahead, applied and then you have a mayor you have never seen before…you have never known before…you don’t even know what they intend to do for your city but they are mayors of Lusaka,” Mwanza said.

“All we see are people clad in that mayoral regalia representing you but you don’t know him and he doesn’t know you and probably you never get to know him. You don’t even know what he does but he is there as your mayor.”

Mwanza said it was time Lusaka residents took their leaders to task.

She said there was need for Lusaka residents to know the people that were representing them before ushering them into office.

“We want to know them. Who are they? Yes, some of them, we could have seen them on TV, in the newspaper and things like that but we have seen them at different platforms and now they are applying for the job of mayor and we are employing them. This time around we are employing them as employers I think we need to interview them and get to know them,” she said.

Mwanza said Lusaka residents should not allow anyone to get a job on a silver plate.

She said issues of ‘come easy’ should be a thing of the past.

“Easy come, easy go…at the end of the day they just come and they know they are not accountable to anyone and they just leave without even doing anything for the residents. That is why this time around, as Lusaka residents, it is time we have somebody we would have interviewed ourselves, employed ourselves and blamed ourselves if he doesn’t perform and work according to what we are going to agree on,” Mwanza said.

She said Lusaka residents need to meet the people that want to be their mayor so that they can ask them what they will do for them.
Mwanza said the only thing that has been there about the mayors of Lusaka was having expensive vehicles when service delivery remained unresolved.

“There are so many areas that remain grey even after someone serves as mayor for so many years. We are not going to talk about names now but we want everybody to come to the table, both those that have been there before and the new ones to tell us exactly what they are coming to do. Those that have been there before and want to come back, they should tell us what unfinished business they are coming to work on,” Mwanza said.

“We want someone with a plan for the council, a tangible plan that will change our city. You cannot have new people when the city just remains old after they leave. We cannot have old people in new clothes wanting to go for the mayoral position when we don’t know what they are coming to do. We don’t want to speculate. We don’t even want to call people names, that’s why they should come and tell us. I have started this as Pamela Mwanza and I hope people will join me.”