ZUMANI KATASEFA, Luanshya
LUANSHYA Constituency has attracted three people who are contesting the seat in the August 11 general elections. The contestants are promising to take development to all parts of the constituency if elected.
The candidates are Steven Chungu, a local businessman who defending the seat under the Patriotic Front (PF), banker Helen Banda is standing under the sponsorship of the United Party for National Development (UPND) while Munyoi Munalula is contesting the seat on the Rainbow Party ticket.
Each one of them is confident of emerging victorious because they feel they have effectively marketed themselves to the electorate in all the 28 wards of the constituency.
STEVEN CHUNGU, PF
Mr Chungu believes he has no difficulty in selling his campaign message because the constituents have already seen what he has done over the last five years he has been their member of Parliament (MP).
“We just have to continue delivering on our promises, people are able to see what the PF government has done in the last five years. We have built roads, schools, heath institutions and we are going to do more when we are given another five-year mandate,” Mr Chungu says.
He says Zambians should not listen to what leaders of opposition political parties are saying because they allegedly have nothing to offer them.
The former parliamentarian has also advised Zambians against engaging in politics of violence as this will just retard development in the country.
And speaking when he addressed a ward meeting recently, Mr Chungu said some of the problems the country is facing such as load shedding are not man-made, and that the PF government under the leadership of President Lungu has put stringent measures in place to address the situation.
He said so far, the PF government has embarked on the construction of power stations in various parts of the country, a move that will see increased electricity generation.
Mr Chungu said the PF government is also undertaking a project to improve water supply in Luanshya in collaboration with DANIDA.
He said the erratic supply of water in the district will soon be a thing of the past once the project is completed.
HELEN BANDA, UPND
Mrs Banda, who is contesting the Luanshya parliamentary seat for the second time, says if voted into office, her priority will be to improve the water reticulation system in the constituency.
She says her heart bleeds when she imagines that 50 years after independence, water is still a scarce commodity to many residents of Luanshya.
“To start with, the water that the people of Luanshya drink is not all that clean and the supply is erratic. If voted into office, I will work on this problem,” she says.
Her next task will be to ensure that the people of Kafubu farm block in the outskirts of Luanshya have easy access to proper medical facilities.
“Kafubu block has a clinic but there is inadequate staffing and no medicine. So once I am voted member of Parliament for Luanshya, I will definitely work on this problem,” she says.
Mrs Banda says the area has no cemetery and this is a serious problem for the people of Kafubu block as they have to travel long distances to Luanshya to go and bury their deceased loved ones.
She has also promised the people that she will ensure that education is accessible to every resident of Luanshya constituency as per her party’s manifesto.
Mrs Banda says there are many people who cannot access education because it is too costly.
“As UPND, we want to govern a Zambia that is well informed. How we will achieve this is by making education easily accessible to every Zambian,” she adds.
MINYOI MUNALULA, RAINBOW PARTY
Mr Munalula, who is working as an accountant with Dangote Cement Company in Ndola, puts his chances of winning the Luanshya seat at 100 percent.
He has pledged to reposition Luanshya town and make it more economically viable.
“If elected as Luanshya member of Parliament, the first thing that I will do is to reposition Luanshya. As you may know, Luanshya is far from the main roads, so we need to open roads like Luansobe and open up the Mpatamato road which leads to Kalulushi. We need to open up these roads because they are economically beneficial,” he says.
Mr Munalula, who is also a former Zambia Consolidated Copper Min e (ZCCM) employee, says he will concentrate on developing peri-urban areas of Luanshya which form a larger part of the district.
He has accused past Luanshya MPs of having neglected to take development to peri-urban settlements.
The population of Luanshya is estimated at 156,059 and with a growth rate of 0.3 percent per annum, according to the Central Statistical Office 2010 census of population and housing.
Luanshya, which covers a total surface area of 100,761 hectares, is located in the Copperbelt Province, about 337 kilometres from the country’s capital city, Lusaka. It is situated about 35 kilometres south-west of Ndola, the capital of the Copperbelt Province.