PETAUKE Constituency PF aspirant Emmanuel Jay Banda has pledged to represent everyone well if voted for on August 12.
In an interview after donating wheelchairs and stretchers to 25 residents of Petauke living with disabilities, Banda said he would emulate President Edgar Lungu’s “good leadership of caring for the less privileged”.
He said President Lungu was a good leader whose good deeds were being shadowed by the failure of those who were supposed to represent him well.
“A lot of people have been thinking that government is not doing enough and that government is not providing solutions to the people, not knowing that the Head of State Edgar Chagwa Lungu has been doing that. But the problem is with the people who are supposed to get those developments from Lusaka to Petauke; they are failing,” he said. “This is a reason why we want new representation at MP level, council chairmanship level, and some councillors so that people and President Edgar Lungu can be well represented. Why am I saying so? Look at the wheel chairs that we have given to the people. People have been in need of those wheelchairs for years. Government has been keeping those wheelchairs for more than five years when people have been crawling without wheelchairs here in Petauke. It had to take me to lobby for our people of Petauke. That tells that we have a serious breakdown in leadership because we have some representatives who think that the disabled should not be represented.”
Banda said President Lungu listened the concerns of every Zambian and that his leadership was there to provide for the less privileged.
“When I am voted into power, my leadership will be like that of the President, Edgar Lungu, who thinks of everyone and cares for them and provides their needs. For him to bring these chairs he knows that there are people who need them. Even me, when I go to parliament, I will represent everyone whether disabled or not disabled,” said Banda.
Dickson Phiri, a beneficiary, thanked President Lungu and Banda for the donation.
Phiri said he and other physically challenged persons in the area were facing various problems in movement.