THE emergence of another heavyweight in the race for adoption to stand in Kitwe’s Nkana Constituency on the PF ticket could further shrink incumbent Alexander Chiteme’s hopes.
Cleopas Njobvu, the current councillor for Parklands Ward and a senior manager in the supply management at Mopani Copper Mines, has entered the fray for the much-sought-after cosmopolitan constituency.
This is also where former Kitwe district commissioner Binwell Mpundu seeks to contest and he has been actively mobilising.
Mpundu’s move has unsettled Chiteme and his supporters.
Another heavyweight, Paul Chisunka, an engineer in Mopani and a long time PF member has actively emerged, pinning his hopes on the robust women empowerment programmes that he has been undertaking in compounds.
All the three aspirants are from the ruling Patriotic Front, with Chiteme also seeking re-adoption, bringing the number to four.
This clearly points to a vicious battle for adoption within the ruling party, going into 2021.
Njovu has picked up talking points which many constituents say are Chiteme’s failures in the last five years.
When asked what his priorities are if elected, Njovu said he would lobby for a secondary school to be built for the residents of Kamakonde settlement area and expand the existing primary school so that it accommodates more children.
“I will work to ensure that the existing clinic in Kamakonde works day and night every day and also expansion of the clinic because the community has grown. Pregnant mothers are being inconvenienced in the night,” he explained. “In the short term some roads will have to be graded but in the long term we’ll have to lobby so [that] these are built to bituminous standards. High density areas like Buchi, Mindolo, Miseshi will be my main focus, then we escalate it to less densely populated areas.”
He added, “we need to sort out the land wrangles for the people of Luyando and Kandabwe”. “Inasmuch as I don’t support illegality to land issues, we still need to see how these families can be assisted. We also need running water and proper drainages in most areas in Nkana. To enhance security for our people, street lighting is cardinal in places like Buchi, Miseshi, Mindolo, Parklands, Rokana. There’s need for a clinic and a police post in Rokana,” he said.
Njovu said there was need for practical empowerment programmes for women and youth under organised cooperatives.
He also promised to lobby Zesco to waive off old electricity bills which some residents in compounds were struggling to pay.
Njovu further promised to lobby the water utility to replace old sewer lines.
The PF on the Copperbelt is facing a battle within as most once-upon a time youthful members have refused to pave way for the ‘elite’ feeling their time has come to move to the next level of leadership.