You never knew that I could sing, but I made you dance, there is always more than what you see in a person, we will ensure that Zambia becomes a good country and we will start with Lusaka, PAC mayoral candidate Petsersen Mukubesa Mundia has vowed.

And Petersen, says the challenge of having leaders in public offices all coming from the ruling party is that they start strengthening the party’s agenda instead of the nation’s.

Meanwhile, Petersen says if elected, the PAC-led council would fight corruption, build modern markets, empower youths and also ensure that anyone who is not rightfully placed in any council structure is ‘chucked out’.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s ‘Lusaka Star’ programme, Wednesday, Petersen said he had always spoken, but it was now time to effect change.

“I made a decision in 2007 when I met [PAC] president Andyford Mayele Banda and we started exchanging notes. The way I communicate and the way I was making my music then, I started making sure that I started advocating for what I feel is closer to my soul, what interests my mind, my soul, my reasoning and everything. There is actually a time when you think ‘action speaks louder than words’. I have always spoken, but this time around, it’s time for me to get involved and effect change. We are not going to wait for tomorrow,” Petersen said.

“It’s good to love the song, but it’s also good to enjoy the fruits that will come from my hands. You have never known what I’m able to do for you. You never knew I could sing songs, but I made you dance. All I need right now is to come out of the shell, understand there’s always more than what you see in a person. I’m here not as a normal politician that you see every day, but a person who is going to change the way you reason about politics. A person who is going to make you see a bigger picture of not just singing, but ensuring that whatever I spoke in the songs was aimed at making sure that Zambia becomes a good country. And we will start with Lusaka as PAC.”

Petersen noted some critical issues that needed to be worked on.

He said there was need to increase the revenue base for Lusaka City Council (LCC), as well as, to remove political interference in the operations of the council.

“As PAC, we have been touring the city for the past one month. We made a vision, seven-plan strategy, where we put seven critical issues that we felt needed to be attended to and fixed to ensure that we have a strong, viable, effective and efficient Lusaka City Council. First and foremost, when you look at the Auditor General’s Report, you will realise that there is a lot of loss of funding. Secondly, is the removing of political interference in the operation of the council business, especially in markets and bus stations,” Petersen narrated.

He said he would ensure that people had proper modern markets, adding that security in the city also needed to be improved.

“The third one was making sure that people have proper modern markets and alternative trading places if they are chased from the streets. We also believe that we need to enhance the ‘Keep Lusaka Clean’ campaign and a proper waste management system. We also believe that we need to rejuvenate the council police and improve security in the neighbourhoods and compounds,” Petersen said.

“We see people selling their potatoes, tomatoes on the street or by the road-side. As a PAC-run council, we want to make sure that we start constructing these fruit and vegetables bays every two kilometres in any neighbourhood to make sure that traders are given where to sell their fruits and vegetables. On a temporal basis, as we fix markets, we will use the alleys in town, which are dormant, give these alleys to people who have been chased from town.”

And Petersen observed that the challenge of having leaders in public office, all from one party, was that they focused on strengthening the party’s agenda instead of the nation’s.

“The people of the nation are able to design what kind of government they want to have, in a way that it works for them. The biggest problem that any country will face is having all the leaders in every public office from one political party. What does that do? People start making sure that their agenda is about strengthening a political party instead of strengthening a nation. When Lusaka City Council is taken by me, we are going to be having dialogue for the nation, not for the political party,” said Petersen.