Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo says President Edgar Lungu has told PF officials not to promise things which they cannot fulfill.

And Lusambo says NDC Mayoral candidate Saboi Imboela is hallucinating when she says she will reintroduce street vending if elected because the PF government has already made a decision to ban it permanently.

Speaking when he featured on Hot FM’s Hot Seat programme, Thursday, Lusambo encouraged the people of Lusaka not trust any other candidate, saying only the PF government was capable of delivering according to the expectations of Zambians because it never told lies.

“Today we have a President in State House, that President you are seeing is a man of his own words and he has told us ‘don’t promise something that you can’t do. Don’t tell the people that you will do this when you can’t deliver. Tell them the things which you will do’. So we have a president who is able to challenge the status quo. The things that the people are complain about to say ‘you promised this, you promised that’, the President is there to change all these things. When we say that we are going to change the face of Lusaka in terms of water supply, we are going to do it. When we say we are going to change the sanitation situation in Lusaka, we are going to do it because the project is in place. We are doing the water and sanitation project under the millennium challenge. So my Mayor will come and show the people of Lusaka that the government is His Excellency, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the listening government, the people’s government, this is what we are doing for the people of Lusaka,” Lusamboa said.

And Commenting on Imboela’s promise to reintroduce street vending if elected as Mayor, Lusambo said the NDC candidate was still dreaming on how to do choruses for her music.

“Efyo tulanda ukweba ati ama politics teyabana abanono iyo. Ama politics yabantu abakulu ebangacita understand politics. Ama politics te chorus yakweba ati uleimba ulwimbo elo wayamba ukwimba chorus, elo wamona kwati efyo nama politics yaba. Ama politics te movie, ama politics we deal with real issues. We deal with tangible issues. So umuntu afumafye uko at naisa ndefwaya nkachinje nkalete ama street vendors nakabili, nga bekeshila pesa ama street vendors? Twalikwata SI iyo twafumya as government, nabalya bonse abaleshitisha mumisebo ifwe ngo buteko twalikwata insambu shakubekata (This why we always say politics are not for young children, the game of politics is for big people who understand things. Politics are not like doing a chorus for a song or a movie. So people should not just come and say ‘I will reintroduce street vending’ because we as government have decided to ban street vending through an IS because we have the powers to remove all vendors from the streets as government). But because you just want to excite people and tell them what their ears want to hear, that is why even Imboela is talking about brining street vendors back. But where will Imboela get the powers to bring the street vendors back?” Lusambo asked.

“Mulya mu council mwaba ba PF 32, ba Imboela tabakwatamo na councilor. Nga abaka supporter proposal iyo nibanani? Ku Parliament kulya kumwensu eko twaba, ku Cabinet nakwena eko bali ba Chagwa. Nga ba Imboela….uko ekulya balanda aba Bemaba ati ukusata. Umuntu nga laesata teshibe efyo elelandapo uko kusata uku (At Lusaka City Council, there are 32 PF councilors and Imbolea does not have any councilor. So who does she think is going to support her proposal to bring back vendors? In Parliament we are there and at Cabinet there is the President, where is Saboi? . So who is going to support that proposal. For us as so what she is doing is simply hallucinating. Because when someone is hallucinating, they don’t understand what they are saying). The government of His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, we have made it very clear that there will be no more street vending. Not only in Lusaka but in the entire 10 provinces of our country. And we are trying to do is that we are trying to promote the former street vendors. We want them to graduate, we want these street vendors to start doing real businesses. Conducting businesses in the environment that is conducive, that’s why you are seeing us as the soldiers for President Lungu are not sleeping. We want to improve the trading areas where these street vendors will be conducting their businesses.”

Lusambo asked Lusaka residents to ignore candidates like Imboela who were making promises they could not fulfill.

“We have seen markets being constructed. We have seen other trading places being provided to the former street vendors. So my message to my fellow former street vendors is that let them not be cheated by visionless politicians. Us as political heavyweights, we know exactly what is best for the people of Zambia, that’s why His Excellency Edgar Lungu was given the mandate to administer the affairs of this nation by the people themselves and what the President is actually doing is just following what the people want, that’s all! They told us that they don’t want street vendors in the streets of Lusaka and other towns and we have said ‘tamvela’, we are going to move our brothers and sisters from trading in these streets of ours to go and start trading in the conducive trading areas,” he said.

“But we have people with no vision for this country, what they think is just all abut drama. So they just want to excite our people, but I want to urge them that Zambia we have moved from politics of 1950/60 but we are now doing politics of 21st century . We are now dealing with real issues. Real issues are issues to do with empowerment, we want to upgrade our street vendors into reasonable small business men and women. So ba Mayo ba Imboela, she doesn’t know what she is talking about. I can assure you that she is still dreaming on how to come up with choruses in the songs because if really she wanted to participate in this serious game of politics, she would have talked about real issues.”

Meanwhile, Lusambo said PF candidate Miles Sampa was the only one who was capable of delivering according to the expectations of Lusaka residents.

“We have nine candidates participating in the Lusaka Mayoral elections but we have only one candidate who is capable of delivering on the expectations of the people of Lusaka. For me, the popularity which we are enjoying as a party because of the many things which President Edgar Lungu has done, there is no other party which can compete with the Patriotic Front. Candidates from other political parties who are participating in this Mayoral by-election are merely fulfilling the democratic tenets because ours is a democratic country. The people of Lusaka know exactly what the government is doing in the 10 provinces of this country and they are happy. But even so, the President is not satisfied, that’s why he is not in State House, he wants to uplift the living standards of our people,” said Lusambo.