PF aspiring candidate for the Lusaka Mayoral seat Miles Sampa says one of his frustrating moments in his life was in the last two years when he would wake up in the morning with no money and nowhere to go, until President Edgar Lungu came to his aid.

Speaking when he featured on the PF Interactive Forum in Lusaka, Wednesday, Sampa said during the period when he was stranded, he never used to receive calls to an extent that he thought his phone had stopped working.

Meanwhile, Sampa said in his first 100 days of assuming the mayoral seat, he will introduce free Wi-Fi at all public places and will be holding town hall meetings every six months to meet with Lusaka residents.

“One of my frustrating moments in the last two years was to wake up in the morning and there is nowhere to go. That’s torture for me because I grew up running around. I was sharing in church with other people that when I was MP, my phone would buzz and ring non-stop, I would receive like 100 calls in a day. In the last two years my phone had stopped ringing, I would wake up and find my phone [without a missed call] and think that my phone has stopped working. I would check it to see if the network was not working, everything was just okay with it, but I never just used to receive calls. God is great,” Sampa said.

“Those who want to dwell in the past, which has been overtaken by events or reconciliation, you are on your own. Me and the President have reconciled and we are looking ahead. The President is my brother; what some of you don’t even know is that amongst everybody who deserted me, he was one person that never deserted me. He is my elder brother, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. He used to look for me and we used to communicate. [He would say] ‘my brother, are you broke?’ and I would say ‘yes, I am broke, my brother.’ And he would send me something to buy a drink. Yes, I wasn’t working. Some people would say, ‘oh, he wants to come back in the party because he has no money;’ yes, let me be an example [because] if you don’t work, then you don’t have income. And I am encouraging everyone to look for a job.”

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Sampa, who is also former PF Matero member of parliament, said he would work towards decongesting the roads in Lusaka in order to improve efficiency.

“The first thing I will do within 100 days of going to the council is make sure I enhance communication between the council and the residents of Lusaka. I will put up a call centre at the council. The same way the police have a call centre, the same way Zesco has a call centre. Number two, I will look at decongestion of roads in Lusaka. I think we have spent so much time and hours driving in the roads of Lusaka because of congestion. The other thing I will do within 100 days is to ensure that in public places, starting with the airports, the railway stations, the bus stations and elsewhere, we introduce free Wi-Fi,” said Sampa.

“The other thing I will do within 100 days I will introduce the ‘Town Hall’ meetings. Every six months, your mayor will be meeting your residents for a meeting under the town-hall meeting to have a one-on-one [session]. Every three months, the councillors, we will agree with them to be having town-hall meetings in their wards. Housing, as mayor within 100 days, I will start the process to ensure that all houses in Lusaka, all of them, I will start the process of issuing title deeds.”