PF candidate for the Lusaka mayoral election Miles Sampa says he has returned to the ruling party because he is a servant of President Edgar Lungu and so are the rest of the Zambian people.

And Sampa says he was wrong, emotional, impatient and immature but God has transformed him.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s Lusaka Star programme, Sampa said he had returned to the ruling party to serve the President since every Zambian was the President’s servant.

“So no, my coming back into politics, one, it’s God’s will because without God nothing is possible, two, I am coming into politics to join the President’s vision. He is doing great things and working very hard. I am coming into politics to serve the President, I am his servant and every Zambian is the President’s servant. The Bible tells us [that] ‘honour and respect your leaders because leaders are appointed by God’. And if you disrespect any leader, God will bring you down. If you kneel down to any leader appointed by God, God will uplift you because you are humble. So I am coming to serve the President and I am coming to serve the people of Zambia. And I am in this case, God has decided that I serve the people of Lusaka. Politics is a service and I didn’t realize that actually I enjoyed it when I was doing it Matero and I missed it to serve people. I find satisfaction when I serve people,” Sampa said.

And Sampa said he was immature, impatient and wrong when he criticized and left the PF.

“Those things I left it means I don’t want them on my CV. Don’t go in the past. You can go if it is very important to the job of a mayor. My CV could have been longer but I edited those things that could not have been relevant to the job. So those other things are in my past and I don’t want to look back on them. Me and my President we embrace [each other]. He is my elder brother. On who I formed the pact with, God was showing me to learn that you meet good people and you meet bad people and you learn and you move forward. At the time I criticized PF, yes I must tell you that I was wrong and when you see that you are wrong, you make amends. I was wrong, at the time I was emotional, at the time, I was impatient, at the time I was immature, so God has his own way of transforming us as individuals. So yes I was wrong,” he said.

He also clarified that his pronounced ‘100 days of transforming the council’ was misinterpreted.

“And within 100 days, let’s go back to the famous 100 days that others decided to abuse. The last interview I had [at] the PF Interactive [Forum], I spoke about within 100 days. I was saying within 100 days I will start. So within 100 days I will start, not I will finish. I will start for instance, one, the process of decongesting the roads in Lusaka. We also looking at the possibility of bringing back time buses. We need to look at the viability of Mulungushi train, all that within 100 days we will look at the viability of doing that together with the central government. Garbage, the city is still dirty, we need to clean it up. Businesses, big ones, the president amplifies how he wants Zambians to be empowered as business people. Micro and small business entrepreneurs but when you go in out compounds, you find its foreigners who are doing these businesses. As mayor of Lusaka, we are looking to see that Zambians, local entrepreneurs are the ones in the fore front doing these entrepreneurship businesses. Don’t forget the council is the one that gives licences to these business entities,” Sampa explained.

Asked why he thought he was the best among the aspiring mayoral candidates, Sampa said he had more experience.

“In terms of experience, I am the only candidate that has experience in the council, that has experience in community service. I am the only one who knows how to deal with communities of Lusaka. As MP of Matero, I dealt with all sorts of residents, the high class, the middle class and the lower class. I dealt, interacted, ate, joked and thought with the people of the compounds of Matero, Zingalume, George compound, Maiteneke, and SOS. And also when I was provincial Minister of Lusaka, I dealt with people of Kalingalinga, Mtendere, Kamanga, Chawama, Kanyama, Mandevu, Kuku. So I am the only one who has experience and there is no best teacher than experience in community service. I am the only one who has experience in dealing with government because at the council, you are not an island, you rely on the central government. The central government has to provide you with funding. So I have got experience more than they do. They have experience elsewhere. Some have experience in art, some have experience in music, I don’t have the experience in music. Some have experience on the pulpit in church, I don’t have experience in preaching. So that is the difference,” Sampa said.

He said once he assumed office as Mayor of Lusaka, he would consult residents on which of his predecessor’s ideas to adopt.

“My late brother Wilson Kalumba, may his soul rest in peace, our CVs were similar, he was a banker and I was a banker. He had some of the most brilliant ideas. When we meet in the first town hall with the people of Lusaka within 100 days, that is one of the things we will discuss. Of all the pronouncements and the vision of late mayor Wilson Kalumba, we will agree with the people of Lusaka [on] which one should we pick and implement. He had good ideas but what was the problem is his past, he didn’t have experience in community service, he didn’t have experience in politics, he didn’t have experience in governance. So with that, the implementation was also affected. But yeah, I am coming with experience, I have been insulted before, I enjoy to be insulted because I am thick skinned. I have been in politics for five years and as member of parliament for Matero I was hammered and insulted. And with time, I have been molded and panel beaten,” he said.

Meanwhile Sampa again boasted about never getting broke when he was out of government.

“I became a banker, very senior banker, very senior director and we were getting paid a lot of money. As a banker if you are senior you get a lot of money. So my financial standing when I was a banker, even when I went into politics it was the same. When I went into politics in 2011, I went with my own money, my own houses. Actually I am saying it on radio here to encourage students that through education you can acquire whatever you want. Through education, I got a good job, acquired a house in Kabulonga. At the risk of being accused of being boastful, I am saying it to show that I have nothing other than school, with school, I got a house in Kabulonga and that house, that is where I live up to now for 15 years. I bought cars as a banker and those same cars, Mercedes Benz and other cars, I still have them. Actually I never gained anything more in politics or lost anything more. When I left politics, I went on sabbatical leave. Those things that I had acquired as assets, I still have them, when I have come back in politics, I still have them. And then I don’t owe anybody, I don’t owe the council or ZRA. I am actually owed,” said Sampa.