NEWLY-ELECTED Nkana independent member of parliament Binwell Mpundu has thanked God for his victory, saying several people expected him not to win.

In an interview, Mpundu said it had always been his aspiration to lead the people of Nkana and further thanked the residents for entrusting him with the responsibility.

“First of all, I want to say that I am grateful to God. For me, my victory is from God Almighty. Against all odds very few people expected that this was unattainable on my part, looking at my competitors. I want to thank the people of Nkana for entrusting me with this responsibility. This is a journey you know I started a long time ago. It has been my aspiration that we can provide the needed leadership to the people of Nkana. So, as we start this journey, I want to first of all recognize that the former or outgoing MP did his part and for me my political commitment is to build on where they left from,” Mpundu said.

“For me at the moment my focus is in Nkana. I do not what to go into the who I am going to work with. Now my commitment is to work with the people of Nkana and for the people of Nkana. And you, my colleagues from the media, I want to invite you to work with me. You know I am a human being who can make mistakes, when I make mistakes, please let us have a conversation because you are the biggest player in as far as development is concerned.”

Mpundu pledged to work with the private sector to develop Nkana Constituency.

“There is a lot of work that has to be done in Nkana but I can promise the people of Nkana that we will go out of our way to find solutions to the challenges of our people in Nkana. Look, for me I have always argued that we cannot be at the state we are in Nkana, because we are blessed with the wealth of the city of Kitwe. What is there is for us to collaborate with our biggest partners who are the private sector that entirely work from Nkana. 90 percent of the business entities in Kitwe operate in Nkana,” said Mpundu.

“I think that if we have a good relationship, they are obviously able to come to our aid, just to meet the needs of our community. I say this because I have served in government and I know how government can be limited in terms of resources. Such situations you obviously need the third player who are the stakeholders from the private sector. So, for me it is time to work. Victory is won at election time, that victory was on Thursday but now is the time we start implementing what we promised our people. My commitment is that we are not going to rest, we will start right away.”

Nkana Constituency was previously held by Alexander Chiteme who is also former Minister of National Planning.