COUNCILOR OF THE WEEK

NOEL IYOMBWA writes @SunZambian HE is among the three out of the 33 civic leaders who were readopted after the 2011 general elections which saw the ushering of the Patriotic Front into government once again. Mr Humphrey Kapapula is a hard working farmer and counsellor of PF Lubwa ward in Lusaka Central constituency. The Sun Newspaper caught up with him. TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF: My name is Humphrey Kapapula. I am 43 years old, a family man, married with children. We were born identical twins and my brother is also based here in Lusaka though most people fail to differentiate us from each other. I am Lubwa Ward councilor in Lusaka Central Constituency under the ruling Patriotic Front. I completed my secondary school in Mwense district of Luapula Province. After completing school in 1992 I went to NORTEC in Ndola were I studied refrigeration. I had a brief stint at UNILEVER and there after I moved to Lusaka and got engaged at Pilatus as a sales executive, later I worked at Lilayi Housing Estates. From there I was recalled at Pilatus Motors as marketing manager the position I held until 2011 when I decided to go into full time politics. WHAT INSPIRED TO JOIN POLITICS? I come from a political background. My father was a politician some time back. He was an MP in Mwense for four terms so I drew my inspiration and interest from my late father. Those days I would accompany him for campaigns. That is where I started developing interests in politics. I got elected in the UNIP era as chairperson in the league in 1992. In 2011 I was adopted to stand as councilor at the time the PF was an opposition party, which I won convincingly and it happened at the time when the PF removed the ruling MMD from government. I happened to be one of the first persons to form the first governance structures of the PF. Obviously, there were others before me but except that there were party representatives but I think we were the first crop that saw the emergence of the PF into government. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ACHIEVEMENTD YOU HAVE SCORED IN YOUR WARD When I was elected I obviously made a lot of promises to the people and I am proud to say that I have fulfilled some of the promises. Lubwa had no health facilities in some sections. After my election and within the first few months in office we opened State House clinic in police camp to cater for catchment area of people around the ward because they used to go to UTH. There was a gap so we got a share of the 650 health posts announced by government and erected Chalala health post. People used to walk to Chilenje clinic, so we had the first ever Chalala clinic under my leadership as a civic leader. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING IN TERMS OF DEVELOPING YOUR WARD? We have challenges which differ from community to community but my biggest challenge is the bad road network and which has not been done, especially in Chalala area; but the good news is that through the leadership of the area Member of Parliament, Margaret Mwanakatwe, we have engaged the Road Development Agency (RDA) to ensure that they give us a share of the roads under the Link 400 phase three which will start in April. We are also happy that the Lusaka decongestion is happening in our ward as well. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS YOU INTEND TO BRING IN THE WARD? Together with the community, we have embarked on the construction of a first ever police post in Chalala area and it’s on 80 per cent completion, it’s the first ever police post. We are still making appeals to the business community so that they can come on board so that we complete the remaining works of the police post. We are still working on the issues of security. We have the first ever street lighting in Nyumba Yanga though we have only done selected roads, but all the roads will be done. We are also working on electrifying Nyumba Yanga market. It was donated by Auto World but it had not had electricity for a long time. So we have applied for CDF through the area member of parliament. WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS? Whatever level of political influence I can have, I can be glad to serve the community. I am happy the level I am serving now but this does not restrict me to stand on higher platform. So with time and opportunity I will consider other future political engagements because what drives me is the passion to serve people. I would like to thank the people in my ward for the confidence they have in me and for giving me a second mandate. I also wish to thank my party, the Patriotic Front for the development agenda that I ride on, because without the party I would not be able to achieve what I am achieving today.