Pray for him, encourage him – Mwewa’s mother FLORENCE Mwewa, mother of newly installed Lusaka Mayor Chitambala Mwewa, has called on Lusaka residents to pray for and encourage her son as he begins the task of leading the country’s capital city. Florence said her son had taken on a big responsibility and would need the […]

Pray for him, encourage him – Mwewa’s mother

FLORENCE Mwewa, mother of newly installed Lusaka Mayor Chitambala Mwewa, has called on Lusaka residents to pray for and encourage her son as he begins the task of leading the country’s capital city.

Florence said her son had taken on a big responsibility and would need the support of residents to succeed.

Speaking shortly after Mwewa’s installation yesterday, the proud mother said she was confident that God would help her son overcome the challenges that came with the job.

She said the most important thing residents could do was stand behind him and encourage him as he worked to improve the city.

“All we have to do is pray for him, encourage him because he needs that encouragement,” Florence urged people.

The Mayor’s mother also reflected on the Lusaka her late husband, Simon Mwewa led as Mayor, saying the city was much cleaner at the time.

“I can assure you when my husband was a Mayor, this city was very clean. I don’t know where the people went wrong,” she said.

She said she was therefore pleased that her son had taken up the challenge of trying to restore cleanliness in the city.

“And I’m glad my son has taken up that battle to try, and I’m sure there’s nothing hard that God can’t do,” she said.

Meanwhile, during his investiture ceremony, Mwewa said taking over the Mayor’s office which was once occupied by his late father, Simon Mwewa, had been a very surreal experience.

He said his late father served as Mayor of Lusaka and later as Governor, making his own journey into the same office a particularly emotional one.

Mwewa recalled that in 1979, the late Tom Bradley, then Mayor of Los Angeles in the United States, visited Zambia when his father was serving as Mayor.

He said Bradley gave his father four coasters bearing his name as a personal gift.

This year after Mwewa was elected and entered the Mayor’s office, he discovered the same coasters still there.

“Standing here in front of you is very surreal for me because, as many of you know, my late father served as Mayor of this amazing city. He also served as Governor,” Mwewa said.

When I was first elected Mayor and I was ushered into the Mayor’s office, looking around the office, I noticed the same coasters that he had gifted my father were the same ones that he left in the Mayor’s office when my father was the Mayor,” he recalled.

Mwewa was yesterday sworn in and later installed as Lusaka Mayor at a colourful investiture ceremony held at Lusaka Civic Centre.

He takes over from the immediate past Mayor Chilando Chitangala, with the aim to restore sanity and cleanliness to capital.

By George Musonda

Kalemba