. Chitangala

By FRANCIS LUNGU –
HRDWORK, discipline and being independent is very critical for every woman, especially those holding decision making positions, Lusaka Deputy Mayor Chilando Chitangala has said.
Ms Chitangala, who is the councilor for Roma Ward 17 in Mandevu Constituency, said through dedication and being focused, she had risen through rank and file within the ruling Patriotic Front (PF). Fed up with just criticizing the Lusaka City Council (LCC) for poor service delivery, Ms Chitangala decided to be part of the solution to the problems she always complained about.
From being one of the council’s fiercest critics, Ms Chitangala is now the second most powerful person in the LCC hierarchy.
She said laziness, lack of discipline and over-dependency on men were elements that hinder women from excelling in life.
“Women should have an education and be financially independent, which means you need to have a job or run your own small business,” Ms Chitanga said.
She said from her own experience, she had learned that men would respect a woman who was independent.
She said when women stand on their own, they have the power to say yes or no and men would not take advantage of them.
It is for this reason that the Lusaka deputy mayor believes in being an ardent advocate of education for girls and does not hesitate to urge women who might have had an opportunity to get educated to go back to school.
She said once more women get sound education, they would be empowered enough to offer constructive criticism to those in authority and demand for service delivery to improve their welfare.
In her case, providing checks and balances from the peripheral to the LCC over the years proved not to be effective enough, hence her decision to stand in the August 2016 general elections for the Roma Ward 17 seat, which she convincingly won.
“I thought I should not just be a critic outside. I thought of being a critic inside. Now I know what is happening and I promise to change a lot of things,” she said.
She believed that more women were required in leadership because they tend to be more practical and serious when dealing with issues affecting the people.
Ms Chitangala strongly felt that as a woman, she would positively work towards reducing, or better still, eradicating the many developmental challenges that Lusaka City is faced with, ranging from a poor drainage network to heaps of uncollected garbage.
According to the civic leader, the water and sanitation system in the city had broken down as a result of age.
Most of the water and sanitation facilities in the city were built in the 60s following the country’s Independence and only rehabilitated  Sometime in 1975.
Since then, there nothing much was done to improve the infrastructure to date.
However, Ms Chitangala was hopeful that the current US$355million water and sewerage improvement programme for Lusaka, which was being undertaken by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), would enhance service provision throughout the city once it was completed.
Solid waste management was one of the growing challenges in almost all the cities around the country and Lusaka was not an exception.
Tonnes of uncollected solid waste plague the city at every street corner, especially in the townships.
In tackling this particular challenge, Ms Chitangala started engaging schools to work with children in order to form small ward committees in townships to inculcate values of keeping the environment clean.
The deputy mayor, who drew her inspiration and satisfaction from delivering service to the people, said the solid waste management problem would also be eventually addressed through sensitization for people to change their mindset.
“The waste around the city is all about mindset. As a leader, I have acquired bins as a donation from Puma [Energy] and Total. These bins will be placed around the city so that people can be taught that when you are in a minibus, you have to keep the waste until you disembark and find where to throw the waste,” she said.
Over the years, has also been faced with a problem of inadequate public toilets.
That is one of the priority projects for Ms Chitangala who wants to see to it that more public toilets were built around the city.
Asked whether the media had done enough to profile and highlight achievements of women in leadership, Ms Chitangala said although the media had tried to some extent, there was still a lot more that could be done.
“The media has tried in profiling women, but I think they can do more.
Let the media help us and advertise us,” she said.
She also observed that in the August 2016 elections for instance, most women wanted to participate but they were hindered by the new electoral clause that required an aspiring candidate to possess a Grade 12 certificate.
“Women should go back to school through adult education. I am encouraging my fellow women that it is not too late to go back to school.
“In January [2018], I am going back to school to pursue a Leadership and Wealth programme at the University of Lusaka,” she said.
Ms Chitangala recalled how she started politics at constituency level where her leadership skills and hard work were eventually identified.
She was voted for as the women vice chairperson in Mandevu Constituency before getting to where she was now.
Serving in a council where there are only six female councilors against 27 male councilors, Ms Chitangala urged more women to join politics or indeed aspire for other decision-making positions even outside the political arena.
She said a number of women had wonderful ideas that could add value to the country’s development agenda.
However, she lamented that most of the women shy away from joining politics for a number of reasons.
Ms Chitangala believed that having more women in leadership positions could bring positive change and quick transformation in people’s lives across the country.
The Lusaka deputy mayor said women leaders were more committed to service delivery and to meeting people’s aspirations in every sector.
She further urged other female leaders to empower their fellow women in their respective leadership domain.
“As you are climbing the ladder, you need to pull other women as well,” she said.
Deputizing a mayor running the largest in the country was not easy for
Ms Chitangala to balance with family duties.
“Obviously, my social life has suffered. You cannot have it all,” she said.
Ms Chitangala has one child but looks after her nieces and nephews and her grandmother. She dedicates her weekends to her family.
Having accepted to sacrifice her social life for the sake of service delivery to the people of Lusaka, she said it was very satisfying to spend time dealing with developmental challenges and finding solutions.
“It is not just being with the people; I love dealing directly with the problem and that is my satisfaction,” she said, adding that solving people’s problems made her happy.
Currently, of all the council chairpersons and mayors in the country, only a paltry nine were women out of 109 and only 129 women are ward councilors compared to 1,624 men.
Organisations such as the Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf), the ZNWL and Hivos Zambia who have programmes advocating for increased numbers of women in leadership, have calling for more practical measures within the political structures that would see more women in leadership.
PSAf, ZNWL and Hivos Zambia are advocating that the measures should ensure more women get adopted and appointed to leadership positions as Zambia pushes for a 50-50 gender representation at all leadership levels in line with international treaties which the country has signed.