Marriages are breaking up because husbands and wives are not meeting their obligations in the house due to the economic hardships, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has said.

And Hichilema says there is no doubt anymore that his party and the opposition Alliance will win the 2021 general elections even if the PF try to steal votes.

Meanwhile, Hichilema says there is too much fear amongst citizens, such that they are keeping quiet when things are going wrong in the country.

Speaking when he toured the Mast Newspaper in Lusaka, Monday, Hichilema said the economic hardships in the country had contributed to the breakdown of marriages, as couples were failing to meet their obligations in the houses.

“The situation for citizens is a desperate one, there is hunger, there is poverty, there is anger. Marriages are breaking up because husbands and wives are not meeting their obligations due to the economic hardships. The arguments that we used to have that PF was not going to deliver, are gone. Citizens have now agreed that PF has failed. Where we are now is the phase where we have to replace PF with UPND, that’s why we even have this alliance with well meaning opposition parties,” Hichilema said.

He urged citizens not to fear, but speak out against bad governance.

“I want to encourage Zambians to shed off the fear; there is too much fear in our country. We see things going wrong and we are quiet, who is going to talk for us? Yes, we will be there, HH will be there, other people will be there but every citizen has a duty to talk when things have gone wrong,” Hichilema said.

“We will win the elections, yes they will try to steal our votes but with this combination of opposition parties, we are going to protect our vote. We shall remove this inept PF, this corrupt PF, this incompetent PF. Now that Zambians agree with what we have been saying, it is easier. We are ready, we are absolutely ready. We have the skills as a team, we have the good will, the reputation. We will make sure that money is not wasted on expensive roads but of poor quality, we know what to do in Agriculture, education. Our promise is that we are going to have zero tolerance on corruption, because corruption is funding political violence.”

Hichilema said the PF’s 7 year rule has caused more economic damage than the 47 years of UNIP and MMD.

“We do not want to have vindictiveness when our time in office comes, we want to improve the political space, we want to improve the media space. We want to establish a visionary leadership, a leadership that will deal with the ills, the challenges that our citizens are facing. We said it that the way PF was mismanaging the affairs of this country would cause an economic meltdown, but we were called names. Today we have been vindicated, it’s no longer debatable that the country is facing serious economic problems. The damage caused by the PF in 7 years is much more than what we saw in the combined leadership of UNIP for 27 years and MMD for 20 years. The damage that the PF have cause in terms of debt is much more,” Hichilema said.

“This economic environment makes it even difficult to conduct politics because there is hunger and poverty out there. Because when citizens are pre-occupied with issues of bread and butter, sometimes they may choose to relegate the importance of choosing good quality leadership. And that is disastrous, that is the disaster we are seeing today. To us in the UPND, the most important commodity that has caused the economic meltdown and all these media issues, is bad leadership. And because we know that there is no good leadership under the current team in office, I think that’s the motivation that keeps us going because we believe that we will provide quality leadership for all citizens to have a better life. And I think time has passed when we used to say ‘politics is for lesser people’ politics should not be left for lesser people. Look at the corruption, some people are going into politics to enrich themselves at the expense of serving people.”

And Hicilema said there was need to support the media in the country.

“You need to be supported as a media house, as the Mast you need to be supported because we are going through very difficult times now where the media are not really free as they should be. I want to thank you for building this institution; many of us know where you are coming from, the difficulties that you went through. But to see you still standing, still serving us, still serving the public, as we all know the Media is the fourth estate. The Media is very important and so we all need to render our support. Whatever we do, especially in the political arena, becomes almost impossible without the media; to reach out to the majority of our people who really need to hear our message. I encourage others to continue supporting the media,” said Hichilema.