United Party for National Development president Hakainde Hichilema says ruling party cadres have become so powerful due to an absence of good leadership at the helm of their party.

And Hichilema says the agricultural sector has become chaotic under the PF government.

Speaking when he featured on Hot FM’s Hot Seat, Thursday, Hichilema said nothing was going right in the country under the current administration because ruling party cadres were in charge of everything.

“The issue of cadres is a very big problem. Cadres are basically doing everything in the PF government. They are in charge of running markets, bus stations, land allocation, corruption and even giving jobs. Cadres are the ones now who have to arrange for people to meet with somebody. Do you know why cadres have become so important? Because there is no leadership at the top in PF because if there was leadership at the top, there would be no cadre controlling the markets, no cadres making appointments for people or allocating land. But leadership in PF is through caderism, there is no structured leadership and the PF is just punishing citizens too much, this is why somebody is saying 2021 is too far and I agree with them because we can all die under this government,” Hichilema said.

Hichilema said illegal land allocation had contributed to the Cholera epidemic.

“The problem of Cholera starts with poor allocation of land, there is no zoning, no demarcation to basically be able to say ‘on this area, no building’ and who should be able to say that? It’s local authorities but local authorities can’t do that because PF cadres have taken over the management of local authority areas. Local authority services such as bus stops, markets have been taken over by cadres who are charging people for services like collection of garbage which they are not doing and we also see small corruption in the markets mind you, cadres learn the corruption from ministers who are pocketing mukula money, fire tenders and the construction of the dual carriageway from Lusaka to Ndola and fertilizer deals. So coming back to Cholera, the illegal allocation of land by PF cadres has contributed to the spread of cholera because they give land anywhere, anyhow even on sewer line,” Hichlema said.

Hichilema insisted that all public toilets must be free.

And Hichilema who regretted that the agricultural sector had become chaotic under the PF government, promised that the UPND would grow the country’s economy by 10 percent once voted into power.

“Under the PF, agriculture is completely chaotic, the e-voucher has collapsed. I was just reading The Mast [newspaper] today that thousands of farmers in Katete today have not received farming inputs. Now why is this happening? Because e-voucher is just supposed to be a system to allow farmers get their inputs but even that system is just a disaster. PF has killed agriculture, I have heard that this e-voucher has a lot of problems and that sometimes, someone could insert their card to access inputs but then the system does not recognise them, how? This e-voucher is a terrible system and should just be gotten rid of because it is not working,” said Hichilema.