Former First Lady Maureen Mwanawasa has urged women in Zambia to go out and mobilise to ensure PF is voted out of government in August.
Dr. Mwanawasa was speaking when she addressed women from the opposition UPND to mark International Women’s Day.
Below is her full address:
The only party that knows where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going is UPND.
The UPND knows that problems of water, health, education of our children, maternal health, land acquisition and gender based violence need to be addressed and it’s the only party that will deliver its promises.
We have had so many Presidents in this country. You yourselves as women know under which government you were empowered and respected.
There’s only one candidate that looks like he will govern like Mwanawasa.
Remember women how we are suffering sleeping on hospital floors, nursing our children and families. Remember our empty kitchens and how our children are going to sleep hungry. Every time you remember these problems – remember HH as the saviour.
Remember to mobilise your fellow women to go and vote, and not only vote but vote for HH. There can be no other choice.
Many of us women are not working and even our husbands have no jobs. You as women are the ones who hold the HH vote. Go out in numbers in the markets and mobilise your fellow women and don’t forget to protect the vote.
We need to be meeting often as women. We should communicate regularly with our National Chairlady and the Provincial Chairladies in the few months before the election.
To the marketeers, we want piped water in our townships and in our markets. Soweto market should look better than it does. We can’t be talking about cholera 50 years after Independence.
Today being Women’s Day the war we are fighting is the fight against poverty, the fight for medicines in our hospitals, the fight for affordable education for our children.
Rwanda and Uganda boast high numbers of female representation in Parliament. Why is Zambia failing to match this when we got our Independence before these countries? Let’s support our female aspiring candidates this year.
In 2015 HH was only missing 27,000 votes. Each province should have this extra 27,000 votes as a target to ensure HH wins the 2016 election. This should be our target as women – we don’t want a rerun. Even a constituency like Munali can produce the 27,000 votes we were missing in January.
Let’s have a door to door campaign to recruit fellow women. Let’s be relentless in the pursuit of gender equality and change for Zambia.
