"It's a Wonderful Thing to Be Zambian Under the UPND Government" — HH

President Hakainde Hichilema closed a campaign rally in Chipata by telling the crowd it was "a wonderful thing to be Zambian under the UPND government," pointing to the previous day's recommissioning of Lusaka's Cancer Diseases Hospital as evidence of what his administration has delivered.

"We had eight hundred people waiting for treatment," Hichilema told the Eastern Province crowd, referring to the backlog of cancer patients who had been queuing for referrals to India and other countries while the hospital's radiotherapy and imaging section sat idle.

"That area had stopped working," he said, adding that his government had funded the upgrade with $31 million of its own money. "Now we're a first-class cancer hospital. You don't have to go to India, you don't have to go to South Africa."

The radiotherapy and imaging unit at the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka had been suspended for roughly five years, according to the hospital's own account, before Hichilema formally recommissioned it on 1 August 2026.

The $31 million refurbishment was financed entirely from domestic resources, and government officials say Zambia is now only the third country in Africa, after South Africa and Egypt, to have this level of advanced cancer treatment technology.

The Non-Governmental Organisations' Coordinating Council welcomed the reopening, with Board Chairperson Beauty Katebe noting the unit can now treat up to 60 patients a day and will particularly benefit women, who account for the majority of cancer cases in the country.

At the Chipata rally, Hichilema repeated the government's plan to build two further cancer treatment centres, in Ndola and Livingstone, to reduce the need for patients outside Lusaka to travel long distances for care.

"Patients used to die on their way to India," he said. "Now we are going to save their lives, especially our women, breast cancer, cervical cancer, even all of us, brain tumour." Government has separately announced plans for a Medical Tourism City near Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, part of a broader push to position Zambia as a regional hub for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Hichilema closed his remarks by returning to the line that opened his appeal, telling the crowd the hospital's reopening was proof of "our love and care for you" and that it was, in his words, a wonderful thing to be Zambian under his government, before urging support for the UPND in the 13 August general election.