Stop blaming millers for high mealie meal prices – Kateka

 …tells new dawn to instead focus on measures that will enable citizens have access to affordable mealie-meal

By SHARON ZULU

NEW Heritage Party president, Chishala Kateka has advised Government to put in place measures to ensure that citizens have access to cheaply priced mealie-meal instead of blaming millers for the escalating prices of the staple food.

In an interview with Millennium TV, Ms Kateka said Government’s attempt to shift its failure to manage the staple food to innocent business people was not only reckless but also scandalous.

She said the mealie-meal issue   was a matter of national security as it impinged on the country’s political, economic and social stability.

“There is no need for our people to be starving when the country is so well endowed with all that is required for maize production such as abundant water, good soils and hardworking people.

“In all this, we need to recognise that millers are in business just like the mining houses and who have been given incentives, Ms Kateka said.

She added that one of the factors that had contributed to the high mealie-meal prices was the removal of subsidies on maize inputs for small-scale farmers who are the largest traditional producers of grain for human consumption.

Ms Kateka urged Government to stop blaming the millers because they are an important component of the maize value chain.

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