By NATION REPORTER
PROFESSOR Geoffrey Lungwangwa has advised government officials against making contradictory statement over the sudden critical shortage of mealie in the country which has resulted into citizens queuing and scrambling for the staple food.
Prof Lungwangwa is wondering why there had been varying and contradictory statements from government officials with some claiming that the country was adequately stocked with the commodity while at the same time, government was talking about the importation of mealie meal to ameliorate its scarcity. Prof Lungwangwa, the former Minister of Education says it is saddening that Zambia for the first time in many decades was experiencing the shortage of mealie meal without any discernable reasons from government.
He said it was ironical that government was exporting thousands of metric tonnes of maize to neighbouring Tanzania when at the same time, the country was being forced to import mealie meal from South Africa.
“It is sad that we are experiencing a serious shortage of mealie meal in the country. But the problem we have is that we have been having contradictory statements from government. There have been reports of the country exporting maize in Chisamba. We saw the Minister of Information and Media Chushi Kasanda flagging off the exportation of hundreds of tons of maize to Tanzania but at the same time, we are importing mealie meal. Why should we have a shortage of mealie meal when we have adequate stocks of maize in the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) depots. Why not offload the maize to the millers so that we can have enough and cheaper mealie meal,” Prof Lungwangwa wondered?
Prof Lungwangwa has challenged Mr Mtolo Phiri, the Minister of Agriculture to issue a clear statement as to what was truly causing the shortage of mealie meal when the country had enough maize.
He advised that government should ensure it met the demand of mealie meal in Zambia before considering exporting the commodity in a bid to assist neighbouring countries.
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