Tanzania maize deal remains a scandal – Tembo

By NATION REPORTER

THE US$ 250 million maize deal which the Zambian Government entered into for the importation of 650,000 metric tons of white maize from Tanzania is among the many suspicious transactions the UPND government has been involved in, Brighton Tembo has said.
Mr Tembo, the executive director of the Community Action against Corruption (CAAC) said the deal which was sealed in June of this year as a result of the country facing a drought was marred by scandals right from the start.
“This deal started as a scandal over its transportation costs. There were conflicting statements from Government. This ought not to be the case. Government has technocrats whom if politicians listen to, they would not go wrong,” Mr Tembo said in an interview.
Mr Tembo has challenged Rueben Mtolo Phiri to clearly tell the nation how much government had paid for the maize following reports that in fact government had so far paid for about 200, 000 metric tonnes of the gain and yet only 14, 000 metric tonnes had been delivered.
Efforts to get Mr Mtolo proved futile as calls made to his mobile phone were not answered by press time.
Mr Tembo said Government was a serious institution which once it spoke, people took it seriously, stating that the conflicting statements from senior government officials were a sign that the transaction could be tainted with corruption.
He said the fact that the Zambian Government only received 14,000 metric tons of maize out of the 195,000 metric tons it had paid for raised serious suspicion.
“UPND is not walking the talk. Everything they do ends up or turns out to be scandalous. If not so, they single source. They don’t follow tender procedure. They abrogate the law with impunity yet they are in the forefront arresting former leaders they suspect to be have plundered national resources. It is sad that UPND is not transparent,” Mr Tembo said.
He said whatever UPND did was by force and only did what suited them.
Zambia’s maize production in the 2023/24 crop season was expected to decrease to 1.5 million tons from 3.2 million tons the previous season, according to a crop forecasting survey.
The Zambia-Tanzania deal was approved by Cabinet.