Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:07:49 +0000

Corruption most vile

If there were any doubts these have been firmly confirmed.  The hand of corruption impunity and total disregard of the law is upon us.

Those who should be custodians of truth probity and integrity are now friends of mammon and will bear qualms to cheat, lie, and blackmail, defraud and even put other people in harms way to get their way.  What we thought unimaginable is now upon us.

Impunity has become the order of the day with our authorities completely closing their minds and ears to counsel and advice from those who truly care for this country.  Increasingly therefore utilitarian politics designed to end financial gain status and position is the norm.

The practice of instant gratification in which large rewards must be acquired at little or no cost has become standard measure.  So much that even the modicum of controls are now observed in breach giving rise to uncertainty despondency and eventually inertia..

Things that are clearly wrong and unethical and a clear abuse of authority have seized to generate indignation of whatever kind all because our gate keepers have become compromised and therefore complicit to crime and corruption.  In the short run the crooks, thieves and forgers appear to have won and carried the day but posterity has a way of judging the cleverest of crooks.

Posterity will not let corruption lie easy.

Maize Blues

Finally the government is taking some measures to regularize the maize marketing crisis.  There are still many issues to be resolved the most important of which should be to determine the current stock levels in the country as there is a dispute as to whether the country has enough to see us through to the next harvest.

Simultaneously as the audit is taking place the ministry must investigate the export of subsidized maize.  We understand that a select number of millers were allowed to purchase maize at subsidized prices, which maize was exported at a profit.  The current grain shortage on the global market has meant that prices have escalated and the temptation to export is quite………… However, it is our firm belief that unless an exhaustive post mortem is undertaken in relation to this years fiasco we stand to repeat the experience next year.

The post mortem must include an identification of those that bought and exported maize.  They should be made to pay back the difference between the actual price end against the price at which the maize was bought.  It would be a disgrace of gigantic proportions that that the majority of Zambians will be made to buy expensive mealie meal because millers have exported cheap mealie meal.

We must ensure that in the next harvest, close attention is paid to marketing to avoid the shambles that this year has produced and as a country we should keep our fingers crossed and that the rains will hold and even without the regular supply of farming inputs we can still achieve a reasonable harvest that will save the country from importing maize at exorbitant prices on the international market.