By Staff Reporter
Senior defence sources have expressed shock at the unconvincing manner in which the reported mealie meal exports by the Zambia National Service (ZNS) to neighboring countries is being handled by the powers that be.
Agriculture permanent secretary Green Mbozi yesterday told Daily Revelation that ZNS has been issued with a permit to export the “imported” mealie meal from South Africa, the same South African mealie meal he said was more expensive than the Zambian commodity.
However, Mbozi could not answer when asked why a security institution was now being used as a trading entity involved in the import and export of merchandise.
“Just imagine the absurdity of one claiming that they are importing expensive maize from South Africa for re-export to Congo? And imagine that the organisation involved in the same is a security institution, whose role should merely end at intervening with the taxpayer milling plants to reduce the skyrocketing prices of the commodity and the accompanying shortages? There is actually more than meets the eye,” the source said. “Remember, ZNS has todate failed to produce concrete data on how much they are spending on first, producing the mealie meal and returns from the same. Secondly, there is no data provided on how much is being spent on the same imported mealie meal from South Africa and how much is being earned from the export of the same to Congo.”
“You need to take Defence minister Ambrose Lufuma and ZNS Commander Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi to provide answers to the many questions being raised about ZNS’s involvement in the whole matter. Otherwise, one can easily smell serious errors because there is no way the service (ZNS) can export mealie meal at this time when prices of the commodity are sky rocketing every single day” the sources quipped. “You guys (Daily Revelation) have heard of certain boarding schools in rural areas that have acquired basic hammer mills and equally grow maize under the production unit arrangement. This is meant to lower the ultimate price of the same [mealie meal] .”
Defence sources said the matter was putting the government in a very awkward situation because President Hakainde Hichilema claimed that he is working hard to reduce prices of the staple food, while ZNS is exporting.
ZNS has come under intense criticism for opting to export mealie meal at a time when citizens were expecting the prices to plummet with the bringing in of ZNS run milling plants.
In response to a recent query about the matter, ZNS director of public relations Colonel Mulenga initially denied that the institution was exporting any mealie meal stressing that whatever they were producing was for local consumption.
But when pressed by Daily Revelation that the media organisation had in its possession pictures of the mealie meal earmarked for exports labelled “For Export”, Col Mulenga after some silence reverted back to the journalist claiming that the mealie meal they were exporting is the one they import from South Africa.
The Congolese market has become lucrative owing to the high prices the mealie meal in that country is fetching at.
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