By Daily Revelation Editor
Minister for Eastern Province Peter Phiri says people are queuing up for mealie-meal at his wife’s shop because it is cheaper as it is only going for K300 per 25 kg bag.
First of all, it is good that the minister is able to offer the mealie meal at that very high cheap price considering the market price. However, the fact a serving minister in government is calling K300 cheap shows how dire the situation is in the country, because K300 cannot be said to be cheap as it is beyond what many are able to afford in the country. And Zambians must not allow a situation where they start normalising K300 as a cheap price for their much loved mealie meal.
When the price of mealie-meal started skyrocketing to around K180 at the time, many thought that was abnormal and things would not worsen beyond that, but as the prices continued escalating, government officials started normalising every escalation as the new normal. And now, even a government minister can audaciously call the price of a 25 kg bag of mealie-meal as normal at K300 shows the extent to which things are indeed worsening in the country. This is not something a serving government official would have said a few months ago without fear of reprisal.
This would have been abominable not too long ago. Very soon we shall be hearing that the price that has gone to over K400 in some places already is normal, which should not be the case.
Peter says the Zambia National Service (ZNS) will start milling in Eastern Province so that prices reduce to K230. That is a good move indeed. But again that mealie meal will be out of reach of many Zambians as it cannot satisfy both the supply and demand.
Secondly, the same price the minister and those in the government think is cheap at K230, is not cheap at all. If anyone had mentioned to Zambians in August 2021 that they would be buying the cheapest mealie-meal in the country at K230, they would have referred to that same one as mad and out of touch with reality.
We can only imagine what Zambians would have told President Hakainde Hichilema if he stood before them at a campaign rally in 2021 before the elections and told them that under his ‘new dawn’ administration, they will be buying the cheapest mealie meal at K230. Many would have walked away from him and he would have remained alone speaking to himself on the stage as it is not something they would have bargained for. We see especially from officials in the UPND administration this phenomena where they are attempting to normalise skyrocketing prices in the country. Not too long ago, Information minister Cornelius Mweetwa was claiming that the government had silenced critics after announcing the intervention by ZNS to offer the price at K230.
Cornelius described the same as cheap mealie meal, and his pronouncements were followed up by the mother of all celebrations as Hichilema sealed off the roads from his work place into the Central Business District of Lusaka, where he went to Shoprite stores to draw attention to what he calls cheap mealie-meal.
Today, it is Peter describing K300 as cheap. We are not at all against him or any of his family members selling the commodity at prices they consider to be obtaining on the market, we are against normalising such exorbitant and high prices as normal, which isn’t. Peter and the other officials in the UPND administration, say the price is escalating because of smuggling. We are wondering how the previous administrations managed to contain the situation from getting out of hand, such that the mealie meal prices were maintained to manageable levels. Why can’t this administration borrow or draw some positive lessons from how the previous administrations managed the situation?
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By Daily Revelation Editor
Minister for Eastern Province Peter Phiri says people are queuing up for mealie-meal at his wife’s shop because it is cheaper as it is only going for K300 per 25 kg bag.
First of all, it is good that the minister is able to offer the mealie meal at that very high cheap price considering the market price. However, the fact a serving minister in government is calling K300 cheap shows how dire the situation is in the country, because K300 cannot be said to be cheap as it is beyond what many are able to afford in the country. And Zambians must not allow a situation where they start normalising K300 as a cheap price for their much loved mealie meal.
When the price of mealie-meal started skyrocketing to around K180 at the time, many thought that was abnormal and things would not worsen beyond that, but as the prices continued escalating, government officials started normalising every escalation as the new normal. And now, even a government minister can audaciously call the price of a 25 kg bag of mealie-meal as normal at K300 shows the extent to which things are indeed worsening in the country. This is not something a serving government official would have said a few months ago without fear of reprisal.
This would have been abominable not too long ago. Very soon we shall be hearing that the price that has gone to over K400 in some places already is normal, which should not be the case.
Peter says the Zambia National Service (ZNS) will start milling in Eastern Province so that prices reduce to K230. That is a good move indeed. But again that mealie meal will be out of reach of many Zambians as it cannot satisfy both the supply and demand.
Secondly, the same price the minister and those in the government think is cheap at K230, is not cheap at all. If anyone had mentioned to Zambians in August 2021 that they would be buying the cheapest mealie-meal in the country at K230, they would have referred to that same one as mad and out of touch with reality.
We can only imagine what Zambians would have told President Hakainde Hichilema if he stood before them at a campaign rally in 2021 before the elections and told them that under his ‘new dawn’ administration, they will be buying the cheapest mealie meal at K230. Many would have walked away from him and he would have remained alone speaking to himself on the stage as it is not something they would have bargained for. We see especially from officials in the UPND administration this phenomena where they are attempting to normalise skyrocketing prices in the country. Not too long ago, Information minister Cornelius Mweetwa was claiming that the government had silenced critics after announcing the intervention by ZNS to offer the price at K230.
Cornelius described the same as cheap mealie meal, and his pronouncements were followed up by the mother of all celebrations as Hichilema sealed off the roads from his work place into the Central Business District of Lusaka, where he went to Shoprite stores to draw attention to what he calls cheap mealie-meal.
Today, it is Peter describing K300 as cheap. We are not at all against him or any of his family members selling the commodity at prices they consider to be obtaining on the market, we are against normalising such exorbitant and high prices as normal, which isn’t. Peter and the other officials in the UPND administration, say the price is escalating because of smuggling. We are wondering how the previous administrations managed to contain the situation from getting out of hand, such that the mealie meal prices were maintained to manageable levels. Why can’t this administration borrow or draw some positive lessons from how the previous administrations managed the situation?
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