By Mubanga Mubanga
Shiwang’andu member of parliament (PF) Steven Kampyongo says the UPND government has killed farmers by their failure to pay them on time.
In an interview with Daily Revelation yesterday, Kampyongo sai what was happening had not happened in the history of Zambia, where farmers had not been paid by December.
“It has killed farmers basically. Those are the problems we have found in our constituencies. It has never happened in our history that farmers today is December, actually the end of December, going into another year without being paid for the maize they supplied FRA,” Kampyongo said. “How do you expect them to plan for the next farming season? It is just basically killing farmers.”
On the remarks by Information and Media minister Cornelius Mweetwa who attributed the delay to pay farmer to bank procedures, Kampyongo said Mweetwa was becoming a big joker.
He reminded him that the failure to pay farmers was not a joking matter.
“It is unfortunate that my colleague, the minister of information, is becoming a big joker. You know, let him not lose credibility over things like this. These are not joking matters,” Kampyongo said.
Kampyongo said the farmers in his constituency were visiting banks every day but there was no money.
He added that they were getting soaked with rain as they waited for their money at the bank.
“They are not copying, how can they copy? They are getting soaked every other day. Camping outside the banks, where there is no money. And a government minister can even joke to say, it is the banks to blame,” Kampyongo said. “How can you blame the banks? If they have run out of lies to give people … they have been lying since September. How does the bank become … let them stop these jokes, they are playing with people’s lives.
”Kampyongo said the government had failed to plan on how they were going to pay the farmers.
“It is just a failure, it is just the failure of the government. They are not planning anything. If they are planning, they are only planning to fail,”said Kampyongo.
