By Daily Revelation Correspondent
Citizens First (CF) leader Harry Kalaba says President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND administration have taken farmers for granted to the extent that they feel they won’t be taken to account for failing to announce the maize floor price.
Addressing a rally in Mibenge, Luapula Province today, Kalaba wondered how the moisture content in the maize was connected with simply announcing the maize floor price, so that people could decide whether to sell the same to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) or whoever they wanted to sell to.
Addressing the mostly farming community and 22 headmen in Mibenge who have had their maize stored up for sometime now, Kalaba said the government was enslaving people for their hard labour.
“It’s always a problem. When you produce they can’t announce the floor price. And when you sell them it takes over a year for them to pay you. The UPND tells you that they can’t tell you the price they can buy the maize from you at because of moisture content. But how is the moisture content connected to price?” Kalaba asked. “They are failing to announce the floor price but want you to vote for them. Chibeleshi icho (They are taking you for granted). And then when you sell maize to them it’s war for them to just pay you.”
He said if elected, his administration would provide eight bags of fertilizer to the farmers as opposed to them receiving the commodity in medas.
Kalaba also urged the people to scrutinise the candidates commitment as they could not vote for people who had not made the effort to travel on the treacherous roads to appreciate the challenges they were facing in the area.
And one of the CF ward candidates in Mibenge, Juliet Mwango, pleaded with the headmen and voters to consider voting for Kalaba as he was their own.
She said if Kalaba were to fail, atleast it should not be from that area.
Deputy CF national mobilisation chairman Haggai Mwewa Chitala said what the people of Mibenge wanted was electricity.
He also said that fellow opposition competitors from NRPUP, presidential candidate Brian Mundubile and running-mate Makebi Zulu, were not coming to serve the people as they were simply a reincarnation of the PF.
