By Isaac Zulu
Central Province UPND chairman Albert Chifita says the Ministry of Agriculture should revise the policy on the export of maize by putting the interest of Zambians first as opposed to empowering foreigners.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Chifita said the Ministry of Agriculture to revise the policy regarding the export of maize to neighbouring countries in order to avert the mealie meal prices.
“And our suggestion is that the Ministry of Agriculture, has to make some drastic changes and decisions that would ensure that the policy of maize export to some neighbouring countries is revisited. We need to put the needs of Zambians first; as opposed to empowering the foreign nationals that have continued exporting maize at the expense of majority Zambians,” said Chifita.
However, Chifita in the same breath said that the country still has enough stock of maize in Food Reserve Agency (FRA) facilities, which is being offloaded to members of the Millers Association of Zambia; and wondered why the nation should be experiencing a shortage of mealie meal.
He cited Central Province as a region, which is a maize grain basket, but is now experiencing a shortage of mealie meal.
“As the UPND leadership in Central Province, we are very much concerned about the shortage of mealie meal in and the increase in mealie meal prices. After undertaking our own analysis, we have actually realised that the Millers Association of Zambia and its associates is creating an artificial shortage of mealie meal by continuously exporting white maize and mealie to some neighbouring countries,” Chifita explained. “Central Province is a maize grain basket in Zambia and we are wondering why we should be having a maize and mealie meal deficit. This increase in mealie meal is just an artificial shortage, which has being created by the members of the Millers Association of Zambia.”
He charged that the Millers Association of Zambia is still infiltrated by Patriot Front officials who are allegedly “sabotaging the UPND administration.”
“We know all their games. There are still some people, contractors and suppliers that are still affiliated to the Patriot Front government. And these people are colluding with the PF officials and have continued supporting and colluding with the PF regime. They are now sabotaging the UPND administration in the implementation of government programmes,” said Chifita.
But when contacted for a comment, Millers Association of Zambia official, Andrew Chintala, could not pick calls on several occasions.
