Vice president Guy Scott has accused millers of blackmail in view of the shortage of mealie meal that has hit the Copperbelt.
Dr Scott during the vice president’s question time in response to a question by Mafinga Member of Parliament, Catherine Namugala who wanted to find out government’s position on the mealie meal shortage, said millers ignored the advice given to them to buy maize for themselves on the open market up until the end of December when the FRA would supply them with maize in the second half.
Ms Namugala told the House that mealie-meal prices on the Copperbelt had gone as higher as K75, 000 making it difficult for the locals to purchase the commodity.
Dr Scott said that the millers thought they were clever and left the Food Reserve Agency to buy all the maize as has previously has been the case in the past with all the corruption and maize wastage involved.
He says unfortunately the millers’ blackmail seems to have some effect into forcing government into directing FRA to release maize earlier than planned in order to bring down mealie meal prices down.
The Vice president disclosed that the situation has further been compounded by the mechanical outage at Mpongwe milling which has been down for seven days.
“Mpongwe milling has be down for past seven days which has aggravated the situation because it is the largest milling and supplier of mealie-meal on the Copperbelt, but by next week the situation will normalise, “he said
Dr Scott also said South Africa had stopped supplying the commodity to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a situation which had caused severe demand of mealie-meal from Zambia into DRC.
The Vice President has assured that the escalating prices and shortages of mealie meal on the Copperbelt will normalise by next week.
The Vice President said Agriculture and Cooperative Minister Emmanuel Chenda would next week issue a comprehensive statement on various issues such as mealie-meal shortages.
And United Party for National Development (UPND) Nangoma MP Boyd Hamusonde wondered why there had slow distribution of the farming inputs under Fertiliser Input Support Programme (FISP). In his response, Dr Scott said Government inherited a system that was full of corruption.
He said the Patriotic Front (PF) Government found FISP marred with high corrupt practises and that it was cleaning up FISP distribution exercise.
Dr Scott said the Government would promote transparency and accountability in the manner farming inputs were managed for the benefits of several Zambians farmers.
:((
So which is it now – the millers ignoring the governments advice or the opposition working with the millers as we read elsewhere?
WE HAVE MAIZE THAT IS GOING TO WASTE IN DEPOTS. AND WE HAVE STOCKS THAT WILL LAST UNTIL NEX YEARS RAIN SEASON. IT CAN ONLY BE BLACKMAIL.AND TRANSIENT.
who runs depots you *****. its the government’s sole responsibility to make sure maize doesn’t go to waste. do the opposition sell maize to millers, do they run FRA. stop thinking with your fingers am sure you have leprosy hence missing some keys.
@concernedcitizen. if anyone is an *****, its the millers and you under their asses.
What you are ignoring is what the food reserve agency is, it is a STRATEGIC RESERVE not a centralized supply system. Millers should be able to buy on their own but if they want GRZ to do their job for them at the expense of the tax payers’ expense I think that is very selfish and just simply bad for our economy..Remember that FRA is not a bank or a Marketing authority so you know that the money they use to pay the farmers is most likely borrowed. And to have it go to waste is just simply irresponsible!!
okay which one is which?
A) Millers conspiring against government
B) Demand from former Zaire
C) Mpongwe Milling mechanical outage
Bwana vice president give us a clear answer
All of the above?
Poseniko amano bane.Help save marriages by making sure that there is a constant supply of mealie meal.No wonder the late president Chiluba during a campaign rally which came when there was a mealie meal shortage on the copperbelt once said “ala bane we will make sure ukweba ati ubunga bwabwelako umutengo pantu fwebaupa twalishiba ati lufyono pakwima bwino kulya”.MHSRIP.
Lol
Poseniko amano bane.Help save marriages by making sure that there is a constant supply of mealie meal.No wonder the late president Chiluba during a campaign rally which came when there was a mealie meal shortage on the copperbelt once said “ala bane we will make sure ukweba ati ubunga bwabwelako umutengo pantu fwebaupa twalishiba ati lufyono pakwima bwinokulya”.MHSRIP..
THIS GUY,GUY SCOTT IS GETTING MAD WITH AGE. HE WAS BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH UNTIL HE CAME TO THE ANSWER.
THERE IS A HUGE DEMAND OF MEALIE MEAL & MAIZE IN DRC IN CONGO. PF CROOKS HAVE DIVERTED THE MAIZE AND MEAL MEAL TO DCR.
I SAID IT BEFORE THAT I KNEW THSGT HAD ILLEGALLY SMUGGLED INTO DRC MEALIE MEAL AND MAIZE FOR SELFISH GAINS.
and the people continue to suffer whilst government and business trade insults and play blame shifting games
#s 5 & 6 Masala Market Please go back to Ndola, you are such a disgrace to your family and the entire clan. Chiluba (MHSRIP) was not into insulting as you want as to believe. You Shamenda!
Iwe kapuli that is a figure of speech.What’s wrong with that ? Buk-ala bobe.Kopala swag for life.
MY VICE PRESIDENT. CHIKALI. HE KNOWS WHERE THE PROBLEM IS AND WHAT TO DO.
are you sure he knows what to do his busy licking his mouth from the embarrassment of the lies his peddling, i suspect Gay Scott has bombs wrapped around him to make him say nonsense from UKWA, poor Gay under bomb arrest.
Chisenga @3 You are right. That is why KK took over the milling companies. All; this is to do with minimum wages. But we shall concur
you logic is not normal.
The input supply is slow because they inherited a corrupt system, ironically which was faster.
This man has been turned into a fool by Ukwa, you just ca`nt work with grade II`s
These problems need urgent action bwana VP,read the trends….
The only cleaning up of corruption should take place in Sata’s head.
Just Nationalize the milling companies.
kansi ni muzungu wachabe, alibe nzeru. no solution to the maize shortage? Remeber this is the farmer who wanted to swindle govt, by ordering the slaughter of pigs on the pretext of swine fever in an effoert to be compesated by govt for failing to find market for his swines. Brari , atase, kupusa chimuzungu ichi, sha
Koma muzungu uyu ni chizende!
Is it the duty of government to mill maize? I thought we are in a Free Market Economy! Millers should take responsibility and meet this demand for the commodity. We have lots of maize in the country and yet they decided not to buy it so that they can cause an artificial shortage which will force the prices to go up!
Whats wrong with this obsession with nshima?This lumpy dish which the Congolese call “bugali” is in itself not nutritious and it maybe why this muzungu takes the shortage lightly.Find other more nutritious foods like sweet potatoes,yams,arrow roots,mung beans to feed on rather than this overrated imported south american obsession.Feeding on a tasteless white “mud” is a form of muzungu anikonde since its the white guy that brought it here.
The people that voted for Guy Scott only eat nsima na delele. Stop wasting your time dissing nsima. Even here in SA blacks eat pap.
YOU DONT EAT AKAMEGE SO THERE IS NOTHING TANGIBLE YOU CAN COMMENT AND PIPO LISTEN TO YOU!! FIRST TASTE AND COMMENT SO THAT YOU KNOW THE IMPORNTANCE.
THANKS
Policy Failure bazingimana
Guy Sikuba Scott you inherited a corrupt system which ensured that inputs were supplied in time. Ensured bumper harvests and ensured that farmers were paid in time for their produce. We now have a corrupt free PF system which has guaranteed that inputs are not delivered. Farmers are not paid for their produce and there is be no bumper harvest. And why the bloody hell did you morons export 1 million tonnes of maize you inherited from the corrupt MMD? You’re a useless tribal govt! Mealie meal shortages in 2012? Don’t ruin our country you id.iots!
What happened to the bumper harvest that RB left?This country was heading in the right direction though slowly under MMD ,I fear we are now heading in the wrong direction very fast.I would also like to encourage Zambians to get away from this nshima eating business.Maize is holding us ranson.Lets discover some other things to fill our tummy’s.Maybe we can start buying rice from the Lozi’s of Barotseland.It would boost their economy and reduce our nshima dependance.
Rice with Chisense and ifishimu…..hmmmm, that’s a good one!!
Zambians dont be cheated by pseudo-clever chaps trying to dicourage dependency on Nshima. Firstly, there is nothing wrong with eating nshima, if its what you like its what you eat its that simple.
So the issue here is availability of Ubunga, and if thats what you want please do not be conned into replacing it with rice or bread or what ever.
Bunga must be available when needed. Maize is easier to grow than wheat or rice, so whats so difficult here?
We had bumper harvest under RB, infact the maize is still available. why are PF finding it hard to get somebody to mill the available maize from the RB times?
Napapa sana!! how was the corrupt system able to deliver bumper harvests year after year and keep the people of Zambia fed and your “cleaned up” system can not deliver a single bag of fertiliser under FISP this late in November. You must be Wellensky, taking Zambians for imbeciles.
This is what happens when you make decisions without involving experts. All pieces of the puzzle must be put together, I.e. minimum wage, DRC demand, FRA price and delay in paying, proximity to DRC, cash price in DRC. Â Â I have some maize on CB and you think I’m that dull to give it to FRA! No I will sell it cash to some Congole who have found a way of smuggling it into DRC
Bembas you’ve failed to run the country. Been loudmouths is not enough. You need brains!
immoral muzungu..
Mr. Low Blow is back on the scene people
Live and direct from the USA!
this white man is in a wrong camp. that is why he has lost all his thinking capabilities. Guy Sikoti. a muzungu in a camp of dunderheads, grade 7s’. chinangwa cha musungu.
Maize,Electricity, Bread………what next??Meanwhile state house is fully li like a Christmas tree!!
#6Masala Market, wansekesha.. Iwe # 9Jairos Muleke zimandola.
Ala ninseka mwandi! Ati lufyono pakwima.
All you fools attacking scot are out of this country and because you are UPND you are jumping at every small chance. I proved this when I went to the USA( I was staying i Washington Alexandria, St Asaph Av).Every fool there had a wrong notion about what is happenning in Zambia. Ask yourself, we have more maize than we can consume how come people are smugglin mealie meal to Kasai Land? Simple; Mealers are making more bucks and since the GRZ as tried to free us we take advantage. Dot just bark from overseas without getting facts from your people that is if they are neutral
then its not opposition but conmgo dr
This guy is foloolish. How can he lie like this? OPPOSITION CONGO ETC, inohrent and malicius. Useless black muzungu?
PF will sort it out. Watch this space
Zambia, shall we focus on solutions not the problem> I want the PF to leave a managable Zambia in 2016
Mister Dr Scott! Jesus wept….
the problem is with the millers,they never wanted to buy maize on the same price the govt was buying at coz they wanted to make more profit, now what they want is the government to supply maize to them on the same price the govt was buying at, which will be a big loss for the govt, the govt has to sell maize on a much higher price or export it for the FRA to pay the debt. in short if the govt decids to sell maize to millers they will do so on a high price which means prices of mili meal will never come down.
Ba ma mbala and bakabwalala imwe ba PF, why are we back to the UNIP days? Answer, your management style of national issues is not consistent with the demands of the contemporary epoch! Change and improve your ways of managing the country PLEASE! PF we know you cannot interpret data, figures and statistics but know one thing. That before a crisis occurs they are warning signals and alerts. Deal with issues before the volcano erupts. Ba Scot please drill this into ba Sata. 100% of the problems PF government are facing are of there own making … doing things without rational thought and talking without rational objectives … mwaziletelela mweka chabe…
YOU SEE, PF IS MAKING A LOT OF MISTAKES. IMMEDIATELY, THEY OCCUPIED OFFICE THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN RID OF MMD CHAPS IN STRATEGIC AREAS SUCH AS EMBASSIES AND HIGH COMMISSIONS, JUDICIARY, FRA, HOSPITALS/MINISTRY OF HEALTH, ETC. IT’S COMMON SENSE. ALL THOSE MMD SYMPATHISERS ARE STILL IN GOVT AND PARASTATAL ORGANISATIONS AND FRUSTRATE ALL EFFORTS TO DEVELOP ZAMBIA. TAKE FOR INSTANCE EMBASSIES AND HCs. MMD ARE STILL THERE AND IN THE MAJORITY AND FRUSTRATE ALL EFFORTS OPENLY AND SECRETLY. EMPLOYERS ARE GANGING UP AGAINST MINIMUM WAGE. JUST RECENTLY, THEY LOST THE APPEAL CASE AGAINST MINIMUM WAGE AND YOU THINK THERE’S ANY WONDER THERE’S A SHORTAGE OF CON MEAL. PF PULL UP YOUR SOCKS OR OPPOSITION THEY PULL THEM UP FOR YOU.
Masala market you are disgusting to say the least. When we said these pf guys cant lead you said mulekeni nankwe atekeko!Tepapa bafilwa.Tensoni sheka!! Emmanuel Chenda as minister of agriculture?what does he know about farming?Uyu Guy Scott failed as minister of agriculture under Chiluba.What can he do now that he is an old man @ almost 80 years just like his boss and Chikwanda!Zambians must wake up and see that we are heading nowhere with these guys.No water,no electricity and now no mealie meal.God save us.GOD BLESS ZAMBIA.
You liar…shame on you. Ask us who are in Zambia. Zambia has a lot of maize even to last for 2 years. This shortage is just artificial. Moreover, private sector should run this industry and not government, government has only a strategic reserve role to play. Why is the private failing? These are the questions you must ask you bitter frustrated person.
The business of Government should be to govern and not to govern the business :-?:((:o