Mpulungu area Member of Parliament Freedom Sikazwe says smuggling of mealie meal has reached alarming levels in Mpulungu District.
Mr Sikazwe who is also Lusaka Province Minister said the situation is alarming as the trend was causing an artificial shortage of the commodity in the area.
He told ZANIS in an interview in Kasama over the weekend that 406 bags of mealie meal was confiscated on Thursday last week from people who wanted to smuggle the commodity into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.
Mr Sikazwe said about five smugglers were nabbed by alert people in Mpulungu as they tried to smuggle two boats full of mealie meal into the Congo and were taken to the harbour.
He said the customs where currently dealing with the matter.
The Mpulungu legislator said government was getting concerned with the development as it was spending lot of money in trying to bring the price of mealie meal down.
He said government was subsidising the price of maize so that consumers in the country can access mealie meal at an affordable price.
He said the situation has the potential to compromise food security in the country.
Mr Sikazwe said it is unfortunate that a few greedy individuals were aiding foreigners to smuggle the commodity at the expense of the majority Zambians.
He said it was ironic that the same people who cried the loudest when the area experienced mealie meal shortage were the same people who are helping foreigners to smuggle the commodity.
Mr Sikazwe noted that people were smuggling mealie meal at will.
He noted that at one milling company, some foreigners were using the local people to buy mealie meal and thereafter stock pile for smuggling.
Mr Sikazwe noted that it was not normal that the same milling company would sale between 1000 and 1500 bags a day saying the likely explanation is that the local people were been used to purchase the commodity which the foreign traders would later smuggle out of the country.
He stressed that the mealie meal shortage in Mpulungu is artificial.
ZANIS
All the shortages of Mealie Meal never used to occur in Zambia after late president Fredrick Chiluba fixed it.
Even under Rupiah BANDA when there was shortage of maize in Zambia, there was no shortage of mealie meal nor any price increase nor smuggling of Mealie Meal to any other countries.
Sata is not good for Zambia, he is creating business for crooks who will now make money from Zambians sweat!
I remember Late politician Simon Kapwepwe in late 1970s (prophesied like Chanda Chimba III) regarding Zambia economical collapse under KK but Zambians never believed him until the 1986 food riots & hyper inflation. KK murdered Kapwepwe.
Zambians do not need to wait for things to reach the 1980s economical collapse proportion under Sata for them to act. Zambia is bigger than…
Sata must go!!!!!! This is enough!
There was no shortage of Maize under Rupiah Banda. We had bumper harvests under RB.
Go to hell with yo R.B
After Chipimo mentions it, that’s when u say the situation is alarming. U knew ths all the while
Boma yili ndwee yili gonee chifukwa bana lemela kalee..vili gada monga vyuu lindilila eclispse ya ba ngoni!!kamaan get to work guys..old problems in new times si vinthu..taking us back to the age of commodity shortage..aya ni ma sobela!!with a population of 13 mil. and abundant resources this is shameful!we shud have no problems..start managing things properly otherwise mu 2016 ni fired with immediate effect!
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