The provincial administration in Eastern province has attributed the shortage of mealie-meal in the region to the constant power black-outs by ZESCO which affect production. Provincial deputy permanent secretary, Zachariah Luhanga said the region has enough maize to feed the people but was having challenges because there was only one milling company in the entire province to produce and supply the commodity.
Mr. Luhanga noted that the milling company only had a few hours of milling the commodity due to electricity blackouts hence the shortage which was being experienced.
He was speaking when British High Commissioner to Zambia, James Thornton, paid a courtesy call on him in Chipata today.Earlier, Mr. Thornton asked whether the province was also experiencing a shortage of mealie-meal.
“As a province we only have one milling company and the rest are hammer mills. One milling company cannot manage to feed the entire province, especially when it has few hours of production,’’ Mr. Luhanga said.
[pullquote]Mr. Luhanga said the provincial administration was relating well with opposition political parties. He said politically, the region was stable, unlike in other provinces where there were squabbles[/pullquote]
He said people were taking advantage of the shortage and increased the price, adding that, that was not accepted by government because there was a Presidential directive that the commodity should not be sold at more than K 50.00 per 25 kilogram bag.
And Chipata district commissioner Kalunga Zulu, who flanked Mr. Luhanga, said anything above K 50.00 as a price for mealie-meal was exploitation because government knew the production cost and what income the millers were making.
Meanwhile, Mr. Luhanga has asked the British High Commission to support Eastern province in the tourism industry. He said the region had two Paramount Chiefs with rich cultures and that the two major traditional ceremonies Nc’wala of the Ngoni people and Kulamba of the Chewa people attracted a lot of tourists.
And Mr. Luhanga said the provincial administration was relating well with opposition political parties. He said politically, the region was stable, unlike in other provinces where there were squabbles.
Mr. Luhanga was responding to a question from British High Commissioner, James Thornton, who wanted to find out if there was a good transition when the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy ( MMD) handed power to the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).
He said the provincial administration was relating well with opposition political parties because the development that was going on in the province did not look at political inclinations.
‘ The President appointed three opposition political party Members of Parliament in the province to Ministerial positions and since their appointments, there has been cooperation because they speak for the development of the people,’ Mr. Luhanga said.
The British High Commissioner is in Chipata to hold a series of meetings with different stakeholders.
[ZANIS]
All the surplus money in Zambia is spent on non priorities and when sensible people speak up the rest of you ****** cry foul and start calling us names.
What kind of a people are you who cant defend public interests and community property? You accept crumbs all the time and are even grateful for them so shut up and take it!!
Those blackout were ever more serious during MMD era, But there were NO mealie meal shortages.
let us not politick things here people, we know the problem is power even if the pf may want to take advantage of this. the cause of this problem here is power as the are saying, but is really Hydro the only source of energy,dont we have solar and wind generated power which we as a government can promote to supplement on the little hydro. this power problem is really hindering us so why not use the local recourses and cheaper affordable material for this problem.if countries like china are using this what is zambia not to……our politicians have rusty heads and they need to listen to young blood with fresh ideas
Failure is failure,no amount of words can defend what everyone can clearly see.those people queing for mealie meal are the actual voters.Even if try your 100% smear campagn you still won`t succed in cheating the people.People are not fools,they will react in due time. Zambia is bigger than anyone or a group of people. PF should just step down so that other able politicians can take this country forward.We are tired of the blame game.Today it`s the mealers,tomorrow it`s Zesco,God knows what next. PF has failed period and sooner they step down the better.
I think they should just start working instead of stepping down. Stepping down would be too costly. Pf put your act together, start with something that can be done urgently i.e. lessen your Cabinet, it is way too big, then move on to other things like mealie meal, fuel and the like. You can do this. If you succeed then all of us will have a better life. Plz start working. Ba Sakeni what do you think?
whatever, zambia is jst doomed.
These PF the way they think is really dangerious.
why do we have black out in a country with a lot of water.ZESCO put your house in order.Don’t talk of increasing the tariffs .The best you can do is to reduce on the connection fee for power so that you have a high volume of clients countrywide and stop exporting power save the interest of Zambians naimwe.Nigerians refused the increase in fuel pump price because they have fuel locally.The same with Zambia we have water in abundance.
But they can barely supply the current demand, the fact is we have a supply deficit which ZESCO watched grow. They would rather have a fibre optic cable and I know that those things don’t carry electricity which means it is generating enough money for them. Which means they have no reason to increase tariffs.
alex, zesco cant stop exporting because they realise more from forex than they do from within especially domestic because its there mandate to supplly at an affordably economical rate. the other thing we must also look out for is the illegal connection especially in shanty compounds. zesco is losing alot of power to illegal connections.
for now zesco has got no better option but to increase the amount being generated through inccreased capacity generators and also consider commercial scale solar and wind generated energy source lyk developed countries.
for it reduce on domestic tarrif what i feel zesco is maybe increase tarrif on the mega industries(likes of the mines) and reduce on domestic by a proportion amount especially that domestic supply is being sacrificed for industrial…
zambians when voting u leave brain home , its all tribal, forgetting the issue which affect u, now its pay back time for ur ignorance.
@Bryson, you are not helping either. I too have the same problem as you, but I think it is time to educate and enlighten. For too long has the mind of the Zambian been taken for granted. Our country is turning 50 next year, what do we have to show for it?
Mmm! Very strange turn of events, no ZESCO (power) no food!!!!
i don’t believe this turn of event where they want to accuse zesco…this problem is everywhere, two weeks ago it was kabompo, so please may the government come out to the open and face reality, look the bull in the face and feed the people. when you accuse zesco again its indicative of poor plans on the part of the government.
zesco is suppose to be the thing of the past. i dont blame pf for this plight of power supply the nation is going through, maybe on the part of the campaign promise HE M. Sata which he is suppose to work on. MMD was suppose to have worked on this matter when they were signing contracts with the investors to consider power supply. Anyway, soon CEC kabompo hydro will be supplementing the huge power demand to solwezi mines so zesco burden will reduce.