Police on the Copperbelt have been urged to be on high alert against unscrupulous individuals and business houses who are smuggling mealie- meal at night to unknown destinations.
In addition, Antelope Milling Limited Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Efstathiou says his company was producing 7000 by 25kg bags of breakfast meal and 3000 by 25kg bags of roller meal.
Copperbelt Province Minister Mwenye Musenge says police in the area should be on high alert and arrest any unscrupulous businesspersons and individuals found wanting in the smuggling escapades.
ZANIS reports from Luanshya that the minister said this in an interview after a business meeting with management of Antelope Milling Company.
He said he has received reports alleging that some unscrupulous individuals are involved in a racket where mealie is been bought in large quantities from outlets and then transported in the night possibly to border areas where the commodity is fetching a higher price.
Mr. Musenge wondered why trucks loaded with mealie meal meant for ordinary Zambians are been allowed by police at checkpoints to pass without inquiring. He said the province had 7 check points and it was unthinkable that police could just be watching truck loads of mealie meal crossing.
He said there was need for everyone in the province to work together in resolving the problem hence the reason his office is meeting millers to get down to bottom of the problem.
He said whilst his office has already agreed with district commissioners and miller to be limiting the number of bags one can buy to two bags, more has to be down so that situation is normalized.
And speaking earlier in the meeting, Antelope Milling Limited Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Efstathiou says his company was producing 7000 by 25kg bags of breakfast meal and 3000 by 25kg bags of roller meal.
He said as far as his company, the company was managing to supply the commodity to all its 55 outlet depots on the Copperbelt.
Mr. Efstathiou assured the minister that the company was working closely with the local leadership so that it can find a lasting solution to problem of the seemingly shortage.
He said management had since resolved to direct all its supplies of mealie meal to Luanshya as it had enough stocks.
ZANIS
KASUMBALESA POLICE ARE THE MAIN CULPRITS
SADI indeed
PF come into power. Mealie meal shortages begin. And smuggling starts. PF you’ve failed.
Its HH who is sponsoring the smugling of mealmeal
when there is demand just up production.. no need for all these wohaha,,,, monkeys!
Its a well known fact that all those manning road blocks are being bribed big time. Send OP guys, who should reshuffled at short notice, to be patrolling chingola kasumbalesa road in the night for a period of time & things will get back to normal.
How do u smuggle mealie meal to unknown destination????
ba Mpombozi nabena awe kwena…
This is the time for all Zambians to take farming as a business. Let us grow more maize for the DRC market, money is just available for us. Let us not be lazy guys. So long the market remains big in the DRC, smuggling will continue.
Nevertheless, let Gonvt must do something to prevent this rampart smuggling.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
Make smuggling unbailable like motor vehicle stealing. people will think twice about embarking on the same. What is ZNS doing? They have work force, large tracks of land and they should be made to start farming maize on commercial basis and start producing mealie meal through their own outlets through out the country. That way sabbotours will be cut out and cold blooded millers will be put in check
Thats how all PF usefull i.d.i.o.t.s think.
The PF government is supposed to deal with the causes of the mealie meal shortages and not the symptoms. Smuggling is not a problem because that is business. It means there is potential for Zambia to grow more maize so that we can export to neighbouring countries. What we need to do to curtail shortages is to allow millers to operate freely according to market forces. The PF must stop interfering with the operations of millers because millers are business people like anybody else. You cannot dictate to them on how they should run their businesses, neither can you set the price for them. There are certain fundamental matters that the PF has failed to deal with to normalise the situation. Unless these basics are attended to, shortages will continue. The gvt needs to be practical on this.
But even if am a PF supporter, apapena, twafilwa mwe. Any price controls, smuggling, police arrests is a sign that the Government is failing to do it’s work. Yaba, Ba Kateka, bombelenipo apa mwe. Ubunga, bufwile bwasangwa mumayanda mwe. Ndimuntu wenu Ba MCS, mutumfweko apapena mwe. Amataba, yalebola, ubunga tamuli mumayanda, yaba, bola yabipa.
P F out 2016
sabbina and ,solwezi turn off,kafue and konnoko turn off are the suspect check points.No wonder almost every police at solwezi turn off has two vehicles each within a short period of time.