Police in Kitwe have told to delagation from of Home Affairs officials that some senior Government officials are involved in the smuggling of maize and mealie meal into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC
Kitwe District staff officer, Joseph Chitabo said that the Police are fearful of losing their jobs if arrested those perpetrating the smuggling of Mealie Meal.
Mr Chitabo said that the people involved in the vice are senior government officials adding that it was difficult for officers to get in the way of such individuals for fear of losing their jobs.
It also came to light that Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Stephen Kampyongo is well aware of the development.
However, Mr.Kampyongo has assured the officers that the law is there to protect them and that there will be no sacred cows.
Mr Kampyongo said it was saddening to learn that some public officers were actively participating in the smuggling of mealie-meal.
Mr. Kampyongo said disciplinary measures would be given on such officers as no one is above the law.
“As Government, we have always sent food across the boarder but we have to control the movement of illegality. It does not pay to watch crime and ignore it,” Mr. Kampyongo said.
Agriculture Deputy Minister Rogers Mwewa said Government would ensure that all those involved in the smuggling of mealie meal were dealt with and commended Copperbelt Police Commissioner Mary Tembo for trying had to stop the smuggling.
Meanwhile, Government has directed mealie-meal traders at Kasumbalesa boarder to remove the commodity from their depots at the boarder and sale it in Chililabombwe within 24 hours.
Home Affairs deputy minister Alfrida Kansembe said all mealie-meal traders at the boarders should sale the commodity at a retail price from Chililabombwe shops.
Ms Kansembe said during an on-the-spot check that Government will seize the mealie-meal and demolish the depots at the border if the directive was not implemented.
Ms Kansembe, flanked by Home Affairs deputy minister Stephen Kapyongo and Agriculture deputy minister Rogers Mwewa, said Government was aware that mealie-meal was being sold at exorbitant prices at an expense of poor Zambians.
“We have given you two days to start offloading the mealie-meal bags to Chililabombwe retail shops and police officers will ensure that all mealie-meal is moved and sold at K55,000.
“Get trade permits otherwise government will seize your mealie-meal and demolish all these depots, we cannot watch you participate in illegality,” she said.
And Assistant commissioner of police Kannedy Chiswe said police had recovered 24,532 25kg bags of mealie-meal, 1033 abandoned ones, 2820 50kg sugar bags and 57 bicycles.
Mr Chiswe said some people were given money in advance to supply mealie-meal.
let the law visit who ever is involved and no one should be spared
which law is against what they are doing, zambia has a free market economy by law
That is PF for. This is a government of hooligans. By the time this cabal is removed there will be very little of Zambia left. Incompetence, tribalism, bad governance, lying and wastefulness will be the stuff that PF will be remembered for. This will be Zambia’s worst government in 150 years after independence.
There goes a pesimist, if I may ask you, which Presidential candidate is inspiring and where we can place our hopes for the future?????
How did you get the answer, some suspense then ………. it should come instantly. We are lacking leadership at most levels.
@My Zambia, what positive thing have you seen in this revealation that Senior Government officials are smuggling mealie meal? And you want me to be positive or optimistic above this bad news! Get a life cadre!
Iwe Goncalves even if you hate the PF Government so much the fact is there is no credible leader in the opposition that can run Zambia better than the PF are doing.Better shallow the better pill of defeat and accept that the PF is in power and will be in power even after 2016.Your hungry heyna (HH) and the destroyer Nevers Mumba have no developmental plans for Zambia and are directionless!!
how can us tongas benefit from this, we have plenty maize, can we put on train to CB and maybe on trucks to border. selling in zambia is making us broke with the new price control measures, would rather feed my maize to my cows. lol just kidding, but comedy as usual pa zed
This is why i always say “zambia is just a name,the nation is YOU”
By electing whoever meets ya criteria,you should always keep in mind that yours is not the only one that counts.Spare a thought for your opponent’s criteria.It might serve to actually save you from ya “friends” whom the police are even scared of here.
such looting wil continue because the mal-nutrition pot bellied presido has completely lost touch with what is realy hapening in zambia.he is so idle in in state house.the man is just too tired you can tel by the way he walks.too much vishupu mumala mwa sata.
in as much as this govt is fighting coruption there wl bee those few gredy indivduals in the system.jst like it suprised desciples of jesus after discovring that the weeds grew togetha with good plants.didt we only plant good seed only? were are these weeds cpmingcoming from from?he replied that when we went tp sleep the devil came at might and planted hohis bad seed.in shot were there is good the evil is always there
And you expect justice from starving policemen who are afraid of losing jobs? it’s a shame pa Zambia mwandi
“Police offices fear losing their jobs”, that is a reason why when Pf kills a Pf cadre the police goe after the opposition they are afraid of losing their jobs! Shame on pf! I regret voting for you.
Gentlemen, why should everything and every national problem be about who voted for who or who is going to vote for who? Surely how can the national leader be responsible for all that goes wrong? Problems will always be there whether it will be HH, or Milupi or even Chipimo in leadership. We can solve this smuggling problem without having to talk about elections. The next elections will only be in 2016 by the way.
Cant wait for the ZWD version
yes coz it calls a spade a spade.
This article is full of gramatic errors Disgusting
LT why do always moderate my comments?You are also biased towards the opposition and only post comments that insult Sata and the PF government!!
MMD and UPND are the ones smunggling meali meal to congo so that the frustrate PF government . Especially HH
This is where mmembe used to be useful to the people.by now we should have known who that official is together with the dates of transaction trucks which carried the contraband as well even names of loaders now the man of the people has decided to abandon them and is dining heavily with the hyenas.
Can someone tell me why Given Lubinda was sidelined? what of these others who are committing more serious crimes in GRZ immunity Jackets? is it animal farm? uuwangalila ku bunga te muntu…! EXPOSE AND LOCK THEM UP….
what sanity do you expect form PF..most of their leaders are jerabos..lol..
Y should u involve de President in every ding u demons? Even wen u ve some gud points no 1 can listen 2 u becoz of de way u bring dem out. Can any 1 please responsible deal with dese demons involved in smugling.De oda thing we can do,stap up prdtion
The wonderful thing about the Internet is that we will soon know who exactly is involved – so even if you withhold those names here we will find out soon enough! We need a new approach to running affairs.
EXPORT TRADE!!! What has really gone wrong? Zambia has been aspiring to develop both domestic and export markets to provide incentives to the agricultural sector. A poor domestic maize market has been cited as the major problem facing the agricultural sector in Zambia. The maize marketing season is fast approaching. Government may yet again fail to pay maize farmers. The DRC (Congo Kinshansa) has provided Zambia with the much needed profitable export market for maize. Instead of nurturing this market and the players involved in it, the government is busy demonizing the traders and indirectly the DRC. Zambians should not cry foul one day, should the government of the DRC decide to ban imports of Zambian maize for a more steady and predictable source.
If a guy whose pay is a thousands more than 1 dollar per day can steal, what more that unemployed or street vendor whose pay is a dollar or less per day? I dont see the ills of this third world nation coming to an end, all they do is the Chiluba moto which is “STEAL IF YOU CAN AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT”! we all know that all you guys are stealing, only a few dont, the funny thing is everyone turns to give a blind eye, atleast i know that most of you are stealing, and i know that one day you will be caught, not really wiped out cos it’s like a cancer which multiplies it’s cells there by making it even more heavy to completely clear it, i just hope the lives of the marjority can be improved, even a bit of decency would help, now cage those boys they should serve as an example!
This is the price we pay for politicising institutions like the police service. Since independence the police have always waited for instructions from politicians before they act.
They alternative will be to have a new constitution providing for devolution of power such that, police, health, education among other things will be run by the provincial govts. Heads of these depts elected and ratified by provincial parliaments.
With constitutional protection, they will do a better job than now
@My Zambia; there are alot of individuals who can and who could have made better presidents had it not been for this non democratic tendancies of the current leaders at the helm of their parties not allowing for viable individuals to challenge them. The trend has been that whoever is at the top blocks upcoming vibrant leaders. Take PF, when did they ever hold a party convention let alone elections, and they claim they are democrats? Pretty much the same can be said for UPND, NAREP, UNIP, FDD, ADD etc. This is the reason Zambia has a legion of political parties simply because one can not aspire to lead the party if they are not from the right tribe in a given party or did not form the party. Why is it that Mulongoti felt he had to form a party and not join one of the existing parties?
The compromised police admit that they cannot reveal details for fear of loosing their jobs. One would suspect that in fact it is not senior civil servants involved in the smuggling but the untouchable PF officials.
@ Goncalves.
I may have seen the positives such as “link zambia project” I ve seen also very serious shortcomings in the Government also, but when I search for 2016 altenative Government, among opposition, I see nothing inspiring, no hope, nothing in the horizon boss and with this news item I just get more worried but a bit optimistic perhaps things can improve,
But as for you, you are always on the extreme end that is why I ask you to give me sensible alternative to this clap; (GRZ officials turned smuggler depriving the people who took them to power of nshima)
Export bans are not the way. Why are our ministers so dull.? Ati ba minister of agric., which agric? How do you rush to impose export bans, treating symptoms as usual.! The root cause lies somewhere, it’s in your govt, your ministry in particular. WHY NOT TREAT IT???? It’s simple ba minister, revamp the most neglected sector in Zambia but the most vital. The Congolese have no time to do agric. as much as we can… that’s market begging for trade. Go back to the D-board and put your house in order. Produce enough for Zambians to eat, to store and to throw away to the Congo market.
Deal with those chaps who are imposing hunger and suffering on innocent Zambians! Show them that their positions cannot defend them in which ever way. But if you will decide to play it cool and brush aside what the police have reviewed then equally leave it open even for other Zambians to do the same, which in the long run will bring back the Kaunda time when we were parading for anything including toilet tissue because things had been smuggled to other countries. In fact who ever is a leader, it be in government or out side, should lead by good example.
So the Police have finally come out and said they are afraid of acting professional because they do not want top lose their jobs.There is executive interference! So we can deduce that the same is true for the ACC and DEC. Especially after the Kabimba/GBM corruption cases were swept under the carpet.Zambians please vote wisely next time.
Deal with those people,why should the police be afraid?That’s why we need educated professional officers.most likely they are involved.
lets help ourselvers first.we can’t be fighting for meali meal,the Goveroent should look into this seriously.
There are very passionate and intelligent bloggers on this site who would form a better government than what the ruling and opposition parties have to offer.Too bad your ideas and rants will just end here
Yes, the article contains some errors but in your short sentence you used an unknown word ‘gramatic’, maybe you meant grammatical.
It is Willie Nsanda, Judge Ngoma, Winter Kabimba, Fred Mmembe, Mutembo Nchito and Mulenga Sata who smuggling mealie meal. That is why police cannot arrest them. On the other hand, polcing nsima belongs to UNIP economics which Sata overshadowed with chiKaunda chosila is employing.
LT be factual as u report, dont base ur report on hearsays.
Lt great you have removed the reply button it was beig abused and the comments were very incoherent. Well done
Hey pple.! Is it only me who can not reply to someone’s post??
A govt of crooks for crooks and by crooks
@sisi
I wondered what you would have to say about such a glaring indictment against your beloved PF. Instead of condemning, you are passive and blame the Zambian culture of ” yes Bwana”.
Why then are you then in jubilation when RB and others are being prosecuted on flimsy corruption charges or should I say, persecuted for having been in leadership?
PF is a bunch of rotten Kaponyas who do not see anything other than self interest.
Sisi is a smuggler that is why is mute.
This is a government of criminals. Just as it happened in bye elections – the PF kills but puts blame on opposition parties, they smuggle mealies they blame others, Sata terrorised Chawama when he was in MMD but blamed others, the innocent Paul Tembo was killed by ‘unknown’ people but some one knows the truth. You deport people and then steal their property and wealth! You people mukapya in brimstone and fire!! Revenge is mine, says the Lord
@ Mfumu,
One good thing is your recognition that currently among the political parties in Zambia there is no democratically elected leader to lead the Party, maybe Nevers Mumba only. Others have risen through some tribal declarations and most are personal to holder partys like NAREP and ADD. Even this new formed party called Pweteete Party, am not sure of the name is also a personal to holder no one can assume presidency because “teimwe mwapangile ni party yandi” situation.
Maybe going the USA way to come up with presidential candidates would have been ideal. Did you submit to the Constitution Commision?????
@it a worry & my Zambia (42 &43) respectively
Unlike the opposition parties and their frightened little men at the watchdog, I do not encourage, advocate, embrace or condone crime and whoever is behind this smuggling be brought book and let the law take its full course.
I will not shy away from being a responsible citizen and call a spade a spade, a thief a thief etc!
Even if its the President himself who is involved in crime right now, he must not be spared. Initiate impeachment as provide in Article 37 of our constitution.
We want responsive and responsible leaders
There should be no sacred cows. The law must be applied firmly but fairly to all citizens, period!!
All those govt officials involved in the smuggling of mealie meal must be dealt with.please fire them.
@44 neighbors,
You have touched on a subject which many Zambians will never forget particularly the families whose relatives have suffered mysterious deaths at the hands of the system.
Prominent Zambians were murdered during Kaunda’s reign, the killings continued during Chiluba’s time and RB ordered his murderous police to torture, maim and kill Lozi protestors in cold blood. Yet these former leaders have never apologised or even show remorse. I am sure one day, no matter how long it takes they will be made to defend themselves.
You *****s out there better start thinking.. If there is market for mealie meal in Congo, I don’t expect that any of your brothers out there should be without jobs. Or that anyone is still wondering how to create jobs. Africans complain about colonialism without thinking for a second that it is foolishness that lets people be colonialized.. And you have people on this blog talking from a position that a word such as smuggling should even be brought into the picture. or are the western countries also having problems of smuggling Cars, medicines, and or sorts of cheap commodities they want sold to create an economy ???. What a Pathetic irritating people that can’t be redeemed.
The Zambian government have always been at the forefront in bringing the country down. Push back time bane
Ba LT your first sentence is so wrong,is that swahili?Make mistakes but not the first sentence,it gives the reader a wrong impression.Try and sponsor your staff for further training,costly but worthwhile in the long run.Take a look at how I construct my sentences.
Smuggler smuggler smuggler wapwisho bunga
Ba kastomo bonse Bonse niba smugggller
Ba Minista bonse
People, let’s post comments that are mature enough. Do not show how stupid you are on such serious issues like this one. Attacking one another is not the solution. Let’s be constructive in our statements.
Ba PF nimbwa fye sheka sheka
Useless *****s are busy making money for bye elections
What has GBM done to less this mealie meal crisis? Is he been untouchable?
Ba Chanda freedom of speech is always abused on bllogging forums. Its not the Reply button that causes this. That’s why all the bloggers use fake pen names so that they can insult without hurting their Christian identity they can be tribal without. being known as such by their Neighbours they can spread rumours without. Being called to account tthey can falsely accuse witthout you knowing they Have a personal agenda they can attack Kalu without you knowing they are Teddy Mulonga they can defend Sata without u knowing they are Amos Malupenga they can give u the middle finger without. U knowing they are Dora Siliya they can pee in public ……complete the sentence
Nsanda is busy with Esther what do u expect from such poor leadership
The real smuggler is Fred and Post Newspaper just in case he want to raise that 14 billion he own Zambian coz he is sensing cobra won’t be there to defend him. Zambian police are useless I’d
This government for crooks need to engage and consult RB how he managed to maintain a bag of mealie meal at 35 pin instead of witch hunting fake prosecute. RB understand the economy well that the crooks entrusted with power
@ Cheetah Pan Kwah, ulimukali…!!!!!!!!!!!!
My response (Its a worry & My Zambia @ 42 & 43) and comments still awaiting moderation the whole day why?
@it a worry & my Zambia (42 &43) respectively
Unlike the opposition parties and their frightened little men at the watchdog, I do not encourage, advocate, embrace or condone crime and whoever is behind this smuggling be brought book and let the law take its full course.
I will not shy away from being a responsible citizen and call a spade a spade, a thief a thief etc!
Even if its the President himself who is involved in crime right now, he must not be spared. Initiate impeachment proceedings as provide for in Article 37 of our constitution.
We want responsive and responsible leaders
There should be no sacred cows. The law must be applied firmly but fairly to all citizens, period!!
@57 Commandor,
Rb is not the right man to consult on the management of the country’s economy. He was a plunderer which is why the people of Zambia booted him out after only three short years as president. Understanding the economy is one thing and applying sound developmental plans in an honest way is quite another.
He he he this is a circus now. The people who are suppose to enforce the law are in the forefront breaking it with impunity.
“Police in Kitwe have told to delagation from of Home Affairs officials that some…” Things indeed faall apart at LUsaka T
This is not a good way of governing the nation bane.
Awe uyu Cheetah Pan Kwah @54 amponya pa musao!
The police should just name the culprits involved in the smuggling of meal mealie to Congo DR.
Nalimo ni “They can pee in public without you seeing their faces???”
@SEPT 24. Good leadership like bad leadership permeates down wards and upwards. A good leader in the trickle down effect principle, will pass on his goodness right down up to the grass roots of power. A bad leader will in the like manner do the same. When a President practices tribalism, nepotism and open favoritism, you must remember that below him are small ‘presidents’ in government ministries, in defence and security and parastals who will parrot the President in tribalism, nepotism and any other vice. Is the President to blame for what ever happens on the ground? To a greater extent, Yes!
Miko Sata has failed , alefwaya sana ukutomba coz his days are numbered. He knows that there is MUTOMBANWA CEREMINY at Mwalule.
Bloody EVIL SERVANTS…
After all is said and not done.
We told you, this is the Dontchi Kubeba you wanted. We said aba ni ba Kaponya mulelanda ati Dontchi. Now it is the Govnt. officials who are top smugglers.