UPND Leader Hakainde Hichilema has urged the PF Government to rescind its decision on the export of mealie meal.
Mr. Hichilema says it is only logical for the PF leadership to rescind this decision until such a time when Zambia will be certain that people have and will have enough food to even export the surplus.
He said most maize fields have dried up a sign that poverty levels will escalate to unprecedented levels in the country.
He noted that the country is facing unprecedented social, economic and political problems and there is need to quickly find a permanent solution to these challenges and the solutions is having a caring and credible leadership.
The Ministry of Agriculture last week lifted the ban on the export of mealie meal with immediate effect to ensure a smooth flow of exports of mealie meal.
Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo said the ministry will apply a regulated export regime that they have been using to facilitate maize seed exports through the Eastern and Southern African region and so far worked well.
Allowing the export of Maize after a poor farming season is a recipe for disaster.
So what happened
1)Late rains.No effort from the PF government to invest in small dams while having 60% of water resources in the SADC region
2) late delivery of farming input.
Simply put,the PF agricultural has been a failure since it came to power
Farming has always been dodgy in Zambia.
Not under the late Mwanawasa. We had 4 bumper harvests during his reign.Disaster under the PF.
“He noted that the country is facing unprecedented social, economic and political problems and there is need to quickly find a permanent solution to these challenges and the solutions is having a caring and credible leadership.”
There a clear lack of leadership on the part of the opposition party you claim you lead by numbers from your region. Although your message is clear I honestly hope you are working with Stats. You claim to be talking for the people but you just managed to run down a TV station by your deeds. It is your fault Prime is shutdown for a month. Why haven’t you said anything on the subject.
Minister Katambo can you please school double h why you have made a decision to export mealie meal? Give the rogue in chief figures.”
@Thorn in the Flesh
Prime TV has been informing the nation about problems being experienced by farmers and civil servants. The PF’s DeadNBC has just be spewing propaganda.You cant hide the truth from the masses.Zambians are not dull like the average PF cadre
PF government need money to pay next months salaries.
Better if PF can sell some of their caders into slavery, than selling food for poor women.
Now Sampa is also studying for PHD at University Of Lusaka ….it seems these foooooools have a lot of time when they are in Public office or they just have hapless unemployed graduate students to write for them.
Ba HH you have been advocating for the lifting of this ban arguing that exporting mealie meal instead of maize was better as it added more jobs as a way of value addition. I would like to believe that as hopeless and Stone age the PF is they may not be so careless to risk the food security of this country…. We also need the forex finance Minister is already talking of repaying debt in Yuan …
These are the things you should be talking about instead of nonexistent live bullets. GRZ must not act on the current figures because with the way the weather is behaving, we may not have rains next year.
What an utter idi*ot this Hichilema. He’s always opposing anything and everything. No future for 2021 for this bum.
@Kudos, so if he you will not vote for HH in 2021, you vote for Kelvin Fube? I don’t think you have much options.
HH is a political novice who thinks being in opposition is all about opposing anything and everything. If govt had said no exports of mealie meal, he would have been shouting ” you are killing farmers. Let them export and earn forex” SENSELESS OPPOSITION.
What else do we expect from the people across the fence?
The point: Poor rains, poor harvest, meaning there will be hunger in the country, it is only prudent to desist from from selling food. You would not tell even tell that there will be good rains next year. This is a good leadership message, criticized only by the low levels.
Ba Independent
Please support tribal party based on solid ideologies and good leadership. If certain quotas of our society notes that Civil servants are sometimes very casual in the way they apply themselves at work, that does not mean to say they are going through hardships, NO. Infact a vibrant and efficient Civil Servant system is key to social-economic service delivery. So dont think people will vote for Icilema on falsehood because the chap actually doesnt understand anything. We all need a vibrant and efficient Civil Service but if you think otherwise, you are doomed. Remember most Government tax revenue go to meet the Civil Service huge wage bill and you reckon that these guys are just consumers and hence the need for them to be supporting Government in Service delivery so that…
HH is as rough as his head looks like opposing everything.
One is able to tell from comments that people have grudges against this and that person. I would rather be honest by advising and giving credit where it’s due.
This country is full of cadres be it UPND or PF who can’t reason and understand anything be it why they were created. The quality of education in this country is so pathetic that even a University graduate is intoxicated with politics not analyzing what is good for this country. What HH has said is true, Ministry of Agriculture has no statistics on how much maize the country will yield from this current season when we have drought. The PS at the Ministry is as thick as two rocks because he should have advised the Minister on the consequences of exporting mealie Meal at such crucial moment. High Mealie meal prices high inflation rate, high cost of life which will affect cadres. Can you cadres from UPND and PF grow as this Country does not belong to HH and EL, one is our employee while the…
So GRZ announced there is more than enough in the strategic reserves Any maize outside that can be milled and exported so that those farmers who spent more than they can recoup at the strategic reserve price can target the export value chain and recoup making their endeavour viable.
So in one vein, he complained about the low price of maize and now what? A classic definition of senility while still young. 2021, the majority won’t vote for proven senile candidates.
We should just pray and hope for the best this year and i hope our leaders up there will be able to think and reason we’ll.apart from pocketing anything they see on the table.
who are you asking to pray, certainly not the upnd cadres. when ECL asked the people to pray for the rains HH asked his supporters from southwest not to join in the prayers. the results are that we have plenty of rain in the northeast such that even bridges are collapsing while there is not even a drop in dundumwezi. i know these people are not worried because the richest small god of dundumwezi will buy them maize.
Eish,HH is really dirty!!!Is this man rich sure?I really doubt if HH’s money is clean because if it was,the nigga cant be looking dirty like this!!UPND should build HH’s image seriously.Dressing well and being clean always attract votes especially from women unlike the way Kainde looks.Let UPND hire those experts who improved the image of ECL.THIS IS A FREE ADVICE TO YOU ALL IN UPND BECAUSE YOUR LEADER’S DRESSING IS PATHETIC TO SAY THE LEAST!!i have met HH many times and it is clear that this man do not know how to bath and dress!!
Back to the issue at hand,yes Govnt must wait a bit before allowing the export of mealie meal because the rains have been poor this season,so the harvest maybe poor too this year!!
Was Lungu clean, the chap looked like he forgot his wheel barrow at some bar, with fcuken white lips, the fcuker even looked hungry, what a tosser!!!!the man was dirty, now that he has stolen tax payers you want to talk about cleanliness please spare us…. these thieves who couldn’t even buy a trouser in their own money.Even after stealing money the teeth look like he just finished eating some rat or what ever really…. maybe still waiting for another euro bond to have those cleaned
Political trickery is different from economic managed, you don’t put on Gucci to fix the economy but a damn work suit.
This is the same CongoLee who once told us because Lungu wears £5000 suits he must be a good leader ……
This man has no character. If government decision was otherwise, this man was going to come up with another fanny story. Fake
Well,HH last time blamed govt for not allowing farmers to export.Today is saying the opposite.Govt should export.We have enough maize in luapula,eastern,muchinga,northern and copperbelt and part of north wester province.These provinces will feed southern,western and part of central.
Maize should not be politized, it’s a commercial crop that should be subject to unregulated market forces to encourage investment. Exporting it is good for business and it brings in Forex. Also Reliance on one staple crop for a nations sustenance is not good and is what led to more than a million deaths in Ireland in 1886-51 when the potato crop failed. Market forces will compel people to change diet for variety, Miller, sorghum or cassava and prevent hunger from failed harvests and high prices of maize. In Arab countries Bread is the equivalent of maize to our diet and it’s shortage has led to riots and deaths. So let’s not be fooled by such politely pandering.
UPND, can you guys get a new president. This does not bode well for the country. This man has never held political office, and he is destroying Zambia’s south period.
Huyu humuntu hashupa. When they banned the export of maize, he condemned govt. Govt rescind the decision he Hagain opposes the move. Very difficult to understand.
He’s complicated.
each time someone mentions pf i feel like vomiting. the fools will never understand anything . this year, one cannot opt to sell either maize or mealie meal due to the prevailing situation which even an iliterate can see .
@blackbull its not pf ‘s that there is hunger in southern and western. tuchulilemo. you are busy worshiping the devil and this is what you get.
If you don’t know what is the logic behind pf ministers are behind this scum they’re the ones who are going to do these transaction and you are busy pointing at hh
Well done HH ,these misguided folks even made a ministerial trip to Kenya to sign a maize export deal.
Just to answer Trib.al Hacks real worry, Hon Chalikosa and DMMU will feed all the hungry in your stronghold. More important is that people have started migrating from the stronghold to the northern areas. You know what? The northeners and easterners have received them with open arms. Surprised?
Our politicians here still tell us that food is nsima. Do you really eat nsima everyday you politicians? Teach your followers about climate change then the noise on maize will fade. Its only the peasants in some parts of the country who are affected. These are the same people who live along the main rivers of Zambia. Some have even refused to accept irrigation schemes from govt because there is PF in govt.
So hh recognizes that the pf is in government. I support him on this one. There has been a drought in some parts of the country while there has been partial flooding in others. It would be f00lish to sell the maize in stock before harvesting the maize in the fields.