…and who will be held accountable for allowing poisons to be fed to consumers? Who will be fired for risking the lives of Zambians and their animals? Who will answer for the deaths that have occurred now? Who will pay the price of this criminal negligence?…
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
In a tragic twist of fate, the maize crisis has become the latest political weapon in Zambia’s ever-turning wheel of intrigue. The Minister of Health, Dr. Elijah Muchima, has been forthright: ten mealie-meal brands on the market were found to contain dangerous levels of aflatoxins, enough to cause immediate liver and kidney failure, future cancers, and, inevitably, death.
Kudos to Diamond Television for shedding light on this grim reality, revealing that government officials knew of the crisis as early as June 2024, with 400 dogs having succumbed to the tainted maize. Yet, when it came time to name and shame, the Ministry of Information and Media, led by Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana, only pointed fingers at eight out of ten companies: PEMBE, AFRICA, SHABCO, CONTINENTAL, GIRAD, BUSU, STAR MILLING, and Farm Feed.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary, Norman Chipakupaku, turned to theatrics, reassuring the nation that the ZNS brand, Eagle, was safe by recording himself enjoying a meal supposedly made from ZNS mealie-meal. The spectacle might have been convincing had it not been for the murky history surrounding ZNS. For over a year, the Zambia National Service has been producing mealie-meal from maize of dubious origin, entangled in controversies involving genetically modified organisms (GMO) and questionable imports allegedly destined for the DRC.
When the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) prematurely opened the maize grain marketing season in April 2024, warnings about the risks of purchasing maize with unsafe moisture levels—ideal breeding grounds for moulds and aflatoxins—were disregarded. The government, in its haste to address food insecurity, claimed that the country was facing a maize shortage and rushed into early procurement, consequences be damned.
Now, in an ironic twist, the government is importing 650,000 metric tonnes of maize from Tanzania, a country whose storage conditions and bi-annual rainy seasons have made it notorious for mould-infested crops. Kenya, in its wisdom, recently rejected Tanzanian maize due to high aflatoxin levels, but Zambia’s government soldiers on, seemingly indifferent to the risks.
To add to the absurdity, it’s been revealed that open trucks, typically used to transport copper, will soon carry maize into Zambia. And ZNS, in a bid to meet demand, is outsourcing milling to private plants—safety, apparently, is an afterthought.
Given this backdrop, it’s no stretch to say that ZNS, with its cocktail of questionable practices, is more susceptible to contaminated mealie-meal than any other producer on the market.
Enter Koswe, the State House’s rogue media outlet, which has predictably seized the opportunity to craft a conspiracy theory, targeting millers allegedly aligned with the former ruling party. The narrative is clear: discredit your political enemies by any means necessary, even if it means burying the truth beneath a mountain of propaganda.
And now, the propaganda machine is in full swing, audaciously suggesting that maize or mealie-meal laced with aflatoxins is safe for consumption. Criminals!
The demand is simple and just: all mealie-meal brands, including the Zambia National Service’s Eagle, must undergo rigorous, transparent testing. The results should be laid bare for the public to see, free from manipulation.
And the burning questions remain: who will be held accountable for this catastrophe? Who will lose their job for endangering the lives of Zambians and their livestock? Who will answer for the lives already lost? Who will pay for this criminal negligence?
Publish the results. Let justice be done.
Where the results for the other two millers?
What does the standard say.
I play there comes a disease to wipe out all Zambians except my family. Then start all over like 1965 mentality.
Shut down the milling toilets.
What benefits do workers gain from urinating in maize? Seriously.. I ask.
Where did the maize come from? Is this the imported maize from South Africa or Kenya.
Can FRA come out in the open and tell us about the source of the maize supplied to these millers.
Which is that tabloid that says, ‘The paper that digs deeper’? Can we get to the bottom of this deliberate poisoning of consumers please. We cannot be casual about people getting cancer or worse still losing lives.
As stated by others, authorities should tell us the source of the maize and even the quantities involved. Tell us more about storage facilities at the named milling companies and the possible source of contamination.
Whether ZNS has been mentioned or not, it doesn’t matter, we all know that it’s a time bomb waiting to explode.
Is this document from ZABS not supposed to be confidential? If it is then who leaked it to the ambassador? clearly ethics are breached here. If the person who leaked the document has just a mare grade 12 certificate then we should update the grade 12 clause in the 2016 to read that, anyone seeking a gornvement office must have a grade 12 certificate plus an under graduate degree from a recognized institution of learning by ZQA in any field.
I thought the freedom of information was passed by HH and praise singers sang. There is nothing confidential about a loss of life.
Imwe na imwe. Mukufa ati confidential! Uli cungwa
Zambians fail to understand simple logic. Just backtrack on what the former Minister of Agriculture said months ago about exporting our maize reserves and you will get all the answers. UPND sold all our maize reserves and now they are desperately trying to cover up with poisonous maize from whatever sources they can get. Mwamba is also right about forcing farmers to harvest maize before the moisture content drops to acceptable levels. What HH and UPND should know is Zambians have been growing and managing maize for centuries and whatever lies they can come up with will not hold up. What Zambians did by voting for HH is as good as giving a child a gun.
Once a promising politician Emmanuel Mwamba has astonishingly turned himself into Lungu’s political ***** where he peddles misinformation,supported by a bunch of ignorant & stupid PF/UKWA cadres who still believe their lootin’ Eddie Lungu will bounce back into power
I play there comes a disease to wipe out all Zambians except my family. Then start all over like 1965 mentality.
Shut down the milling toilets.
What benefits do workers gain from urinating in maize? Seriously.. I ask.
Ambassador Mwamba consistently raises the most crucial questions of the hour. His presentation of key facts makes the Government very uncomfortable. The maize scandal is serious indictment of the Government’s decision making process; which has put the populace at serious risk.
I don’t care what Mwamba says because he is just trying to get mileage over this issue. However it is highly probable that eagles mealie meal is also contaminated except government cannot let it out in the open because that would be like giving bullets to the opposition to fire at you.
Granted, this government has been incompetent on a number of fronts. But Mwamba’s yellow journalism leaves much to be desired also. He’s too pregnant with kachepa to be believed on face value!
There is need to make a thorough investigation before pointing fingers.
Normally I don’t read Emmanuel Mwamba’s propaganda. But this one I have managed and he’s right in every paragraph. This government is something else. It’s difficult to describe them.
Just as with power supply. In the PF time Zesco adhered to the ZRA instructions concerning power generation and distribution….they called it Load Management. HH called it poor leadership so he ordered full scale generation and supply… probably to fulfill his campaign promise… but science is not economics where you are able to cook figures…here we are now.
So this moron Emanuel Mwamba can’t survive outside Politics….he started working with Chiluba and he still wants to keep on making noise…….Useless Politician
PF sponsored millers were holding the commodity to create an impression that there was a crisis and they managed to do just that. Nomba amataba yabola because of their selfish plans, the result is that it has become unhealthy to consume and yet they have millions of it in their stock. It must be destroyed, ba Mwamba this political turn around is your own making ba PF in your efforts to destabilise the country and hoping to see the ruling party fail. Mwalefisa amataba, yafuka kwisa apapene bane, we had to get maize from elsewhere when the local millers had the commodity.
I LIKE MWAMBA’S ANALYTICAL MIND AND WRITING SKILL.
HE SHOULD REPLACE ECL AS NEXT PF LEADER
ECL MESSED UP BY SAYING ” UBOMBA MWIBALA…..” RESULTING, APPARENTLY, IN MASSIVE LOOTING!
Uyu ni Ambassador in what parallel universe of Zambia