There are high levels of frustration among some members of the Patriotic Front over the scarcity and increase in mealie meal prices on the Zambian market.
The PF Members have blamed the situation on Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo who they have accused of failing to provide leadership in the agriculture sector.
Those who spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation have urged President Edgar Lungu to fire Mr Katambo saying he is denting the image of the party.
They said it is disheartening that mealie meal which has become scarce is now fetching for as much as K210 beyond the reach of many vulnerable Zambians who until recently had completely nothing to eat.
Over the last one month, some parts of the country have been hit by the shortage of mealie meal with chain stores running out of the commodity hours after restocking.
Reports also indicate that Mr Katambo is today touring selected milling companies to get first hand information on the situation.
It is also understood Mr Katambo will also engage the Food Reserve Agency to determine whether they still have enough stock.
The Millers Association of Zambia is also engaging Government to devise ways in which the mealie-meal shortage in Lusaka could be averted.
zambians please let us stop this over dependancy on maize/mealie meal…let us diversify
K210 mealie-meal is that true? If yes where is our government taking this country
Common man- PK Chishala
How do you Fire a well articulate and performing Minister He has provided leadership in parliament and the sector so far Simply address the KEY DRIVERS of mealie meal prices and the commodities can fall to K 75 the mean value
Cost have moved as a result of fuel and power on cost curves such must be addressed together with commodity stocks availability
Don’t just sit there while crying like babie hyenas imwe bambuli. Go out there and grow your own maize. Michael katambo is a farmer and he knows what it takes to produce one bag of maize. I therefore urge you bwana minister to increase the price of mealie meal to a minimum of k600/bag so that farmers benefit from their sweat as well.
By the way who is the minister of Agriculture of Libya? Is it that man who looks like Gumu-gumu.
And PF supporters are saying we won’t end up like Zim. News flash! It’s starting to happen. Poor planning by the government is to blame for this. You can’t export maize reserves when there is consistent drought and also frustrate farmers’ efforts to make agriculture a viable business and expect to have stable food security. And since the government has depleted the treasury it is too broke to import maize. GRZ will soon have to yield to HH’s call to declare a hunger emergency because rural areas will be the hardest hit by this. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for the visionless leadership.
Grain marketing firms bought all the maize last year and sold it to South Africa who are now exporting directly to DRC at 3 to 4 times the amount they bought from Zambia. We killed our chances of earning that revenue because greedy milling companies set a low price in order to manipulate the market and discourage farmers from growing more maize the previous year before in 2018. We are suffering because of the actions of the milling companies who for too long have had it easy by influencing govt. Govt must allow Zambian maize farmers a chance to also earn money and allow farmer cooperatives to by pass milling and grain marketing companies so that they the farmers can export directly to DRC in an easy and straight forward manner, the country will earn foreign exchange revenue and this will…
Ctn… And this will greatly improve the economy of the rural areas, if done in a progressive, pragmatic and transparent manner this could even see many feeder roads being repaired in rural areas and social welfare programs being financed to assist the economically marginalised in the rural areas, but it needs the genuine will and sincerity from people in power which I now doubt is there. We have the means within us and the resources we have to come out of poverty but we don’t seem to want to change our bad circumstances.
Mukose fye ba pf cadre. Its you who carry machetes and harass the general public and opposition in support of pf after they buy you beer. Now that you have dug the pit, you must sleep in it.
Your children will be starving and uneducated. You will go to hospitals and find no doctors and no medicine. Sadly your poor choices affect the rest of zambia’s population. Inflation will remain in double digit the whole year and trend upwards.
Meantime lungu will be flying around in his porsh gulfstream. And your big wigs will continue to live like kings on your sweat and blood while you languish. Mukose fye
This reminds me of the last days of UNIP ( queue at ZCBC for mealie meal ) this is exactly what happened PF your time is up there is nothing you can do you have already finished the country and the hand of God is no more on you guys you have sinned against him by worshiping idols rings from seer1.
The PF policies guided by Kaisar Zulu lacked long term strategic focus. It’s too late for PF to rethink the political approach. We don’t need politics any way. We need to work on the economy ASAP
PF took us back to the Unip of January 1990. They borrowed recklessly and ignored advice from the guy they love to hate, one Hichilema. Now no maize floor, and when it’s available it’s K230 in kabwe. You baggers voted against your own interest and suckers must scream and squel. Mwalya mabwe mulacibona cakasalzya mukombwe mumukosi! Enjoy
Dununa reverse. You get what you voted for.
Free market forces. Why blame governmet for everything? Government is not GOD or some supernatural being that is meant to bring heaven on earth kz