A huge consignment of mealie meal is marooned in about 20 shops on the Zambian side at Kasumbalesa border post as shop owners have locked and abandoned their premises following intensified Police patrols in Chililabombwe aimed at curbing smuggling.
Chiliabombwe District Commissioner Stuart Chitumbo has since appealed to the shop owners to avail themselves as they would only be allowed to sell their consignments at the government recommended retail prices in designated trading areas within Chililabombwe.
Mr Chitumbo who has been monitoring the mealie meal situation in the border town told ZANIS in an interview yesterday that the resolve by the Copperbelt Police Command to deploy over 100 senior officers to Chililabombwe had paid dividends in the fight against smuggling of the commodity.
He said some bicycles already loaded with mealie meal bags and believed to belong to Congolese nationals have also been spotted in some shops while the usually busy Kasumbalesa trading area is relatively calm as foreigners who smuggle mealie meal on bicycles using bush paths are no longer loitering around the premises as previously.
He said the marooned mealie meal might go to waste if the owners of the shops don’t show up as the law enforcement officers would continue to keep vigil of the premises to ensure the consignment was not smuggled.
“The mealie meal marooned in the shops in Kasumbalesa could be well over 20 000 bags, if well counted. If the owners of the shops show up, officers will provide escort to ensure the mealie meal is transported and sold within Chililabombwe at government recommended prices,” he said.
Recently, the district administration held a stakeholders meeting to chart a way forward following the unavailability and hiked prices of mealie meal in the district at which local traders associated the high prices of the commodity to the transportation costs from milling companies.
Despite the seemingly availability of mealie meal in Chililabombwe, most outlets are still selling their consignments above the government recommended KR 50 with prices ranging from KR 55 to KR 75.
ZANIS
How do you criminalise exports and call them smuggling now in PF, Congo market has always been there in Mwanawasa’s, RB’s time and there were no such issues because of a very simple reason which you and me know; simple produce enough maize as a nation and sell the sulplus. But the opposite is true current under PF we are producing less not enough to even feed ourselves – poor govt. policies. And believe you me this year it will be worse because the delivery of fertizer was pathetic. I have a farm and the time i wanted to go and apply top dressing i couldn’t find it in shops in Lusaka the capital city, now how about someone in the peripherals of the country it’s bad bwana. Let’s just pity ourselves that this government can’t simply accept that in this area they have fai
LUCK OF PATRIOTISM. YOU FEED YOUR NEIGHBOR AND STARVE YOUR OWN PEOPLE ALL BECAUSE OF MONEY. MONEY EARNED THIS WAY WILL GET THEM NO WHERE.
It is called simple economics. The issue is that why all of a sudden this is becoming a problem again? The last time this was happening was in Kaunda era. The answer is simple: PF has failed to perform. The situation is yet to get worse from year to year. Just wait.
Chimbwi keep saying PF has failed coz we know who u support, looks like your leader wants dialogue now..u know what that means..if you can’t beat them you join them, tell you what..these mealie meal shortages are as a result of lawlessness people are taking grz for granted these people think just like you..remember that this will not take you anywhere as grz has the machinery to finish off chaps are disgruntled like you
Big L: Very well said indeed.
Big L…. that is a load of BS. Your Pathetic Failures (PF) have no idea where a Bumper Harvest comes from. Ask Mundia Sikatana (Peace be upon him) and he will tell (if he can talk) that a Bumper Harvest comes from hard work. Unfortunately Sata knows nothing about hard work but is only interested in orders and ruling by decree. He is like a Pentecostal praying…. Every day I decree this, Everyday I decree that….. Who does he think he is. You PF cadres all need to do to hell.
Iyo ubunga nabuleta akantu ku Zambia.
P F go out 2016
It’s not clear from the article whether the shop owners are AWOL because they want to sell to Congolese or because they are being forced to sale at a loss. I thought the KR50 000 directive was to milers? The cost of transport to Chililabombwe is indeed a factor that must be taken into account in determining the retail price. Am I missing something here?
How many military and Police Roadblocks from Millers to Kasumbalesa???
How did the more than 20,000 bags find itself at the boarder shops and nothing in Chililabombwe????
ndeloleshafye…… At night the mealie meal will be gone. mark my words.
Roadblocks?? Remember the most corrupt is the Zambia police followed by RTSA. The roadblocks are there to enrich themsel thru corruption and inconvenience us the general public.
Time to kick these selfish bastards. This is not the first time they’ve done this.
That how a mature Nation discuss Matter, without emotion! mealie meal is going to Congo due to Economics factors not as thievery and laziness of our neighbour as once proclaimed by the late Nalumino Mundia on visit to Kasumbalesa border Post
Smuggling has been there and this desperate move by PF to deploy such a huge number of police officers shows that PF has failed to manage one of the most important ministries (agriculture). I dont think we will worried about smuggling if the nation experience bumper harvest. Hope there will be improvement this farming seasson
One Vic you have failed to analyse the situation in Congo DCR. Since the start of the civil war, many people have not had time to do farming in DCR. They are constant moving to places where there is peace. 1995-1999 Maize was coming from Zaire to Zambia through Chief Chiwala Area, mary Chimona, Misundu, Lupiya, Sakanya and other bordering places. I can assure many people along the border were going to Zambia to buy Maize.
During Mabuto, Zaireans spent much of their times playing music and dancing. Things changed and for now they are just in typical unpeaceful situation and its not the failure of the PF govt but Zambia has always continued to supply Fertiliser /maize to neighbouring countries. The govt has applied subsidies on many agric input but people continue do the opposite
1995-1999 (Factually, 1997 – 2001) that maize which was coming from Zaire to Zambia through Chief Chiwala Area, Mary Chimona, Misundu, Lupiya, Sakanya and other bordering places was actually being produced by Zambians themselves but not Congolese. Laurent-Desire Kabila when he took over power in 1997, he demarcated land and allowed enterprising Zambians to start farming there in order to avert high levels of poverty until when he was ousted and killed in 2001. Many Copper Belt residents too up this challenge because the land there is virgin and fertile for farming just like Kaputa area of Northern Province.
Blaming the PF for smuggling may not be fair and there isn’t much that can be done about it because the population of DR Congo is about 76 million compared to 15 million people that of Zambia. Even if the entire Zambian population was to substitute mining & others for Agriculture to feed DRC, Zambia’s area of 752,614 sq. km compared to DRC’s area of 2,345,410 is not sufficient to feed our colleagues. Smuggling has never stopped or reduced at any given time in history, it is just that the media during MMD Govt was only reporting on RB and his family and turned away cameras from real issues unlike the PF which has turned the media cameras on ordinary Zambian and economy. The solution is to embrace maize meal export and use proceeds to import the shortfall from other cheaper countries.
WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT AWARE OF IS THE FACT THAT THERE IS A CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF THE MAIZE GRAIN IN THE ENTIRE SUB-CONTINENT INCLUDING SOUTH AFRICA, EXCEPT ZAMBIA. SO ALL THE COUNTRIES BORDERING ZAMBIA ARE EYEING THE ZAMBIAN MAIZE…TANZANIA, MALAWI, ANGOLA, ZIMBABWE, MOZAMBIQUE, DRC AND OTHERS ARE ALL AFTER THE ZAMBIAN MAIZE AND AS A RESULT SMUGGLING HAS ALSO TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS….SO IT IS NOT THAT THE GRZ HAS FAILED TO THE ZAMBIA PEOPLE…THIS PROBLEM REQUIRED EVERY CITIZEN TO SORT OUT…IT IS ACTUALLY US CITIZENS WHO ARE ACTUALLY IN THE FOREFRONT HELPING THE SMUGGLERS…OPPOSITION PARTIES ARE AWARE OF THIS SITUATION BUT ARE SIMPLY TRYING TO MAKE POLITICAL GAIN OUT OF THIS…