CLEAR THE AIR ON THE SUPPLY OF MEALIE MEAL CONTAINING GMOs, HON KAFWAYA TELLS GOVT

CLEAR THE AIR ON THE SUPPLY OF MEALIE MEAL CONTAINING GMOs, HON KAFWAYA TELLS GOVT.

…………as he lays bare alleged secret recruitment in certain institutions

Lusaka…………Thursday, October 19, 2023 [Smart Eagles]

The Patriotic Front Committee on Finance and National Planning says Government must clear the air on the revelations that ZNS is importing 10 Million Metric Tonnes of Maize from South Africa and flooding it in ShopRite outlets.

Chairperson for the Committee Hon Mutotwe Kafwaya said what is of concern is that the Maize is suspected to have GMOs.

He said this during a media briefing in Lusaka today.

Hon Kafwaya was flanked by Milanzi MP Melisiana Phiri and the lawmakers from Chinsali and Mufulira Central.

“Government must come out clean and tell the people whether they have entered into a contract to import 10 million metric tonnes from South Africa which could be GMOs. The information is not just coming in isolation,” Hon Kafwaya said.

And Hon Kafwaya has described as a poor decision to offer Cheap mealie meal only in Shoprite outlets.

He said most people in the rural areas have no access to Shoprite stores.

Meanwhile, Hon Kafwaya said information has emerged that Government is refusing to pay the Auditors it had illegally contracted because it wants certain information to be removed from the audits.

He said Government is demanding for the removal of certain information from the Audit reports because it is uncomfortable that the issue of FISP and the contracts should not be in the Audit findings.

“You contract an illegal audit, you refuse to pay them because they have included information you don’t want. Just pay them and let the information the auditors have put in the illegal audit reports. We told you Ministry of Finance have got no mandate to hire auditors…. ensure that you pay those people for the illegal audit.
The Auditor Geneal says in page 7 that in his profession opinion, he did not see any key audit matters. As we speak over 300 civil servants are drawing salaries but are not working. This is a period where there are fertilizer cancellations of tender. This is a year when there has been illegal mining at KCM, This is the year when there was a strong conversation of Faith Musonda and the missing 65 million…,” he said.

Hon Kafwaya has also exposed the alleged recruitment of staff outside the public knowledge in certain institutions.

He said the illegality is conducted in the night and that the recruited individuals are taken in turns for training.

Speaking at the same event, Committee Secretary Hon Golden Mwila urged the Ministry of Finance to go back to the incentives that they have given to the mining sector in order to Fund the multi facility economic zones.

He says this is because Copper production has dropped from 880,000 Mt since 2021 to 650,000 Mt of production in light of the incentives.

“Why should the Minister be crying that he doesn’t have the money but yet he is seeing the money go down the drain by giving unjustified incentives to the mines. The mineral royalty is one such measure that must be revised. The measure is costing the treasury of about 3.2 billion kwacha from last year. Further to that, through the changes in the tax regime for mineral royalty, another 2.8 billion kwacha this year will be lost. This gives a minimum of 6 billion that the country is losing through incentives to the mines,” he said.

And Chinsali Member of Parliament Hon Kalalwe Mukosa said the proposal to introduce a levy of about K0.8 and K1.8 on persons to person mobile money transactions in 2024 must be abandoned.

He said the proposal is very unfair on the part of poor people.

Hon Mukosa said Government must look to the Mining sector to get full taxes as opposed to choking the poor Zambians.