Eagle mealie meal equivalent to 1990s food coupons – Mundubile

Eagle mealie meal equivalent to 1990s food coupons – Mundubile

…says the ZNS project of Eagle mealie meal is not going to be sustainable unless Government allows private millers to begin offloading their product across the country without market distortions

THE Zambia National Service (ZNS) Eagle Milling mealie meal is not a sustainable project and the challenge of the shortage of mealie meal is not going to be wished away unless and until the UPND government engages the country’s traditional private milling companies to allow them offload their product on a market that has no price distortions, Brian Mundubile has said.

Mr Mundubile, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament has likened the ZNS Eagle mealie meal to Kenneth Kaunda’s mealie meal coupons which were meant to cushion citizens from high price of the commodity but was largely unstainable and instead resulted into food riots.

Mr Mundubile said the UPND government was essentially sending thousands of citizens out of employment by killing the private milling business most of whom had scaled down on their production as a result of the government policy to engage ZNS to be the main supplier of mealie meal in the country.
He said President Hakainde Hichilema should apologise to Zambians for deciding to sell more than 1.5 million tonnes of maize which the new dawn administration found in reserves soon after coming into government without due consideration of the implication of the action.

He said Zambia was now food insecure because all the UPND policies on agriculture were jaundiced with the attitude of changing all the good policies which were being implemented by the Patriotic Front while in government which for many years had made Zambia food secure.
“The ZNS Eagle mealie meal is not sustainable…in fact it is equivalent to the mealie meal coupons under President Kenneth Kaunda in the 1990 to cushion citizens from the high cost of the commodity. The food coupons were not sustainable and the Eagle mealie meal will not be sustainable. This Eagle mealie meal is not serving the intended purpose because we have continued to see citizens queuing for mealie meal, something we last experienced more than 30 years ago,” Mr Mundubile said.

Mr Mundubile said the first step for the UPND addressing the continued mealie meal shortage was for President Hichilema selling all the maize he had inherited from the PF because it was that sole action that had led to subjecting Zambians to hunger and poverty.
He explained that the UPND government tried to change the FISP to CASP which even the government itself did not understand thereby plunging the country in food uncertainties.

“Even celebrating the Eagle mealie meal should be a shame…but we are dealing with people who have lost shame to be ashamed. We should never have been in this position in the first place. So, forget about the Eagle mealie meal and the shortages are not going to go away any time soon unless our private millers are allowed to offload their commodity on the market across the country,” Mr Mundubile said.
He stated that had Parliament taken its rightful position in providing checks and balances to the Executive, the Ministry of Agriculture would not have been messed up in the manner it had.

“When the MPs raised questions to attack Mtolo Phiri (Minister of Agriculture), the opposition lawmakers were often curtailed because the presiding officers wanted debate according to their political feelings. MPs were gagged and because of lack of democracy in Parliament, Zambians are now being subjected to Eagle mealie meal which is only on the market of selected regions. We were told Mr Phiri was always right but why do we have Eagle mealie meal now. Why do have shortages of medicines if Sylvia Masebo, the Minister of health was always right. Why do we have the dollar at K27 if the Minister of Mines Paul Kabuswe was always right,” Mr Mundubile wondered.