Hakainde isn’t a regional President to be compromising health of Zambians – Kalaba

Hakainde isn’t a regional President to be compromising health of Zambians – Kalaba

By Thomas Ngala

CITIZENS First (CF) president Harry Kalaba has accused the government of compromising the country’s food security.
He reminds President Hakainde Hichilema that he is not a regional president to be compromising the health of Zambians so that DRC can have food security.

Kalaba also castigated Vice-President Mutale Nalumango over her GMO remarks she made in parliament on Friday.
During the Vice-President’s Question Time in the House, Nalumango told Zambians that GMO mealie meal is safe for consumption.
Her remarks followed the theft of the commodity last week at Kasumbalesa border’s ZNS warehouse.
But Kalaba argued that consuming stolen imported GMO mealie meal is harmful.

“It is disheartening to note comments by the Vice-President Mutale Nalumango that GMO mealie meal is safe for consumption. Her comments come in the wake of a press release by the chief marketing and public relations officer in the Zambia National Service (ZNS) dated February 20 which has been circulating on the social media regarding stolen imported GMO mealie meal,” he said. “It is worrisome that the stolen imported Eagle mealie meal is part of the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) commodities that are prohibited for consumption in Zambia.”

He described Vice-President Nalumango’s comments as an attempt to water down and cover up a grave scandal of the stolen GMO mealie meal which is potentially being consumed by starving citizens somewhere.

“As a matter of concern the government has indicated in the press release that ZNS will now intensify security measures at all the depots to prevent any further occurrences,” he said. “We wonder why there was laxity on the part of the government in the first place to safeguard the GMO commodity amidst the scarcity of non-GMO mealie meal, the staple food in the country.”

Kalaba said it is sad to see Kazungula having some GMO mealie meal purportedly destroyed by the National Biosafety Agency (NBA).
He wondered how much has not been destroyed and has been consumed by citizens.

“The calculated carelessness of the UPND government is putting Zambia at risk for increased behavioral disorders in children and cancers… Citizens must understand that South Africa has been buying maize from Zambia because of the policies around non-GMOs. They started buying maize for cereal from Zambia after parents and health workers saw an increase of behavioral disorders in children,” he said. “Equally, the World Food [Programme] has been buying Zambia’s maize despite it being more expensive than the GMO maize because the UN agency does not want to compromise the health of refugees. But for Zambia, Hakainde and his government are in the forefront of compromising the health of its people.”

He said the government is now talking of food insecurity with the current drought yet they found sufficient strategic reserves for 2019, 2020, and 2021 which they decided to offload and sell.

“Even this year, they have sold Zambia’s strategic reserves to neighbouring countries and decided to import GMO for citizens. President Hakainde has compromised Zambia’s position in terms of the GMO policies which has seen countries and global institutions preferring to buy our maize,” said Kalaba. “Hakainde must stop buying GMO maize from South Africa on the pretext that it’s going to Congo. Congo has its own legitimately elected leaders who can equally procure the maize from South Africa to improve food security in that country. Hakainde must realise that he is not a regional President to be compromising the health of Zambians so that Congo can have food security. Zambians voted for him. His allegiance is to Zambia first, respect the Constitution of Zambia on biosafety and not to abrogate it in the careless manner he is doing.”