MAN UP AND TAKE UP RESPONSIBILITY- UKA TELLS HH
.…as starvation looms in Zambia
21.03.24
We watched President Hakainde Hichilema on Tuesday, 19th March during what appeared like a ´special paid for´ appearance on CNN and BBC where he went on an international ´pity trip´ begging for international relief and blaming the looming hunger and starvation in Zambia on bad weather.
As United Kwacha Alliance(UKA), However, we want Zambians and the international community to know that we are in this unfortunate ‘starvation mode’ today due to poor planning and total systems failure by the Hichilema government NOT climate change, because:
1. Zambia would not have found itself in this embarrassing position of passing around the ´begging bowl´ for food from the international community if President Hichilema did not sell (export) the maize strategic reserves of 1.5 million metric tonnes.
2. The crop Mr Hichilema sold cheaply to our neighbouring countries and East Africa was grown over three farming seasons before he assumed office. It was reserved for a ‘proverbial rainy day’ like what we have right now.
3. Zambia would not be in this embarrassing food insufficient situation if President Hichilema had just listened to science and stakeholders that stated that Zambia and other countries in Southern African region would experience severe droughts. INSTEAD PRESIDENT HICHILEMA WENT IN ‘SELLING MODE’.
4. When stakeholders expressed concern about the selling of maize, Agriculture Minister Mtolo Phiri went before Parliament and opined that “We shall continue to export maize/mealie meal because we are food sufficient, we have enough maize.”
5. Official weather reports indicated that the rain pattern has shifted to the north. Instead of channeling resources to the north for a comparative maize and food harvest, Mr Hichilema seems to be in denial and thinks otherwise.
It was momentarily good to watch President Hichilema, normally a proud man, swallow his pride and declare the current drought a ´national disaster´ coming short of declaring a ´hunger disaster´.
However, we were dismayed to see his Chief Government Spokesman Mr. Cornelius Mweetwa stage a media trip to Southern province and paraded journalists before bags of maize and declare that “Zambia is food sufficient.”
In conclusion, we urge President Hichilema to accept responsibility that he acted irrationally when he exported maize to our neighbouring countries and East Africa at a low cost and will now start importing it at a HUGE cost.
Beyond acceptance, President Hichilema postulates that he is a man of integrity, UKA call for him to apologise and resign as Republican President for thrusting our people into poverty. He is not fit to be President.
President Hichilema must not mislead the international community with words like ‘climate change´ when it is pure personal failure to plan.
Sakwiba Sikota SC
Chairperson
United Kwacha Alliance
(UKA)
.Now you can prove yourselves that you’re it relevant and you cannot much with HH
The minister of agriculture has already been fired. Something that should have happened a year ago.
Secondly, this crisis is affecting the entire region. In Jo’burg they are even rationing drinking water.
Thirdly, even if HH resigned (which he won’t) you are NOT providing alternative solutions to the challenges beyond your clear and shameless hatred for onevman. Even if you installed another president, if he is as clueless as the visionless former misleader, the current challenges will not disappear. So your “solution” is actually not a solution at all. You just want to open the door to the Zambian treasury and loot it without hindrance. For you, HH is a hindrance to your looting agenda.
It can’t never.
Ba UKA isn’t what HH is doing in trying to rally farmers and security wings to grow enough maize not taking responsibility enough to you? Or as usual you want him to say the actual words so that you can say “we told you people”. Have you forgotten the saying that actions speak louder than words?. I don’t know what kind of responsibility you want HH to take that will satisfy you but with everything in life noone can please or appease everyone.
Our current crop of opposition leaders is notjing to talk about. Surely for how long are going to hear about the sold maize? Right now it’s water under the bridge. How is it going to help the current situation now even we keep talking about it? Besides, the maize did not actually belong to FRA (government) but the farmers who were not paid the money for the maize they supplied. And the money which was realized from the sale of the said maize was paid back to the real owners (farmers) so these opposition leaders should stop whining about something it is passed.
None of these Ukwa leaders can match the capacity and quality of HH is as far as addressing current challenges facing Zambia in particular, and the global world. HH is no match even in the region. In RSA, you don’t need to introduce yourself by your name. You just say I’m from Zambia, and the answer you get is”: if only we can have 5 presidents in the Sub-Saharan Africa of HH type, we would be good to go in terms of securing development for our region and Africa as a whole. That’s the level HH has reached. He has raised the bar very very high. So ba Ukwa, keep dreaming !
A bunch of mwankoles of 2021 general elections, with their dead ukwa bag party always irrelevant, this organisation needs haulage so that good reasoning people may take it up and offer credible checks and balances to the government, otherwise if it will be like this with Edgar lungu as the CEO it will remain as irrelevant as a dead carcass waiting to be disposed.a bunch of criminals and robers
While politicians and their cadres are busy getting on each other’s throats, we are busy harvesting our bumper crop grown under irrigation. We have been farming all-year round since 1992 drought. We have never looked back. One thing we learned is never to rely on politicians to get things right!
While President Dr HH has done well on SDGs on Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, he has lamentably failed on Agriculture mainly because of an incompetent Minister of Agriculture whom he is failing to fire.
2021-2022 farming season had very good rains but 50% farmers were either denied farming inputs or these were delivered too late!
2022-2023 Early warning was given concerning the possibility of Drought situation due to El nino. No emphasis was given on the need to get irrigation backup strategy. Yes, we did very well to distribute farming inputs on time but we failed to read the times and seasons!
We need a visionary Minister of Agriculture who will plan like Joseph in Egypt!
We should be boasting of 10 years of food reserves for the country! Then only can we see Mealie Meal prices coming down to K50! It’s doable!
Let food be very cheap locally.
We hope lessons have been learned.
Instead of expecting small farmers to become commercial farmers overnight (impossibility), teach them basics first.
A farmer must first learn to use basic forms of irrigation before graduating to more expensive to maintain Pivot Irrigation Systems!
Why can’t we learn from our friends in Zimbabwe?
They have encouraged every household to have a very small munda measuring 39 meters by 16 meters able to produce enough food for a small family of Six for an entire year!
Let Ministry of Agriculture extend an invitation to Foundations for Farming institute in Zimbabwe to share this information.
Food security starts with household food security!
ZNS alone can’t manage to feed the nation! Let the people know how to produce their own food!
Ati donot blame climate change! If it wasn’t for El Nino, would we be in this fix? The crisis is not just about maize. We will face water shortage and of course deminished electricity supply. So UKWA is saying these too will be due to lack of planning?
UKWA are jokers!