THE MAJOR PROBLEM RIGHT NOW IS NJALA – DR M’MEMBE
… ubunga, the cost of living is escalating
Lusaka, Monday, October 9, 2023 (Smart Eagles)
Leader of the opposition Socialist Party (SP) Dr Fred M’membe has bemoaned how “njala” has continued hitting ordinary Zambians hard.
Speaking when he addressed the media at the Magistrate’s Court in Lusaka today, Dr M’membe lamented that families are failing to feed.
He explained that even those that used to afford three decent meals are now struggling to afford one.
“The problems are the same. The major problem right now it’s njala, ubunga, the cost of living is escalating. Families are failing to feed. Yes, we have other problems, but the problem of food is the most urgent and good leaders are moved by the stress people are going through,” he said.
“This is an emergence. We can’t pretend things are okay or they will sort themselves out. the issue of food cannot sort itself out. Families that were eating three meals a day today are struggling to have one meal. Banamayo baleshitisha pa market, lelo they are only getting about one third of what they were getting. If people are buying food for three meals, now they are buying for one meal. It means business yaba marketeer yaiya pansi.”
Dr M’membe explained the need for more jobs to be created adding that those that the New Dawn Government brags about are not enough.
“If the marketeers are selling less it means kulya ba order ifintu, nakwena ama sales yaya panshi. When the marketeers finishes selling in the evening, she passes through some shops to buy this and that. If what she is earning, her sales have gone down, it means what she is buying from those shops also is going down,” he said.
“Lyonse ama sales nga yapona nenchito shapona. Inchito shileluba, shileya. More and more of our people today are losing jobs. Jobs that are not being accounted for. Jobs that I am talking about, nobody accounts for these jobs. But thousands and thousands of jobs are being lost today. For most of our people to earn a living from this economy they need a job. If they don’t have a job they can’t earn a living. The few jobs that are being offered, are being talked about in government of thousand, a few thousand of this and that are not enough.”
He complained that while the cost of living keeps skyrocketing, it has become difficult for companies to increase salaries for their workers.
“We need thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs. Even those who are in jobs today, to increase their salary it’s a problem because the businesses they are working for are not making enough money. If businesses are not making enough money how to they increase the wages of the people? The cost of living is going up and up and up every day but the wages are going down. There is a problem,” he said.
“Even here, if we had to count how many people have eaten breakfast today, how many people had a proper meal yesterday, there will be very few of you. Wherever you move now you don’t see people smiling, people laughing, the picture is so gloomy. The prospects are too desperate. Something has to be done. God has given us everything that we need to sort out these problems, ichishupile mitekele.”
Those who know they will never be president of Zambia, talk carelessly bcos they know their time to prove what they say as president of Zambia will not come after all. But bcos of jealous, they create all sorts of imaginations as though if they were in power, they wud perform magic. Nonsense repeated talk about hunger. Havent you seen what the govt is doing to respond to the problem?
Yes mealie meal can be high but nobody is dying of hunger and we have no reports of people eating wild fruits or roots like how it happened during chiluba’s time that they even had to import yellow maize just to feed people.