UPND GOVERNMENT SOLD ALL THE MAIZE RESERVES…they became mealie meal merchants immediately they assumed Office – DR M’MEMBE

UPND GOVERNMENT SOLD ALL THE MAIZE RESERVES

…they became mealie meal merchants immediately they assumed Office – DR M’MEMBE

LUSAKA… Tuesday, March 12, 2024 ( Smart Eagles)

PROBLEMS that the Hakainde Hichilema led administration has brought into Zambia has gotten Socialist Party (SP) president Dr Fred M’membe worrying about the future of the country instead of celebrating his birthday.

Yesterday, members of the SP gathered in numbers at Dr M’membe’s office in Garden to celebrate his birthday.

Despite the perfect birthday being characterised with beautiful music, cake and presents, Dr M’membe failed to take his mind off the affairs of the country.

As he stood to give his birthday speech, the opposition leader said Government has not only depleted the maize reserves, they are also running very low on the current reserves, the money reserves and the dollar reserves that they may need to import food.

Dr M’membe slammed the UPND government saying it did not understand the meaning of reserves.

He said government officials think reserves are their pockets.

“They sold all the maize despite a lot of opposition and they said we will continue selling, we are not stopping. Even when you are being warned,” he said.

Dr M’membe said those who planned the issue of reserves were not fools.

He explained that reserves are not based on one’s estimation of tomorrow.

The opposition leader explained that Reserves are based on what one cannot predict.

“They sold all the maize reserves and they started to become mealie meal merchants. Yes, they are buying and selling mealie meal. They are telling us themselves that they are buying mealie meal from South Africa and exporting to Congo, and that is the job of ZNS today, GMO maize being sold to Congo,” he said.

Dr M’membe schooled the current administration that the Zambia National Service (ZNS) was not created to trade in mealie meal.

“We are graduates of ZNS. I came out of ZNS. That noble institution was not created for trading in mealie meal. We were taken to production camps to produce food for our people, not to be smugglers of mealie meal,” he said.

“At this rate, we may even lose the capacity to produce the seed. We need 30 to 40 metric tons of seed and some of that is not produced under irrigation. So we are bound to lose a lot of fields that we have planted for seed purposes. So, this problem can run for more than one year or even for more than two years. We also don’t know when this drought will end.”