Was it logical for UPND govt to export maize and reimport, asks Kampyongo
By Rhoda Nthara
WAS it logical for government to export large quantities of maize and reimport the same maize, asks Shiwang’andu PF member of parliament Stephen Kampyongo.
In a follow-up question on acting commerce minister Elias Mubanga, Kampyongo noted that the UPND would be importing 650,000 metric tonnes of maize this year.
“Mr Speaker I was saying between the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Trade, Commerce and Industry, the people of Zambia have had many assurances through this august House and also that those assurances culminated into the Leader of Government Business in the House [Vice-President Mutale Nalumango] equally making further assurances because we were usually told that we were food secure and therefore there was no need for us as honourable members of parliament, people’s representatives, to be worried when we questioned aspects of government exporting the maize stocks. More than one million metric tonns and I did state that all the matters are on record. That the Leader of Government Business, honourable minister in your heart of hearts what would you say now that you’ve said you are going to import 650,000 metric tonnes of maize?” asked Kampyongo. “Would you say there was logic and the people of Zambia should be able to still trust you even when you assured them that they were food secure, that there was no need for them to be worried? For you to first of all export maize and now you want to import in the similar way, increasing prices in order to reduce, so whether it was export in order to import? Was it logical for your government to export those large quantities of maize and now you are stressing the Ministry of Finance to find forex through the supplementary budget to reimport the same maize that was exported by yourselves?”
In response Mubanga said when a country is going through a drought it means there will be no production of “our staple food which is maize”.
“Right now if there was no drought Mr [Second deputy] Speaker [Moses Moyo], we could have not gone to import 660,000 metric tonnes of maize. Now because of what we are undergoing Mr Speaker, this is why we’ve gone to import,” said Mubanga. “But furthermore I am saying even in the midst of these challenges we have government is not sitting down. We do have winter maize coming on line. Early maize coming on line. Soon we will pass what we are talking about.”