WE ARE GOING BACK TO THE UNIP DAYS OF FOOD RATIONS & MEAL COUPONS
(HISTORY OF 1980’S IS REPEATING ITSELF)
In the dying years of the UNIP regime, Zambia was gripped with acute food shortages, inflation, high cost of mealie meal and total economic collapse triggered by economic mismanagement by the UNIP government.
This triggered food riots on the Copperbelt in 1986 as Zambians could not find mealie meal anywhere and even when they found it the price was too high.
The UNIP government introduced food rationing in 1988, where food amounts were limited per household, and they introduced mealie meal coupons that could be exchanged for a bag of mealie meal, one coupon per household per month.
These measures failed to work because the UNIP government did not solve the underlying problem of low maize production and availability that was causing the high mealie meal prices.
The PF government has fallen into the same trap that the UNIP government fell into, poor economic and agricultural mismanagement has brought the country to its knees.
The scenes we saw today of Bowman Lusambo threatening shoppers from buying more than one bag of mealie meal are not new.
Even in 1986 UNIP district governers (DC’s) were sent to ZCBC supermarkets to harass shoppers and intimidate them from buying mealie meal. These tactics are always there in a failed dictatorship. Rule by force, threats and intimidation.
History is repeating itself, we are back where we were over 30 years ago.
Bowman Lusambo should understand that after UNIP, Zambia moved from a socialist system to a capitalist system.
In a capitalist system prices of commodities are determined by the forces of supply and demand.
He needs to know that what has caused the high price of mealie meal is a shortage of maize on the market, it has nothing to do with bulk buying of mealie meal.