We’ve settled in, don’t want to govern by excuses – Mweetwa
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the Ministry of Agriculture will this Wednesday float advertisements for the supply of farming inputs for the 2023-2024 farming season.
He says the issue of high mealie meal prices is now under control.
Featuring on Prime TV’s Oxygen of democracy on Monday evening, Mweetwa said there would be no excuses this year.
“We have already settled in. This year, we don’t want to govern by excuses and you recall him (President Hakainde Hichilema) saying that , ‘those who will stand in the way of progress we will put them aside’. I would like to indicate that I am reliably informed that as a way of averting the situation which happened in the last farming season relating to FISP and agro-inputs, this Wednesday, on the 22nd of February, the Ministry of Agriculture is scheduled to flush out adverts asking suppliers to bid for the supply of fertiliser,” Mweetwa said. “Last year that was being done very late somewhere after July, August going into September but it is being done after tomorrow to ensure that this situation that plagued this farming season of 2022 -2023 is averted. And I know the determination of the Minister of Agriculture [Reuben Mtolo Phiri] with the guidance of the President to ensure that the systems, challenges of 2022 in the agriculture sector are not repeated. We know quite a number of our farmers are not happy with what transpired but it is better it happened at the start of our governance because we needed to put certain things in order. We needed to confront certain cartels that were involved in the supply of agro-inputs. Some of them that were either not supplying in accordance with their contractual obligations in terms of quantities or were supplying in terms of quantities underweight. A lot of issues have now been addressed.”
Mweetwa said Mtolo indicated during Cabinet discussions that in 2023, the issue of late delivery of agro-inputs would be a thing of the past.
“Number two, a number of people were unceremoniously removed from the FISP prgramme without notice. All those issues, your government is aware of them and due diligence is going to be performed through a rigorous [mechanism] to ensure all those deserving farmers can be on course to be recipients of FISP,” he said. “Some were not qualified and did not get their FISP packs and all those issues to do with camp officers, the administration of FISP, are being confronted head on right now. Some of the people that have made this programme have rather more challenges are our own camp officers such as officers corroborating with non-existent cooperatives and allocating huge packs.”
Mweetwa said the government would not tolerate theft of inputs by camp officers.
“Coming from Choma myself, one camp officer and another will in the next few days be arrested over this dubious activity of creating fictitious cooperatives and diverting up to 600 bags of fertiliser meant for ordinary vulnerable farmers into a private advantage,” he said. “The law may be moving a bit slow but the law will always catch up with wrong doers.”
Mweetwa said the UPND had brought transformative changes.
“I would love to indicate that contrary to the assertions that we are not ready to lead, if we were not ready to lead, firstly on the governance side of things we would not have taken Zambia on the continental and global map so high where it is. We would not have restored normalcy in the country,” he said.
“The country is insanely peaceful. No one goes to the bus stop and gets harassed by thugs. No one posts videos of commanders wielding pangas threatening citizens to an extent parents were getting worried what country we were going to live our children into. All those issues are now a thing of the past.”
And Mweetwa said the government had brought prices of mealie meal under control.
“You remember there was an issue to do with mealie meal prices and our colleagues in the opposition went to town with it, celebrating the then rising prices of mealie meal but you have seen the prices have collapsed and are hovering between 150, 170, 175 breakfast. If it is ZNS mealie meal it is at 150 breakfast and roller as meal as low as 110, 120 and so on. That is progress being made,” he said. “The mealie meal prices had gone up due to natural laws of supply and demand.”
Mweetwa said Zambia’s grain was feeding the continent hence the skyrocketing prices.
He however said export permits are being used to detect the movements of maize and mealie meal on the borders to ensure food security is sustained.
“The government is on hand. The government is working. One of the things which is interesting is the insincerity of our colleagues in the opposition. One of the candidates standing as presidential candidate for seat of PF president was in the last one month one of the net exporters of maize from FRA into Tanzania creating this situation we are in and made a lot of money,” said Mweetwa. “After making a lot of money goes to hold a press conference to say ‘mealie meal prices are skyrocketing in Zambia. Meanwhile, he is one of the major exporters of maize that should have gone to millers. It is that kind of politics that is not good for the country. The situation is now completely under control. Government has upped its game. We don’t expect any mealie meal price distortions in the near future. That has been resolved.”