Kitwe District Commissioner Elias Kamanga has blamed the police for being responsible for the critical shortage of mealie meal haunting people on the Copperbelt.
The Patrotic Front (PF) government has failed to stop shortages of mealie meal, Zambia’s staple food. The government has also failed to explain the real causes for the food shortages.
One of the District Commissioner Kamanga said it had become apparent that the police on the Copperbelt was an amalgamation of corrupt and incompetent elements who wanted to benefit from the people’s misery.
He said from Kitwe that the police were conniving with smugglers to transport mealie meal to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo where the commodity was being sold at a higher price.
The District Commissioner said had he reports reaching his office that there was a smuggling racket, which was taking most of the mealie meal from the Copperbelt to the DRC.
“I am told maize is being bought in large quantities and it is later smuggled to Congo. The smuggling is being done in the night, but where are the police when all this is happening. How can big trucks just go through police check points,” he said.
Kamanga said the Copperbelt had seven police checks points and it was not possible for smuggling to continue unnoticed.
He said he has received reports alleging that some unscrupulous individuals were involved in a racket where mealie was being bought in large quantities from outlets and then transported in the night to the Congo where the commodity was fetching a higher price.
Kamanga said the shortage of the staple food was an artificial situation, which was being created by millers who were not releasing enough stock to the local market and at a price of Kr 50, which was dictated by President Sata recently.
He said the situation was exacerbated by smugglers who were siphoning mealie meal to the DRC.
The District Commissioner was responding to public concerns that it was unreasonable for the government to complain against the export of mealie meal to the DRC when it was the same government that was in charge of the border crossing to the neighboring country.
“It has become clear that the police are not doing their job. We are saying this because there is no way mealie meal, which is so scarce here can be transported under the watchful eye of our police especially with the check points near the border with Congo,” he said.
Kamanga said the police on the Copperbelt must be vigilant and stop the people from smuggling mealie meal to the DRC since this food was meant for Zambia.
The shortage of mealie meal on the Copperbelt is the second situation being experienced in less than two months when the region suffered widespread shortage of the staple food.
The shortage of mealie meal and other essential commodities such as fuel have been reported in different parts of Zambia.
Three weeks ago, Agriculture Minister Bob Sichinga gave a ministerial statement to parliament saying the shortage of mealie meal in Zambia was because there were no milling plants across the country since the millers were centralized in Lusaka.
This was denied by bodies such as the Zambia Consumer Rights Association which argued that the minister’s explanation of the mealie meal shortage was not true.
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