TANZANIAN MAIZE TRADERS STORM EMBASSY

TANZANIAN maize traders yesterday stormed their High Commissioners office seeking his intervention over the issuance of export permits for the maize they bought from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

The traders who first stormed the FRA offices before heading to the High Commissioner’s offices complained that the FRA was playing double standards.

Some of the traders have reportedly been taken to the police by transporters who have not been paid their money for loading the maize.

The traders complained that they were being charged an average of US$200 per day and that it was very costly hence failing to pay and being taken to the police.

The traders, some of whom have been stuck in the country from November last year said things were getting out of hand as they were incurring huge losses since they were forced to pay for costs since they had been long in the country.

One of the traders Mr Godwin Muzimo said they had paid FRA close to K42 million and that up to now they had not been given export permits.

Mr Muzimo said when he contacted the chairperson for Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources at the National Assembly Kasauta Michelo he said that the traders would not be given export permits and instead they would just be given refunds.

He said Mr Michelo was categorical and indicated that the traders would not have any maize leave the country and that they should just think of getting.

“I spoke to Mr Michelo and he indicated that we are not going to get the permits but will just be refunded,” Mr Muzimo said.

Meanwhile, some traders who did not want to be mentioned said that the traders in Tanzania were planning to protest in Tanzania if their needs were not met and the treatment they were receiving would sever the relationship of the two countries. The Tanzanian High Commissioner to Zambia Mathew Mkingule addressed the traders and assured them that he would engage the minister of foreign affairs and Agriculture so that an amicable solution was found.

Mr Mkingule urged the traders not to panic as he was working round the closk to ensure that the matter was resolved amicably.

Meanwhile, the traders indicated that they would in the future avoid trading in Zambia because they were unfairly treated by the government.