NO EAGLE MEALIE MEAL IN PETAUKE - JAY JAY

…complains severe hunger has hit Petauke to the extent that people are stealing food while it is being cooked

EMMANUAEL Jay Jay Banda branded the Zambia National Service (ZNS) Eagle Milling mealie meal as nothing but a non-sustainable programme that has plunged Zambians into severe hunger because its mealie meal is not only in short supply but is not serving the poor and vulnerable in societies.

Mr Banda, the Petauke Independent and controversial Member of Parliament has complained of acute hunger in his constituency and has called on Government to consider allowing private millers to deliver and supply mealie meal so that people could have access to the commodity.

Mr Banda said ZNS through its Eagle Milling had delivered its mealie meal only once and had never been back in the area resulting into a critical shortage of the commodity because the country’s private millers had been frustrated from delivering the commodity.

He said in an interview that hunger in his constituency had reached catastrophic levels to the extent that people were running away with food that was being cooked from neighbours even if it was not ready.

“This so-called Eagle mealie meal is not seen in Petauke. The ZNS delivered just 1, 000 bags of the Eagle mealie meal and we have never seen them again. In fact, their mealie meal finished immediately after it was offloaded. People are suffering and this government (UPND government) have completely neglected our people in Eastern Province.

When private millers were delivering and supplying mealie meal, we never experienced this kind of shortage we have now,” Mr Banda said.

He accused the UPND government of deliberately starving some regions by not making mealie meal readily available, stating that the government had made it difficult for the private sector in the milling industry to operate.

Mr Banda, who last week complained in Parliament about the acute shortage of mealie meal in his constituency said he had made several pleas to the government about the hunger situation but that he was not receiving positive responses. “These days in my village, families cannot even cook outside their houses. One could be cooking at home and there are hungry people hovering within the vicinity.

The moment you leave your Nshima on the fire and go inside the house to fetch your relish, by the time you come out, your nshima would have vanished.

People are stealing Nshima from the fire, even when it is in porridge form. But these are the issues Parliament does not want us to present on behalf of our people,” Mr Banda said.