ZNS’S EAGLE MEALIE MEAL MODEL FAILING - SILAVWE
THE Zambia National Service (ZNS) model of using Eagle Milling to supply mealie meal is failing and will not take us anywhere apart from punishing Zambians who are being subjected to queuing for the commodity, Jackson Silavwe has said.
Mr Silavwe, the president of the Golden Party of Zambia (GPZ) says the UPND government have adopted the wrong model of reducing the prices of mealie meal through the Eagle Milling and that the current mealie meal crisis was going to bruise those in government.
Mr Silavwe has also said the importation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) mealie meal was a scandal that was only benefiting those in government and that time shall come for those involved to account for their actions.
He said the basis of the ZNS distribution of its Eagle mealie meal was never based on production but on satisfying the immediate needs of the people which he warned was not a sustainable way of running the affairs of the country.
Mr Silavwe has advised government to consider capacitating ZNS so it could commercially they could venture into the cultivation of winter maize especially in rainbelt regions.
“The ZNS model of using Eagle Milling to produce and distribute cheaper mealie meal is failing and will not take us anywhere. It is only hurting our citizens who are being subjected to queuing for the commodity. Government is failing to address the mealie meal crisis and ZNS in its current form does not have the capacity to feed the whole nation. ZNS is distributing its mealie meal not on the basis of production but on satisfying the pressures our people are going through. They are doing it wrongly and it will bruise the UPND government badly,” Mr Silavwe said.
Mr Silavwe explained that the factors that had led to astronomical increase in the prices of mealie meal were well-known such as government having decided to raid the country’s silos and selling the more than 1.5 million metric tonnes of the maize in the reserves.
He stated that as things stood, government had depleted all the maize reserves and had resorted to importing into the country mealie meal at the time when the exchange rate was not only unpredictable but had just failed to remain stable.
“The prices of mealie meal have been exacerbated by the cost of doing business in Zambian which has been compounded by the dancing fuel prices which has also fed into the madness of the exchange rate. The milling industry is suffering from high costs of production and the harsh business environment. Government should reserve about US$100 million…I know they have invested more than that since they came into power by capacitating ZNS so that it can begin to produce above 60 percent of the national consumption,” Mr Silavwe said.