ENGAGE PRIVATE MILLERS TO RESOLVE MEALIE MEAL CRISIS - SP

THE Zambia National Service (ZNS) Eagle Milling project has put the food security of the country at risk and Government should move to involve private millers and resolve the current mealie meal crisis that has condemned Zambians to queuing for the staple food, Antonio Mwanza has said.

Mr Mwanza, the Socialist Party deputy secretary general says the ZNS Eagle Milling project has been causing chaos in the country and that it has become critical that Government should immediately engage traditional private millers to help resolve the mealie meal crisis.

He said unless some people within Government were benefiting from the ZNS mealie meal at the expense of Zambians queuing for the commodity, Government should have no problem inviting private millers and ask them to work with the millers that are being sponsored by Government.

Mr Mwanza said the shooting of an 18-year-old boy in Ndola during a scramble of mealie meal was a sign that the ZNS Eagle Milling project was not a solution to the high prices of mealie meal but was a sign of desperate economic times.

He said the Eagle mealie meal Zambians were scrambling for was neither cheaper nor readily available and that if Government was serious about stabilising the prices of the staple food, private millers should be afforded the same incentives being enjoyed by ZNS.

Mr Mwanza said Zambia had become food insecure because government had abandoned the country’s private millers who for as many decades had helped successive governments to stabilize the prices of the staple food.