Stop lying about reducing mealie meal prices, government told
THE government must stop giving the public false hope that it will reduce the price of mealie meal when it had failed to do so in the last nine months, Veteran politician, George Mpombo, has said.
Dr. Mpombo made the observation in an interview yesterday and noted that the continued statements about the government looking at mo dalities of reducing the price of mealie meal was hurting the public who were hard hit eco nomically. He pointed out that this was becoming a mockery as nothing tangible has been done so far to warrant any fur ther assurances.
He was commenting on the sentiments attributed to Agriculture minister, Mtolo Phiri who said that the govern ment would engage the millers to see how the mealie prices could be reduced as the nation had enough maize in stock.
He said this during a maize stock update in Mpika earlier this week.
The veteran politician how ever, described the sentiments as mere political gimmickry. He advised the government to concentrate on looking at ways that it would continue to support the poor farmer with agriculture inputs.
He stressed that what the minister must be talking about now was the agriculture inputs and not things that could not be achieved.
The humorous veteran pol itician said that he was disap pointed that the government was dead silent about its plans for the 2022/2023 farming season. He insisted that by now the government would have given the country an up date on how it would mitigate the impact of the anticipated hike in the price of fertilizer amid the Russia/Ukraine war.
Dr. Mpombo further urged the government to ensure that it delivers the agriculture in puts on time, saying that this was what people were looking forward to.
He said that the agriculture sector needs to be empowered so that they continue con tributing to household and national food security amid climate challenges.