By Tovin Ngombe
Namazambwe ward councilor in Sinazongwe district has disclosed that severe hunger situation has forced people in kafwambila and Siameja to sart eating grass.
Mr. Bernad Nzeka told ZANIS that the hunger situation has worsened and most people were failing to find money to buy mealie meal which was also scarce.
He said a 25 kg bag of roller meal was being sold at K65, 000 and K60, 000 in kafwambila and Siampondo.
The councilor said most people who were failing to buy mealie meal have resorted to eating grass which is known as ‘Mpunga’ in the Tonga language.
He said a bucket of maize was being sold at K30, 000 while previously before floods it was fetching at K15, 000.
Mr. Nzeka who is also the only councilor under the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in the district has appealed to government to quicken the process of sending relief food to save the starving people.
Last week Chief Sinazongwe also appealed to government to send relief food to the district whose crops were washed away.
The Chief pointed out that despite several appeals to government to send relief food, the district has only received 500 bags of mealie meal from the private sector.
The district Disaster Management Unit has estimated that about 1091 people would be in need of relief food because their fields were washed away and their houses collapsed while 85 percent of them were living in makeshift structures.
[ZANIS]
Are these people really eating glass? What sort of glass is that? I would understand if the reporter said the people were eating some kind of grass rather than glass. Wouldn’t the the glass not kill the people that ate it? It is the government’s responsibility to feed, rather supply the essential commodities, Sinazongwe having been declared a disaster area? This is where you can see whether the government cares for its people or not. Will politicians supply the necessities during the campaign times?
Where are they getting the energy to chew glass?
And we want to export maize to Zimbabwe? This is just sad
Clarify, glass or grass?
This is interesting people eating glass? gee I can do a research paper on the type of digestive sytems these people have.On the other hand is this the typical zambian mispronunciation of Ls and Rs?
#5 In Zed pronunciation depends on which part zed you come from!!!
I know most of us Zedians esp bembas suffer from this pronu… thing. But I take this as a finger problem with the guy who put up this article on the net. Just to chew your time.. here is what my Uncle say; I need blown Blead (Brown Bread)!!!!!!!
Did you mean to say grass? It is sad to hear of such cases in our country. When there is drought, people go hungry but when there is abundant rainfall people still go hungry as a result of their crops being washed away. I wonder what amount of rainfall is ‘suitable’ for farmers to have bumper harvests. As an alternative, farmers who are able, should start growing crops in the dry season using irrigation methods. Zambia’s area is 752,614 sq km and of this 11,890 sq km is water. Let us use this water…..
Villagers! That serves you right, you are reaping what you sore. Next time vote wisely.
#2 ulekwata amano, this place is not for people like you to be making jokes of people that are in a dire need of food, if you dont have anything to say just read the damn article and shut up
Ba Miles #3 The maize that Mugabe paid for has got nothing to do with this. economics is such an easy subject and I don’t understand why people find it hard. Hunger in Zed is not a result of food shortage at the moment. what Zed is going through is a shortage of Forex. For example: My mother is one of the many small scale farmers who’ve produced more grain than what they can consume but they can’t just go to the above mentioned village and give people for FREE.
The only way we can fight hunger is to import Forex and export goods, there’s no other solution to end hunger in africa.
Whats the best way to stop pipo from esting GLASS?
I imagine it takes hours or even days to have glass cooked
Dont they even have fles fis over there in sinazongwe? Prease somebody in power do somesing for zis people.
I know this topic is not funny, but you people are so funny that my sides are hurting from laughing. I think they mean GRASS not GLASS. Honestly, grass is much cheaper, tastier and healthier than glass.
lol
BA Lusaka times, that is the consequence of havin grade 7 dropouts as your editors. mwakula yisebanya ifi finey. ati glass instead of grass, was this article written by a bemba chap?
Sad indeed, ladies and gentlemen, time to discuss wether its glass or grass is gone, at no point in time have you heard people eating glass. This is just a mistake in wording because if this journalist was using word editor, it will not show this mistake as glass is a word identified a as proper noun.
Any way, my main worry is that this place has had history of people resorting to eating grass mainly during the MMD period. Remember Lusitu area just in siavonga had the same experience. What is more saddening is that GOVT is selling maize to Zimbabwe while its own people are starving. I dont know what type of thinking is this.
There’s no need to sell maize to other countries…let’s feed our pipo first and later when and if we shall have enough….forget about Zimbabwe….
#8 right on.
Its never our fault… its always a case of too much or too little…
its never about us failing to manage… we need to stop blaming someone else each time..
Its time for those chaps chewing grass to descend into lake Kariba and start fishing than everytime depending on handouts from governmnet. In fact the so called relief food is a sham few people benefit from it and they eat it within a day.
The following day they still complain of hunger. The relief food is nothing but political.
The issue is that let governmnet improve roads because in Kafwambila even when people have money they can not buy maaize because the road is impassable. Work up decision makers and help maintain the roads. Imagine the roads in kafwamila were only maintained in the kaunda days. The people in these areas they have never seen their president. Shame on leaders.
LT pls do us a favour and apologised for misleading us that pipo in sinazongwe are eating glass instead of grass. You gave us heart attached!!!
sorry the above should read ” heart attack!!
Pipo cant eat glass or grass. its an exageration.its tru pipo are starving coz ov floods. the MTU shoud speed up the disribution ov food to affected areas.
Now all comments on this blog about eating “glass” are pointless the error has bee corrected by our Tovin Ngombe the author of this blog.
It is very unfortunate that individuals find humor in very serious and desperate situations such as this. Can any of you imagine not being able to feed your loved ones better yet can you imagine what it is like to go to bed starving and know that when you awake in the morning the only thing to great you is a rumbling stomach or headache from lack of food? God said that He will take care of His people relief will come in the name of the Lord.
# 1 YOU HAVE REALLY MISLED THE OTHER PEOPLE SAYING THE NATIVES IN THAT AREA ARE EATING GLASS. THE REPORTER CORRECTLY USED THE WORD GRASS AND YET HE IS BEING LABELLED AS A GRADE SEVEN DROP OUT.PEOPLE LET’S BE SERIOUS AND COMMENT WISELY.THIS SITE IS BEING SPOILED BY THE SAME CHARACTERS WHOSE COMMENTS ARE NOT WORTH READING.
The hunger in Sinazongwe is real can we have DMMU sending relief food to the the affected people. The fact is that people are surfering and the Authority should do something. I pity kafwambila people who are failing to meet the basic needs. Yet our politicians are busy tallking instead of helping the poor.
Dear Brian M,
The article has been re-edited. Initially IT DID say ‘glass’. # 1 did not invent start the whole ‘glass’ thing. I am not saying that this is not an important issue. I am pointing out that had you read this article on March 18th and march 19th, you too would have seen the word ‘glass’ not once, not twice, but several times.
# 28, Check out the title on early marriages it reads “eary marriages” these mistakes are common here. Braindrianed zambia needs more than grade 7 drop outs like me to improve, just take a look at this site and compare it to other african websites, pathetic!
You guys here just ignore that typing error which has now been corrected. Talk about this serious problem maturely. LT is trying to keep us up to date. The government of Levy has once again failed to help the starving multitudes. By the time this article was released those thousands of people only had 500 bags of mealie meal. Kuchula mwe.
Kondowe #19, the leason the govt is serring maise to Shimbabwe is to earn some folex. That way we can play to the Rord for iz bressings to implove the heconomy so zis people cannot reave on glass arone but also on blead. Groly be unto ze bressed!
#33 that was very funny
#31 LT is trying, so don’t be so sacarstic. Do you work or are you in school? Can you even say you’ve never made a mistake? You are the pathetic one
Aha ha haaaa! Sorry, but #33 is killing me! The whole thing is just too serious and too funny at the same time. How could LT afford such a blunder (print glass instead of grass?!) in connection with such a serious topic?
I totally agree with #31 7ups. The errors on this site reflect the educational standards in our country and all I can say is that we are unfortunately miles behind other African nations.
PS. A US Reporter was fired for having written Senator Barack Obama’s name wrongly as “Osama”. The damage caused by such errors is irrefutable so let’s take caution.
it so good to travel the world, i have been in china for so time. You see people in china eat anything so starving is not common. They eat bamboo shuts, plants we comsider as flowers, dogs,frogs, snails, and snakes just to mention a few. Therefore Starving is a matter of choice.
bane.. the Bembas say that,’inkalamu nga yapelelwa ilalya nechani’ thats what these people are doing..desperate people do desperate things.. but ba editor do something please..glass??
i think you people who claim to know the solutions to zambia’s economic problems should just shut the f**k up unless you have something to back up your statements. anyone with half a brian cell knows that the problem is deeper than simply “import Forex and export goods”
goodness gracious, as someone said , just read the thing, you don’t have to respond with some nonsense that only makes sense to you.
there are many variables in this case and import/export is just ONE of them. what about trade barriers, inflation, floods etc? if you’re such a champion then you ought to know about rigid SADC trade restrictions, import/export duties and as such its is almost impossible for small folks