The Police Service on the Copperbelt has set up a special operations wing to counter the rampant smuggling of mealie meal and other commodities across the borders.
Assistant Staff Officer for Kitwe Joseph Chitambo revealed this during a meeting with Agriculture Deputy Minister Rodgers Mwewa in Ndola today.
Mr. Chitambo told Mr. Mwewa that police were not in the border town to harass the people but that they were working hard to ensure that mealie meal was available in the province.
who visited the province to check on the roaming shortage of mealie meal that police have seized over 24, 000 by 25kg bags of mealie meal and other assorted goods.
The special operations wing has since commenced operations and has so far seized various goods which include 24, 579 by 25kg bags of mealie meal, 282 by 50kg bags of sugar, 44 by 20liters of cooking oil and ten by five crates of Simba beer all destined for DRC.
And Zambia Revenue Authority officer Levy Simantimbe at Kasumbalesa told Mr Mwewa that the border was to porous that people managed to smuggle goods into DRC without passing through ZRA offices.
And Agriculture Deputy Minister Mr Mwewa expressed shock to see stocks and stocks of 25 Kilogramme bags of mealie meal at Kasumbalesa Border when the rest of the towns in the province had no mealie meal.
Mr Mwewa however warned that government will not spear anyone found smuggling in mealie meal but will ensure that the law takes it course on those found wanting.
its hight time drc started growing their own food. what a shame of a country that sticks to old norms of smugling when nations are improving
Stingy bugger! You sell the maize exported there, it not given to them! what you don’t realize is that our economy has suffered that much more because there was forex in those sales wasn’t there!? Truckers are meant to make a little more going that way so someone’s job might be at risk of being irrelevant. Your government is strangling agriculture and while it thinks the mines will protect us.. So please don’t be daft! Don’t be heartless, your statement is starving children and widow making their lives that much less bearable because because of us prices have gone up and food is even more scared. Don’t be Dull
DRC is a market for God’s sake. The best any normal government will do is encourage people to grow more because the Market for food stuff’s is there already, meaning more money in peoples pockets.
But this is what you get with fellows who’ve been there from 1960. Sata is the last OLD RUG we will have as President, we need people that think outside of the box to lead us now.
Iwe lamfras, do you even know the demographics of the DRC? It is NOT the entire country that depends on your mealie meal; however, it is a sizeable enough population as to form a customer base that could be handled very profitably if we were organized. THEY PAY FOR THAT MAIZE whether it is smuggled there or not! That is the bottom line. It is up to the Zambians to up their game and organize their external maize marketing versus internal supply strategies.
There is your Christian nation denying food to those in need when you could simply have made sure everyone had enough. It’s not like they wouldn’t buy, but now they are forced to steal! By the way this is going to be a fresh brand of Policeman if you ask me!
Peace be with all you who starve because of some i.diots’ inability to think ahead too busy with by-elections and court cases and appointments we are now starving our neighbours when yesterday they were assured of our friendship.
Amazing indeed. Instead of encouraging people to grow more so they can sell more and make more money, one is standing in the way of trade.
DRC is a yarning market, and whether you like it or not somebody’s gonna sell there, either Zambia, South Africa or Tanzania. It’s high time you all started thinking outside the box, work hard and sell the excess to teh DRC because the market is already there. You don’t want the DRC to start growing there own, we will loose out on trade big time.
What did i say yesterday ? Price in Kitwe was KR 50.00 , Chililabombwe KR 70.00 Kasumbalesa Border KR 120.00 and in Congo KR 250.00 . Millers take their products in Cong creating a shortage here. Even this group that is set will only consist of smugglers
I think we are waiting for South African and Zimbabwean farmers to come and show us how it is done. You will gain NOTHING in this 21st Century dispensation by setting the police and law enforcers against innocents trying to meet their production costs. This is time for smart initiatives and not draconian ones!
The police where in the province to chech the “roaming” shortageof mealie meal. L,T even a bemba from kwachipulukusu can laugh. Did you mean Looming? lol
There was such a wing in KK’s time. It didn’t work. Because smuggling is but one element in the shortage
You will never catch those Kitwe thugs. They are the most sophisticated in the country. Good luck!
Umwinda zed you are right! During Kaunda ban,every other days 60 tons of Mealie meal was smuggle to Tshisenda- Congo under the escort of paramilitaries assigned to fight the smuggling! every element of these units, when recalled,Had enough money to buy a house,car or resigned from the Force to start a business! we use to call that KAFIA(kasai financial assistance)
When there are ritual murders, the police dont form a squad. When there is m/meal shortage, a police squad is formed. How dull can a nation be?
As zambians we have seen acrisis in mealiemeal shortages my appeal to the minister of agriculture. is is an oportunity to show your ability to improve agricuture
plans and increase maize production fields hence zambia as a nation will create employment in rural areas by having more in puts by having work to do. secondly when a bumper harvest is recorded. zambia will have an opportunity to earn more forex second from copper by exporting more maize and mealiemeal to export. conco
has no policy or plans of going into farming at the moment they are still enjoing their
minerals. which are in abundance. lets make an effort to increase maize pproduce in
zambia and become a basket for congo we can do it. in agriculture we are sleeping. our beloved minister we look up to you .
congolese are not ready or do not have agriculture policies as zambia has. zambia
can produce enough and feed congo. there fore zambia as a nation can benefit in earning forex. we have fetile soil,water, good rains and abudant land which Botswana. do not have. and a plant to produce fertlizer nitrogine chemicles in kafue.
. all we need is to work out plans and increase agriculture output store for our selves and surplus be sold to earn forex zambian economy wil not just grow by selling copper. we can grow it by seling maize as well. this is another mining indusry which must be worked on. for example malawi economy survives on agricuture in tobacco growing. half of its forex and budget of the nation is driven out of that. but zambia has copper and has capacity to increse on agri…
Sometimes i wonder what happens in some other peoples head, maybe there is too much water content. yesterday you were the same people blamming the government accusng them of causing mealie meal shortages in the country. today the same people you blammed have put in measures to reduce the shortage, again you are crying foul. haters by nature, proper defination for you.
Forming a squad will not help things as the level of smuggling is just too high and that squad will be part of it. Let us seal the border and ensure that ZRA collects from this business. Believe it or not, the banned Tujilijili are still selling at hot prices here in DRC..