Starving villagers in Monze district are allegedly battering their produce with briefcase buyers to exchange 25kg bag of roller meal with 25kg x 4 bags of maize.
Escalating hunger situation has forced villagers of Moomba area in Mwanza’s chiefdom to go into agreement with unscrupulous briefcase buyers to exchange their un-harvest maize with roller meal.
Villagers are now getting 25kg of mealie meal with a view of paying back 4 x 25kg bags of maize when harvest is done.
Confirming this to ZANIS in an interview in Monze the law maker said he was very saddened by hunger situation in his constituency where villagers have been forced by hunger to accept to exchange their maize which is still in the field with mealie meal at an exorbitant exchanging rate.
The member of parliament for Moomba constituency Vitalis Mooya said unscrupulous briefcase buyers have taken advantage of hunger situation in the area to entice villagers to accept exchanging a 25kg bag of mealie meal with 25kg x 4 bags of maize when harvest was done.
Mr. Mooya said to help villagers to have their maize for consumption after harvest government must intervene by sending relief maize for both work and selling.
And the law maker has made a passionate appeal to the office of the vice president to instruct authorities responsible for maize distribution to speed up maize distribution in Monze district the situation he said would mitigate hunger situation in the affected areas.
He said that he was aware that 1 184 metric tonnes of relief maize which was allocate to Monze district was still marooned at the shades in Monze.
Monze district commissioner Big Mwiinde was not available for comments at press time.
Why is the govt not coming to the aid of these villagers? Is it that they are in the wrong province? PF you are not in leadership only to support some part of the nation but to show leadership above board.
Not to mention the once breadbasket of the country is now being turned into a basket case. Africans are ruthless in their thinking and have no remorse. The Tonga people are gifted in terms of wealth creation through hard work and you would think any well reasoning government would embrace and support this. Kaunda did as did Chiluba, Mwanawasa and RB but Sata has a personal vendetta with Tonga people because of HH. You talk of the country trying to move way from heavy dependency on copper and move strongly into agriculture and the main players are being marginalised. I want to start a southern province cooperative to support farmers in SP with my own money. Watch the space.
personal vendetta against^
Hang on please! Villagers are starving you say? How on earth can one starve when he or she has what is needed? They have the maize that they need and they are exchanging this maize that they have for the maize that is in milled form (mealie-meal), so where is the starving here? Are we applying the right words here? If someone says that the villagers in this area are exchanging their assets like cattle for mealie-meal then one would agree that there is hunger because they do not have mealie-meal but they have mealie-meal except that it is in the different form – maize. I hope the reporter is not also referring to lack of milling facilities (hammer mills) as starving as well! You surely cannot report that people are starving because they are battering their maize with mealie-meal – strange!
This situation is also happening in Monze West. @Kalumba, you cannot turn green maize into mealie meal, only dry maize is milled unless you have a new technology that people can use to mill green maize into meal. This situation need not be trivialised because it is serious. Exchanging one bag of 25kg roller meal with 4 bags of maize of equal size is tantamount to stealing from the poor. If the government doesn’t help, then they should also stop collecting taxes from these poor people (yes, villagers pay VAT whenever they buy soap and other essential commodities that are vatable).
LT, so the villages are beating up their maize? Do you mean BARTER, then??? Creeps.
I thought so too …. I was pretty shaken thinking mass schizophrenia has hit my people.
It’s all about communication isnt it?
Only imbeciles with big black noses, like Kal and One Hit Wonder, can pretend to know English better than the English!
The most important thing is that tey got the message and everything else sh.i.t!
@Chilyata, word of advice you scrawny little ass dipstick. Refrain from posting disparaging remarks because I am equally able to turn the airwaves blue and you won’t like that. LT is an online publication that has now an even bigger audience/readership and ought to employ people who have the qualifications to produce high standard of articles in the English language because that is our official language. All Zambians ought to speak English like it’s spoken in these isles – the queens English but not necessarily in the queens register which can only be gotten if you went to a public school like me should be used. I did not think that should have rattled your emotions in any way as truth be told, LT stories are poorly written and reflect negatively on the level of education in Zambia.
@Chilyata, you don’t have to become racist about a simple word, you half-caste sorry example of a Zambian masquerador! All you need to convince us is that to you battering someone or something is equivalent to exchange. Thus far you have failed because in your stationary mind stationery would imply immovable, too! I.d.i.o.t!!
Why cant HH buy his relatives mealie meal?Moreover,people from that part of Monze voted for him and his MP overwhelmingly.Charity should begin at home.Why is HH spending his energy on the constitution when he can still use his energy constructively by lobbying government through his MP to send relief food to that affected area.Better still he can use his money to buy them food since his people claim that he is the richest in the country and if your wealth cant be a blessing to relatives,then it becomes useless.
@Austin2021.
You idi.ot if that is the case then let southern province run its affairs by collecting all revenue and assign HH to manage it.
This is why we want devolution of powers so that each province will elect its own leader to run its affairs.
Wanzelu you must grow up.gp back to ZWD where you insult eldely people. Makaka!
@Kombo, you are Chilyata in disguise. We have already checked your ISP downstream router and you have the same default IP address with the Chilyata. I will definitely know where you posting from as soon as I have scripting finish scrolling the main highway pipes. From there on, I have a google paid up map to zoom the house number or rasa attached to that IP address. in short, the net is closing in and no name change can stop that. Ran Nigger ran.
@Kombo
Imwe baiche imwe namupwa umunchishi ayi! Idi.ocy befits such buffoons like you who just follow Sata blindly for the sake of bread crumbs off his table.
If you have totally nothing to contribute to the debate positively, please just shut it. LT does not belong to PF, it belongs to every one.
What are you doing here on LT instead of blogging on PF’s paper ;Mmembe’s past paper . Go to the past paper and see if we will follow you there.
This must be the most ridiculous entry I have read on this site 2021. You actually have no concept of government, devolution or private funds. What an imbecile are most likely to be. The fact remains peope are straving yet inputs are available. …people are starving you fool.
@Brain Cell, do you know that when maize growers fail to sell maize to government then the whole country will have a deficit that will make the price of maize meal more expensive to everyone including you? Do not trivialise this issue, it is serious. otherwise you and all of us will eat yellow maize meal the way it happened in the days of President Chiluba and Guy Scott at MAFF.
@ Wanzelu,
You are equally an *****,greenhorn and faggot.Dont u know that am entitled to my own opinion and if you dont like my comment then dont read it.Let this site be different from ZWD where insults are traded daily as if people posting those comments are possessed by demons.Dont think that people who read this site are supporters of some party u know better,on the contrary Lusaka times has proved to accommodate people of different political affiliations and if you Wanzelu but ulibenzelu want to trade in insults,i propose you start using ZWD.I did not insult your HH but i suggested that he should urge his MPs to LOBBY government for relief food than everyday talking about the constitution.Read other people’S comments with a sober mind and you counter react with civility young man.
Your comments are boarded on individual (HH) who is not in charge of the nation. KK when in power used to buy maize through NAMBOARD. Why not sata doing this thru FRA? However this exercise can be solved mathematically, If 25kg of meal meal is equal to 4x25kg grains of maize, there is nothing sinistor. Use of word starving.. How can the villagers be labelled as starving when they have maize?? food?
@Austin 20.. You are right on the insults, but I still differ with ur point that HH should use his money for relief in that area coz southern province is not a separate country and Sata the president is responsible for those people whether he hates them or not. Unless you are suggesting that HH or Upnd should start collecting taxes and other revenue from southern province “since they voted for him” according to you , then your point will be justifiable.
I thought this is a strategy to survive……..whey should each and every Zambian ask government to buy food when they can afford. This dependency syndrome is really killing our people especially in villages. Look at how people in big towns such Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola try by all means to earn a livings……crushing stones, ego ego (ZAM CAB), doing sort of all odd jobs just to survive. I therefore don’t understand why someone bartering his maize with a bag of meali meal becomes an issue here. Mind you we are in liberalised economy. Twalumba!
The cost of mealie meal @Julu will be too high next year if people sell their maize fields to survive. You and I will have to pay through the teeth to get mealie meal otherwise we will feed on yellow maize as it happened in 1992/3, all because farmers sold their maize to private individuals when it was still in the field. They are doing to survive for now, but the real impact will be felt next year.
Villagers starving in Monze at the end of the rainy season when there are other other foods available, e.g. like mapusi, myungu etc..etc? Is this story for real or what? When it get tough this time of the year, even maize straight from the fields can be processed, prepared and eaten even if it is not yet dry enough to grind / pound into mealie-meal. Starving? Seasoned villagers do not starve towards the end of a rainy season surrounded by livestock. Cattle, goats, milk, chicken, eggs etc..etc. And there are wild fruits too. This story does not add up.
I somewhat agree. Anyone know if we have a good harvest this year? Most importantly, we should teach our people to prepare other types of food. In our hot climate nshima eating is just so absurd sometimes. If you go to Soweto market you will find a lot of tomatoes that have been wasted and are rotting away meaning we do not understand food preservation methods at all. We have to overhaul our feeding methods as a people to remain healthy and live longer lives.
@Mann, i like your constructive discourse and this is the way to go because we can have different opinions but our difference should not cause us to insult each other.Instead we share ideas and in the process we can eradicate bias and prejudice in our society.However,my understanding and the point i raised earlier is that party presidents e.g HH can instruct their MPs to seriously lobby government to come to the aid of the suffering masses in their constituencies and i believe those are the duties of our MPs among others.I did not mean to attack southern province because that is where i live also.In other words,instead of making so much noise on the constitution,our MPs should also look at other areas e.g the situation in afore mentioned story.
You mean our people are so poor that they can not even afford to grind their maize through hammer mills or the old fashioned way grinding by hand using implements (stone, pestles etc).
@Wanzelu in insults.Something maybe wrong with your IQ.
@Austin2021
Much as I respect the fact every jim and jack is entitled to express their opinions, I will always label those who always express their meaningless and out of touch opinions idi.ots. If you want to avoid being labelled an idio.t start expressing meaningful and realistic opinions.
How could you demand that HH should carry out the job meant for PF stooges when he is not part of government. The PF are in power and as such are expected to carry out their duties regardless of whether people in an area where urgent help is required voted for them or not. They need to step and show leadership for the benefit of all Zambians, unless you also accept they are not up to the job and need to step aside so that capable people like HH can take over.
Watch your impulsive opinions…
Luapula province is considered as one of the poorest, but such headlines does not come from them viva cassava!
Anybody see if its a fair deal How many kgs of shelled maize does one need to grind and obtain 25kg mealie powder. Maybe its a fair deal but most of you are just disseminating insults without applying your minds. Remember this 25kg roller meal deserves some interest or bansela maybe a 7.5kg of ufa
So vutho nichani apa?