SUSPECTED United Party for National Development (UPND) members are buying mealie-meal in bulk in Lusaka to ostensibly cause a shortage.
Some residents of Lusaka’s Chawama Township have told the Sunday Mail that on Thursday the mealie meal was being bought from various outlets and loaded in trucks and driven away.
Some concerned residents are said to have reported the suspicious bulk-buying of the mealie-meal to Chawama Police while others got into a verbal confrontation with the buyers, whom they accused of causing an artificial shortage.
“There was a woman who belongs to the UPND. She came to one of the shops and told the owner that she wanted to buy all the mealie-meal. She was challenged about where she was taking the mealie-meal but she said what was wrong with buying everything.
“These people just want to cause a shortage and make Government unpopular, so the matter was reported to Chawama Police. Two trucks were impounded,” she said.
Another resident said there were similar bulk purchases of mealie-meal in neighbouring townships of Misisi and Kuku.
“As we speak, there is no mealie-meal in Misisi and Kuku,” she said.
When contacted for a comment, Police spokesperson Charity Munganga Chanda said the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) was handling the case and that the police were not involved in the operation.
But DEC public relations officer Theresa Katongo said the commission is not aware of any operation that was carried out in Chawama or any arrests made to that effect.
Ms Katongo said the commission’s team from the inspectorate department was in fact nowhere in or near Chawama or the surrounding areas.
“That should be the issue of the police. We do not even detain people; if we do detain, suspects are handed over to the police. Anyway, I will continue asking my colleagues to find out what is really going on,” she said.
However, sources confirmed that there was a truck laden with mealie-meal bags parked at Chawama Police Station after the operation.
The source could not confirm whether or not people were arrested.
UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said his members should not be implicated in the shortage of mealie-meal in Chawama township.
“None of our members is buying mealie-meal in bulk to create an artificial shortage of the commodity. The people buying in bulk are just Zambian citizens with plans of reselling at a higher price.
“There is a shortage of mealie-meal in Chawama and that is the bigger picture which should be tackled by Government,” he said
LT please give us something worthy news. Can anyone surely believe that UPND can cause meali meal shortage by what your story purports?
I don’t believe that bulk buying by anyone should cause an outcry when the PF minister of agriculture says there is plenty of maize. In my opinion, this is good news because it creates demand in the midst abundant raw materials (maize). Is it not an opportunity for the producers to produce more, thereby making more money for themselves? This is a case of mismanagement by the incompetent PF with each member issuing statements bordering on the maize shortage.
Bulk buying should stimulate production not cause shortage. Simple economics
GBM is capable of buying all the maize meal in the whole Zambia, what with HH’s financial muscle! These guys are desperate for power at all cost.
Under5s for sure
Is this a story to even report? Really LT?
Stupidity of its highest nature. Mealie meal shortages are everywhere.Is there a law that stops people from bulk buying and re-selling? Shallow reporting.
Hope I won’t be stopped from buying animal feed in bulk and be called cadre upnd fdd narep….
Whats with these Pf fools, side stepping on issues always blaming God, Global, UPND, Whoever.Why cant they take responsibility for once apologize and maybe people will make up there minds and vote for them
its not a small job to be in government Chagwa only workup in November last year after realizing at presidency is not gallivanting, colorful parties and bottomless Jameson glasses.
thank God august is just around the corner.
pathetic!!!! if i go to shoprite and by 20 bars of lifebouy will I know be called a cadre ….people are getting desperate and more pathetic by the day. What if the woman in question has a shop and she wants to take the mealmeal she had bought in bulk to her shop to sell!!!!!!!!
Desperate kicks of a dying fo olish party.
Kicks of a dying horse….. kikikikkkkkiki
We all know who is behind this not UPND members bushe if i go mu shop and buy 10 bags at a go and belong to one political party sure that be a problem to a party?unless ICHIPUBA can believe that.
“Let PF govt produce enough power & akabunga ka kafula”.
THIS IS CHEAP POLITICS. WHY GETTING WORRIED WHEN ONE BUYS A 2TONE MEALIE MEAL FOR HIS SHOP AND THEN YOU BEGIN TO SUSPECT THEM TO BE UPND. WHEN YOU HAVE FAILED, JUST SAY WE HAVE. WHY CAN’T YOU RELOAD THE FRA MAIZE ON THE MARKET. SAY THE TRUTH THAT PF HAS NO MAIZE AND THE THUTH SHALL SET YOU FRREE. IN FACT IN VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME WE WILL HAVE OUR MAIZE READY AS FARMERS BY APRIL.
PLEASE I URGE PEASANT FARMERS NOT TO SELL THEIR MAIZE TO FRA WAIT UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT IS CHANGED BY 11 AUGUST.
Everything that this pf government to do is blamed on upnd.
Shame!!
THIS IS NOT TRUE. EVEN FOREIGNERS, ESPECIALLY ZIMBABWEANS CAN MASQUERADE AS UPND MEMBERS SO THAT THEY ARE ALLOWED TO BUY THE COMMODITY. PF CAN ALSO COOK UP THE STORY, BY IMPLICATING UPND MEMBERS WHEN IN ACTUAL FACT IT IS THEM OR FDD PARTY FOR EDITH NAWAKWI. STOP THE ASSUMPTIONS PLEASE. LEAVE UPND ALONE. VIVA UPND VIVA! VIVA HH VIVA! CHANGE, HERE WE COME!
Pathetic Failures (PF), thats what you are. You have been bragging that you have bought solar hammer meals, what impact have they brought? I bought a bag of mealie meal yesterday in Matero – Lilanda area at K120.Pliz leave UPND out of your failures. Namufilwa bane, prices of food have skyrocketed during Lungu’s reign.
What these chaps mean is that almost all Zambians are now UPND, if you buy mealie meal and eat nsima then you are opposition, next time they start arresting people for eating nsima and accuse them of illegal drilling.
WELL SPOKE DIVIDE AND RULE.
Make sure your pf neighbors don’t see you cooking and eating nsima, you will be slapped with illegal drilling charge.
UPND is a satanic party able to do anything evil in life!!HH’S DESPERATION FOR STATE HOUSE WILL LAND HIM INTO CHAINAMA AFTER LOSING ON 11/08/2016!!!HOPE U DREAMERS IN UPND ARE SEEING HUGE CROWDS AT EDGAR LUNGU’S RALLIES IN CHIPATA AND MPIKA!!PF IS STILL VERY LOVED ACROSS ZAMBIA AND VICTORY IN 2016 IS SURELY THEIRS!!!GO PF GO!!
Eddy you remind me of saddam hussein and iraq army spokesperson, who even when the Americans where bombarding saddam’s official residency and US ground troops were taking Bagdad house by house, he stood on top of a roof of a building and claimed that Americans were just moving around the desert like a cornered snake, 2 hours later saddam fled, the spokesperson upto now i got no idea where that prick is, probably six feet in the ground or rotting in prison somewhere.
LT is abusing its readers by posting this hogwash!
Why does LT keep publishing such news or articles? Do you really believe someone can be arrested for buying 1000 or even 10 000 bags of mealie meal? Please do not make your political inclinations so clear to everyone.
THAT DOESN’T MATTER. IT IS STILL BEING CONSUMED WITHIN ZAMBIA. JUST SAY THERE ISN’T JUST ENOUGH CORN/MAIZE. BECAUSE IF THERE WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH, THIS WOULDN’T BE AN ISSUE. JUST MAKE SURE THAT THE OUT PUT FOR NEXT SEASON IS TEN TIMES THE CURRENT. ZAMBIA HAS EVEN EVER BEEN CRYING ABOUT SMUGGLING OF MAIZE MEAL INTO ZAIRE INSTEAD OF SEEING IT AS A VERY BIG BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY AND JUST MASSIVELY INCREASE PRODUCTION TEN TIME AND NORMALIZE TRADE IN THE SAME. HOW DULL CAN WE BE?
@eddy! Don’t think by voting for useless PF you are punishing HH! Its you and your relatives who are going to endure suffering for many years to come. That’s the honest truth!
Nonsense, these pathetic failures.
Surely this is nonsense. I support you Lucy, These Pathetic Failure, they have run out of ideas now. One day they will accuse a fly of causing noise as it passes their nose, claiming it is UPND trying to cause violence.
They see everything according to their own stained eye glasses…..
@13 Divide and Rule…..You are joking when you say ALMOST ALL ZAMBIANS ARE UPND….please.
@15 Eddy……….UPND thinks they’re are already in power. Lets wait and see
@19 Kaputo Davis……..the honest truth is PF is winning and under PF Zambia will still be a haven of peace. In God we trust
Monkeys. Just barking mad. When they write here it is for foreign audience who are supposed to believe their desperate rankings for power. Shameful and unpatriotic.
Mealie meal shortage…..man made
Comment:So zayelo has failed.And this is the man who wanted 2 b president of the republic of zombies.
They speak eloquently with sugar coated words but when it comes 2 perfoming they blame every1 4 their failure.
That is PF for you. Always full of scape goats.
Black markets are illegal in times of shortages caused by nature, like failed rainfall. The action of reselling at a higher price after purchasing from A RETAIL outfit is deliberate raising of cost above the Market Price. Black Markets must be prevented as they raise prices superficially putting a necessary item to be out of reach for ordinary people. In this type of limited supply, it is recommended the gov’t protect the cost of necessary goods to the population. If a person wants to sell a product at their chosen price they should go and buy WHOLESALE. RETAILERS ARE NOT WHOLESALE, therefore there is justifiable cause for concern and there is deliberate attempt to push prices above Market prices. Imposing rations per person purchasing retail is one way to protect citizens.
Whatever the real circumstances related to Maize Meal, it us necessary for citizens to be orderly. We have had these problems before. In the past we were supported by aid by USA who sent us Genetically Modified Maize Meal and citizens were rioting like uncivilised people. What I do ‘to understand is what the availability of other foodstuff like Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Rice, Pasta, Cassava, Yams? There are replacement items which people can eat for main meals.
This whole propaganda is based on negating Market Forces, to create Strife in order to aid UPND
Hahaha….hahaha……you PF chaps never cease to amaze. Just accept you have failed. If it isn’t grobo it is UPND, it is China, it is Elnino, it is diplomats.
PF is rotten to the core they are unable to rule, that euro bond money corrupted the lot of them. They’re like zombies Looking for overinflated road contracts all the time forgetting other work.
Patriot Abroad indeed.
Ati go and buy pasta?Do you know what the price of living in Zambia is right now?Typical PF idiocy.I hope this useless party is re-elected that is what Zambians deserve.Only a few months ago right thinking citizens condemned PF for selling maize to Mugabe.They were insulted by Pama Fi 1diots.Now Pama Fi is blaming opposition for mealie meal shortage.I want 1diots to vote for clueless Lungu so that they start dying like flies
LUSAKA TIMES!! Why would you want to diminish all credibility by publishing such a nonsensical article?! And you call yourselves objective journalists. I definitely have a political party which I support by my condemnation is not because I support a party. I agree with @Patriot Abroad who argues that there should be rationing per purchaser (in the retail scenario) in times of shortages so that prices are not pushed ridiculously higher than they already are. We need to prevent “black markets” as much as possible! This should have been the line of your reporting. Not that one political party is buying all the mealie meal to cause shortages!! You have really embarrassed yourselves as a media house. Please sieve your articles and give us newsworthy articles. It will only serve to maintain…
ILOVEZAMBIA
Just enjoy your tuma dollars from taxpayers whilst they last.Zambia has never had mealie meal shortage in the midst of abundant rainfall[as your PF informed the nation when we protested selling of maize to Mugabe]What has changed now?Or I will tell you what has changed-Pf is in control.
Pf police on patrol entered a restaurant and found a lot of people eating nshima using knifes and forks. . They arrested the people and charged them for assembling without police permit, for being in possession of offensive weapons and for eating nshima in bulk causing m/meal shortage .
If mealie meal shortages are in Northern and Eastern Provinces and UPND is being blamed for the shortage of the commodity this simply means the “U5” party is nolonger a regional party. It means it now has a national character.
Wow!! UPND is buying all the ‘meal meal’ in the country to cause a shortage. Ahahahahahahahahahaha!! and someone actually sat down and wrote an article about it. UPND is really causing sleepless nights for PF that they have to come up with such s t u p i d i t y? It’s hilarious!
Doesn’t make any sense at all, OMG!
There is only one problem here: The reporter. Not sure he has been to school. Yes he can write and read.
What are they doing with the mealie meal if I may ask. Hoarding it for 12/08? Yaba kuti wa seka had it not been such a serious matter.
Given Lubinda was dancing around when he was telling people to export the maize, now its gone. Why is FRA not issuing statements to allay the fear.
Remember the plastic shops in the movie “The Interview”, that’s what’s coming next.
That is what happens when you introduce price controls. Given(most incompetent agric minister) directed millers to sell at a fixed price in times of shortages. Other not bound by that price agreement will still sell at a higher price and make a killing by buying from miller’s registered outlets in bulk. Solution let all the millers access cheap maize from FRA. And stop maize exports at once even the so called 227,000 metric tonnes excess.
Heap of trash reporting! And the looming fuel shortage, are they also buying it in bulk?
@Prince, real nice. Farmers like bulk buying of fuel in drums for their farm machinery. Hope they will not be accused of being UPND.