By SYLVESTER MWALE –
THE Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) has hailed President Edgar Lungu for the introduction of cheap mealie-meal produced by solar powered milling plants.
ZACA Executive Director Samuel Simutunda said the production of cheaper mealie-meal was a great relief to Zambian consumers who have been subjected to exploitation by millers for a long time.
Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) director general James Chirwa whose organisation is pioneering the milling plants said on Monday that the newly installed milling plants in Solwezi, Kasama and Luwingu had started producing the mealie-meal.
The commodity is currently waiting for commissioning by President Edgar Lungu before it could be offloaded on the market for sale at K45 per 25kg.
“This is a brilliant idea and, as consumers, we would like to commend President Edgar Lungu, the Patriotic Front (PF) and his government for this initiative because this is what we have been
advocating.
“We have many Zambians today that are going hungry because they cannot afford the current prices. We know that the millers will complain, but the Government has a responsibility of protecting the people from exploitation,” he said.
Mr Simutunda noted that consumers had for a long time been subjected to exploitation because of the cartels and collusion in the pricing of staple food by millers in the country.
Similarly, the ZACA boss observed that the Government had been blackmailed by millers in the manner they fixed prices in that they increased the prices without any consideration of the poor Zambians.
The millers have apparently become unpopular in recent times after the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) president Allan Sakala announced the intention to hike the price of mealie-meal by up to K15.
The Government recently threatened to impose price controls if millers continued to unnecessarily increase the price the staple food.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is currently investigating the millers over alleged collusion in the pricing of mealie-meal following their intentions to hike the cost by up to K15.
