IT is sad to note that despite Government banning the export of maize and maize products recently, smugglers have resorted to using small motor vehicles and bicycles to smuggle the commodity to neighbouring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Both Ndola Acting District Commissioner (DC) Taphen Mulongo and Patriotic Front (PF) security wing confirmed the scam and apprehension of nine suspects who include four Congolese and five Zambians in Chifubu on Friday evening.
We feel this development has certainly dampened the morale of authorities who are trying to curb the maize smuggling scam that is not only creating an artificial shortage in the country, but responsible for the high price of the commodity.
An American idiom states that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
With this new development, the mealie meal scam calls for more stringent measures since the culprits seem to be very innovative in their criminality.
On the other hand, since mealie-meal is our staple food whose shortage immediately becomes political, we feel the government should also not relent in devising fresh measures to stop the scam.
We say this considering that we thought by banning the export of maize, stories of some unscrupulous businessmen smuggling maize and mealie-meal to neighbouring countries that have dominated headlines for the past months would end.
Here we are reading about other equally callous people who are using other means to deprive the citizenry of a product that is readily available on the market.
As a fourth estate, we are strongly calling on the Government to involve military personnel to police our borders and arrest the culprits.
Then there is the shady cartel that is out to destabilise the country both politically and economically to make Zambia ungovernable and thus incite citizens against the authorities.
Like the smugglers, the cartel should also be exposed and punished ruthlessly.
In the UNIP government, military personnel were deployed on all borders to control smuggling, especially that of mealie-meal which was in short supply at that time.
Now, like so, many people were involved in the scam that compounded the food riots on places like the Copperbelt.
We don’t want that to happen since the English say, forewarned is forearmed.
Though the smuggling of maize in smaller vehicles seems a small issue, over time it can lead to shortages and an increase in  the price of the commodity.
It is for this reason that we are calling on the government,, once more, not to wait till large tonnes of maize and mealie-meal are taken out of the country for it to act.
Instead, authorities should punish perpetrators for Zambians to realise that the country was food secure, unlike some of our neighbouring countries who want to extend their food insecurity to Zambia.
Is it not heartening to note that despite most surrounding countries not having enough maize stocks, Zambia has enough to last the next harvest season?
Smuggling of maize out of Zambia then should be treated like treason since it borders on people’s lives.