By JACK MWEWA and CHILA NAMAIKO –
ZAMBIA Revenue Authority (ZRA) yesterday impounded 66 trucks laden with logs of mukula tree in Nakonde District of Muchinga Province.
ZRA Corporate Communications Manager Topsy Sikalinda said in a statement that the logs were believed to have been earmarked for smuggling.
The development comes just days after President Edgar Lungu announced he was about to deploy the military to help stop the illegal harvesting of the mukula tree.
Mr Lungu himself yesterday made reference to scores of trucks laden with Mukula tree having been impounded at Nakonde and warned of stern action against locals conniving with foreigners in the Mukula business.
Mr Sikalinda said that the ZRA had also detained eight other trucks laden with mukula logs in Nakonde District for attempted smuggling.
“The trucks were impounded for trying to export material without adequate documentation. The authority is currently working with other Government security wings to curtail smuggling of Mukula logs and more trucks are expected to be caught in the dragnet,” read the statement in part.
Meanwhile, President Edgar Lungu has expressed disappointment at Zambians conniving with foreigners to defraud the nation in business transactions and in illegal exports of natural resources like the Mukula tree.
He told Parliament yesterday that unscrupulous citizens were working with foreigners to illegally cut down the Mukula tree and other wildlife that were then smuggled out of the country.
He disclosed that he received a report of scores of trucks laden with Mukula tree with false documents from Lusaka to Nakonde, and warned that those behind such a transaction would face the law.
He was also concerned with false accounting by undervaluing the process of goods and services sometimes, done by Zambians on behalf of foreigners, a move robbing the country millions of dollars.
In a related incident, the ZRA in Katima Mulilo handed over nine trucks full of Mukula logs to the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection for verification of documents.
The trucks are believed to have come from Kasumbalesa, the border post with the Democratic Republic of Congo.