Anger over cost of mealie meal deepens, as opposition PF accuses govt of mocking Zambians

Former Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Davis Mwila, says it is a mockery to tell Zambians to stop depending on Nshima and start eating rice.

Mwila argued that rice was not any cheaper.

He said it was folly for a person to tell Zambians to give up the staple food they had known since Zambia came to an existence.

Mwila was reacting to the statement made by the Food Reserve Agency Board Chairperson, Kelvin Hambwezya suggesting that Zambians should stop depending on nshima and eat rice.

“We cannot be mocking people like this, this statement is no different from what the vice president Mutale Nalumango said that Zambians should start eating roller meals,” he said in an interview on Friday in Lusaka.

He urged the government to stop issuing statements as if they were talking to children who did not reason.

Mwila said the failure by the government to bring down the cost of mealie-meal should not by any means suggest that Zambians must stop eating nshima.

He said the rice they were suggesting to the people was more expensive compared to the bag of mealie-meal that was why rice could never be solution to the existing problem of rising mealie-meal prices.

“When the cost of living is rising everyday coupled with the having no money in the economy then a government thinks people may manage to be eating rice on a daily basis?

“The UPND has failed to govern that is why they are issuing such reckless statements to mock the people,” Mwila said.

He said when a PF official made a statement that Zambians should be eating sweet potatoes when bread became expensive when the party was still in power, the UPND made a fuss about it when in actuality the suggestion was better than what they were telling the people now.

Mwila said if the UPND wanted to be kicked out of power very early then they should continue playing with mealie-meal.

He said during the time of the PF when prices of mealie-meal went up, all the ministers worked together and talked to the president and found the solution.

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