‘Stop criminalising mealie meal traders’, Mwenda, EFF leader, knocks Hichilema for poor agric policies

Kasonde Mwenda, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader has urged government to stop harassing mealie meal traders.

Mwenda said during an online call-in programme tagged ‘the Kapwepwe live’ and monitored by Zambia Monitor on Sunday, that ‘defective’ government policies on agriculture were to blame for the ‘dire’ situation.

“The government should stop criminalising traders found with bags of mealie meal, because it is the same government that engaged citizens to take export of maize products seriously and then you turn back and start arresting citizens,” he said.

Mwenda accused the government of mishandling the crop marketing season and the agriculture sector as a whole.

Various callers from within Zambia and the diaspora lamented the shortage of mealie meal and medicines in health facilities.

He encouraged the citizens to take part in the governance of the country while observing that solution to the mealie meal was to increase production.

He added that the government should ensure that workers were protected.

“The government is on the forefront in abrogating workers’ rights including not adhering to the minimum wage,” Mwenda said.

He also claimed that the rate at which President Hakainde Hichilema was traveling outside the country was worrying.

“This country has been run down while the President is traveling to inconsequential trips while leaving issues unresolved at home,” Mwenda said as he accused the government of failing to utilize the country’s economic potential.

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