Citizens First president, Kalaba, condemns UPND’s plan to import maize, describes it as ‘sad reading’

Citizens First president, Harry Kalaba, has condemned the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration’s plans to import maize grain from Uganda and Tanzania, labeling it as a “sad reading”.

According to Kalaba, this action demonstrated that President Hakainde Hichilema was all talk but lacked understanding of governmental operations.

“In his typical style of being a Mr. Know It All, President Hakainde went ahead and sold 1.5 million metric tonnes of maize from Food Reserve Agency (FRA) deports whose proceeds to this day have not been accounted for,” he alleged.

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Kalaba criticized the plan as ‘sad’, emphasizing that the UPND government disregarded advice from various stakeholders who cautioned against exporting national strategic reserves for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“Revelations by the Minister of Information and Media, Mr Cornelius Mweetwa that the UPND administration plans to import maize grain from Uganda and Tanzania makes very sad reading and it’s another confirmation that President Hakainde Hichilema is just big on talking yet has no clue what it takes to run a government,” he said.

Kalaba pointed out that the queues of citizens lining up for mealie meal in different parts of the country was confirmation of a looming crisis regarding the shortage of both maize and mealie meal.

“It’s extremely saddening that Hichilema would want to import maize from Tanzania, a country that was buying the commodity from Zambia a few months ago,” he said.

Kalaba further asserted that this crisis was self-imposed and could have been avoided if the UPND government had refrained from exporting maize from national strategic reserves.

“His ill-advised tendency to portray himself as the most intelligent citizen is costing his government and its fast depleting popularity countrywide,” he said.

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