GOVERNMENT HAS COMPROMISED ZAMBIA'S FOOD SECURITY

GOVERNMENT HAS COMPROMISED ZAMBIA'S FOOD SECURITY

...South Africa started buying Non GM maize for cereal from Zambia after parents, health workers in that country saw an increase of behavioral disorders in children for consuming cereals made from GMO maize, says former foreign minister.

By Alfonso Kasongo
Zambia's foood security has been compromised hence the government's schemes to import country's staple food made from Genetically modified maize from South Africa, Former Foreign Affairs minister has revealed.

Harry Kalaba,former Foreign Affairs minister under the Patriotic Front government, now,a  leader of opposition Citizens First (CF) is disheartened by the comments from  Vice Republican President Mutale Nalumango that GMO Mealie meal is safe for human consumption.

Mr. Kalaba has reminded Zambians that South Africa has been buying maize from Zambia because of the policies around non-GMOs. 

"South Africa started buying maize for cereal from Zambia after parents and health workers in that country saw an increase of behavioral disorders in children," the former foreign affairs minister discloses.


Vice President comments come after the stolen of 212  by 25 Kg imported GMO mealie meal destined for neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Mr. Kalaba adds his party finds the comments by Mrs. Nalumango to be a manoeuvre to water down and cover up a grave scandal of the stolen GMO Mealie meal,which he said is potentially being consumed by starving Zambians somewhere..

"As a matter of concern, the government has indicated in the Press Release, that ZNS will now intensify security measures at all the depots to prevent any further occurrences." 

"We wonder why there was laxity on the part of the government in the first place to safeguard the GMO commodity amidst the scarcity of non GMO mealie meal, the staple food in the country," opposition leader says.

It's also sad to see Kazungula having some GMO mealie meal purportedly destroyed by  the National Biosafety Agency (NBA). How much has not been destroyed and has been consumed by our people. 

Mr. Kalaba,one of the longest serving ministers in charge  of foreign affairs observes that the calculated carelessness of the ruling UPND government is putting Zambia at  risk for increased behavioral disorders in children and cancers.

Equally, the World Food Agency has been buying Zambia’s maize despite it being more expensive than the GMO maize because the UN agency does not want to compromise the health of refugees, Mr. Kalaba adds

The opposition leader wonders why Republican President Hakainde Hichilema and his government are in the forefront of compromising the health of its people. 

"The UPND Government is now talking of food insecurity with the current drought. Yet when they came into power they found sufficient strategic reserves for 2019, 2020, and 2021 which they decided to offload and sell."

Even this year, they have sold Zambia's strategic reserves to neighboring countries and decided to import GMO for citizens. 

President Hakainde has compromised Zambia’s position in terms of the GMO policies which has seen countries and global institutions preferring to buy our maize. 

Mr. Kalaba's statement read in parts...
"Hakainde must stop buying GMO maize from South Africa on the pretext that its going to Congo. Congo has its own legitimately elected leaders who can equally procure the maize from South Africa to improve food security in that country."

"President Hakainde must realize that he is not a regional President to be compromising the health of Zambians so that Congo can have food security."

"Zambians voted for him. His allegiance is to Zambia first, respect the constitution of Zambia on biosafety and not to abrogate it in the careless manner he is doing."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ZAAB QUESTIONS GOVERNMENT'S SILENCE ON PBR BILL

Image
  ZAAB QUESTIONS  GOVERNMENT'S SILENCE ON PBR BILL  By Alfonso Kasongo  A collaborative network of concerned citizens, civil society groups, faith and farmer-based organisations, working together to strengthen the growing movement for agroecology and food sovereignty has questioned government's failure to avail the proposed new Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) Bill.  Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB) maintains that controversial Bill is inappropriate for the country and must not be enacted as it aligns the country to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991 standards. The Consortium fears that once proposed PBR Bill is enacted in its current form, the new seed law may trigger price increase and corporate capture of seeds, as well as  country's food system.  The Alliance argues that government through the Seed Control  Certification Institute SCCI  has never presented the actual changes...
Read more

ZAMBIA LISTED AMONG 34 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE THAT EXPERIENCED DIGITAL AUTHORITATIVE RULE

Image
  By Alfonso Kasongo  The shutdown of internet to block access to social media during the 2021 general election has earned Zambia a slot among 34 countries worldwide that experienced digital authoritative rule last year. According to a research conducted by Keep It On ,182 internet shutdowns from 34 countries were last year recorded and are documented. Sadly 19 of the 34 countries are African countries, an indication of the return of the digital authoritatism. The report  discloses that the Zambian authorities shutdown the Internet during the the tight 2021 general election to block access to social media platforms which  include among others WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.   The report however ,suggests that the country experienced digital authoritative rule which undermined the democracy of the country.    It further notes with pleasure that the shut down was fought swiftly by Chapter One Foundation through the court of law and that the Hi...
Read more

ZAMBIA'S CLIMATE FINANCING UTILISATION LACKS TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY

Image
ZAMBIA'S CLIMATE FINANCING UTILISATION LACKS TRANSPARENCY,  ACCOUNTABILITY ...hence prone to corruption risks,posing threats against building climate change resilience, TIZ report reviews. By Alfonso Kasongo Zambia's quest to remain climate change resilient might veer off course, if gaps such as weak climate regulatory frameworks, corruption risks and lack of transparency in the management of climate financing remain unaddressed. Ànd tackling of how the country supports mitigation and adaptation to climate change remain critical to building resilience to the worst effects. Climate resilient is generally defined as successfully copying with and managing the impacts of climate change while preventing those impacts from growing worse. This year's unprecedented global temperatures and stark devastating of climate change stress the urgency requirement for Zambia and many other countries to build climate resilience, hence the need for strong regulatory framework and transparency ...
Read more