By SHERRY CHABALA
A UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) zealot has angered the governing party leadership by accusing millers of being Patriotic Front (PF) aligned and inflating the price of mealie meal to cause political consternation in the country.
The governing party has described as alarming the allegations that some millers are aligned to the former ruling party and were maliciously and artificially increasing the prices of mealie meal to sabotage the government.
The ruling party has now directed its members to strictly follow the party hierarchy and procedure before making any statement to avoid putting the party in disrepute and odium.
Batuke Imenda the UPND secretary general has now distanced the ruling party from the statement made by its member Beene Hachoombwa, alleging that PF aligned millers have been sabotaging the new dawn administration by increasing the mealie meal prices to anger citizens.
Addressing the media on Friday following a Daily Nation lead story attributed to Mr Hachoombwa, Mr Imenda said the UPND had in its hierarchy key personnel responsible for issuing statements and that Mr Hachoombwa was not among them.
He has warned that all party members in the habit of issuing careless statements without following the party’s hierarchy and putting the ruling party into disrepute shall face the wrath of the party.
Mr Imenda, not amused by what his party member had issued said it was uncalled for, for members of the party to be issuing careless statements when government was working with the millers to stabilise mealie meal prices.
“On matters that are party related, we have a system, we have Mr Cornelius Mweetwa who is the party spokesperson and not anyone who just comes from nowhere and just give out a statement. My hamble appeal to the media to find out whether someone who claims to speak for the party or not. We have the secretariat and the secretary general you can consult to see to it whether the person being quoted is speaking for the party. So that alarming statement attributed to us coming from our presidential campaign team does not deserve the headline,” Mr Imenda said.
Meanwhile Millers Association President Andrew Chintala has assured government that that modalities have been put place to see to it that mealie meal prices are stabilised.
Mr Chintala says the public will begin to see results in the next few days.
He says that millers are now accessing cheaper maize which would help in reducing the prices. He has further clarified that millers are non-Partisan and have a task to work with the government of the day to ensure that Zambians are food secure.
