Stop politicizing Maize, HRCC’s Mkwezalamba tells MPs
A call has gone to opposition Members of Parliament (MPs), Ward Councillors and other concerned stakeholders in Malawi to stop the ‘politicizing maize’ saying the vice has the potential of the price of maize up.
The call follows claims by some opposition Law makers suggesting that some Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) warehouses in the southern region have no maize.
This was despite the re-opening of some ADMARC markets especially in the southern region which have been supplied with the grain.
Speaking in an interview with Capital Radio on Sunday Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) chairperson Robert stressed the need legislators to play their rightful role of ensuring that their respective constituencies have maize.
“One of the roles of members of parliament and councillors is to push government through ADMARC to timely provide maize in the markets rather than creating unnecessary panic amongst the people which might further push prices up,” said Mkwezalamba
On his part, ADMARC’s Chief Executive Officer Daniel Makata maintained that they have so far been supplied with more than 12,000 metric tons of maize from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to be sold in targeted markets in the southern region.
“Let me mention here that the maize that we are currently selling has been provided by the NFRA. And it has come as a surprise really that recent reports indicated that ADMARC does not have the grain in its ware houses.
“This was really strange because it should have already been known that there was no way we could have stocked our warehouses with maize because government allocates resources to NFRA to purchase the maize and store it in its reserves not ADMARCs,” Makata disclosed.
He added: “So far we have supplied maize in most of the markets in the southern region which has been the priority where government directed that about 10,000 metric tons of the grain should be delivered there due to the fact that this is the region which was worst hit by cyclone Freddy hence the need for immediate supply of the grain to caution the people in the South”
Meanwhile, Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) Executive Director John Kapito appealed to ADMARC to ensure that the maize is being sold to rightful consumers.
Some of the markets which have been supplied with maize include Goliati in Thyolo, Zingwangwa, Ndirande, Mangochi, and several other markets in Mulanje Chiradzulu, Chikwawa, Nsanje, and Phalombe.
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