Government has dispelled allegations of distributing Mealie meal containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the country through the Zambia National Service (ZNS)’S Eagles branded Mealie meal.
Minister of Information and Media, Cornelius Mweetwa with his Ministry of Defence counterpart, Ambrose Lufuma dispelled the allegations today during a joint media briefing held at ZNS Chongwe milling plant.
Mr Lufuma explained that due to excessive external demand for mealie meal, the government was prompted to source for GMOs mealie meal from South Africa destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“Because of the excessive demand on mealie meal by DRC, we have to take care of external demand. We sourced some maize from South Africa, went into partnership with South African millers and milled it under the Eagles logo but specifically for export. South Africa mealie meal will continue to be exported to the DRC,” he explained.
He said there should be no fear among Zambians as the mealie meal for the Zambian market is GMO free whose maize grain is collected from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) depots.
“We have also been given another task by cabinet to control smuggling in order to preserve our maize stocks in the country. We shall not relent to ensure that Zambia is food secure,” he added.
And Mr Mweetwa charged that assertions by some political players are malicious, baseless, political and cannot be substantiated, further advising them to desist from propaganda, misinformation and unnecessarily alarming the nation.
“It is irresponsible of political leaders to be peddlers of lies. The allegations are so severe. We want citizens to have continued confidence in their government,” Mr Mweetwa stated.
He further advised political players to conduct fact finding missions before issuing statements on matters of national concern.
“I invite them to come with the media to institutions like these on a fact finding mission,” he said.
He reiterated government’s position that there will be no GMO laced mealie meal which will be consumed within the boundaries of Zambia.
Meanwhile, Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) Chairperson, Andrew Chintala disclosed to journalists in an interview that, Millers working in partnership with ZNS use maize collected from FRA depots.
Mr Chintala said MAZ does not support the production of GMO products in the country as well as the importation, adding that all millers on the ZNS program are using maize that is locally produced and supplied to them by FRA.
“We do not subscribe to the production of GMO maize, as you are aware, Zambia is a signatory to the non-GMO policies, for millers that have partnered with ZNS, it is the maize from the FRA that is being milled, so it is purely non-GMO maize,” he said.
The two Ministers toured the ZNS Chongwe milling plant, Mwembeshi FRA depot and Superior Milling company. They are scheduled to further tour the Kazungula border tomorrow, to check on the imported mealie meal that is labelled strictly for export.
