Power is more meaningful when used to benefit, inspire and protect others than to oppress

To borrow Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba ‘s words, “the so called smuggling of maize and mealie-meal to the DRC is a market issue and not a security issue”.

A fair analysis on the activity reveals with clarity that truly the issue is a market issue which Zambia government should have long taken advantage of as well as allow individuals with capacity to trade in the commodity.

The Zambian government is supposed to relax the restrictions of selling meal meal at the boarder or across into DRC , make it formal and earn tax revenue therefrom.

Its unfathomable to see how gradually we as a nation are turning this issue into a crime ,making it look so serious  and making everyone to believe its a crime that requires security guard rails .

In my view its the governmnt of Zambia that has long made this well intended trade to degenerate into smuggling because of the restrictions pepetrated by its failure to produce more by embracing the  interplay of the law of demand and supply.

Simple definition, smuggling in this context is the illegal transportation of  legal or ilegal goods locally or across International boundaries with intent to evade tax. but our situation maybe different, traders are willing to pay tax but they aren’t allowed or are given terms not every trader can satisfy.

We have seen in the past millers and other interested parties had to apply to government for a permit to sale at the boarder or across. A requirement which small traders couldn’t meet.

Because of our failure to produce more the situation has been wrongfully turned into a security issue which has also caused a lot of harm  and loss of mostly innocent lives.

Traders and transporters  have lost property in the process ,the vehicles and other transport means they use to convey goods are usually confiscated and eventually forefeited to the state.

Some people have lost their jobs for merely trying to side hussle, all this can be avoided if we take appropriate measures as a nation to produce more than we can consume . we have enough land , all that is required is political will.

With political will, the narrative can be changed going foward .The truth is that DRC is a yawning market which we must utilize to earn income from our agricultural sales by producing more to satisfy the DRC demand of goods and sevices.

Infact we are lucky we have a huge market next door , commercially speaking Zambia has not done enough to make use of this market.instead we have been frustrating the market to an extent of bringing in the military.

Its unfortunate that because of this misinterpretation of the situation arms and other self inflicting measures have been put in place to deter this trade which action has escalated smuggling.

Involving security institutions to man the borders for this reason is misapplication of useful  resources.

Few days ago i saw trucks carrying a variety of cargo in a long quee from sakanya border to near michael chilufya toll plaza, and most of those trucks are foreign trucks heading to DRC awaiting clearance.

This  is an indication that DRC is a wide and good market in the region other countries have fallen on for trade. we too can do that with easy compared to others who aren’t within the same geograhical proximity to DRC as Zambia.

ZNS officers are deployed to Kipushi, Kasumbalesa, Sakanya, Maria Chimona and Loshi borders to prevent the transportation of meal meal into DRC.

These officers can do alot of productive work with regard to food production in their farms.

Its disturbing to hear and see a senior ZNS officer fired for engaging in the selling of meal meal to those who need it.

Government must further give proportionate attention to many other natural endowments dotted across the country such as minerals and timber. A way must be devised for government to trade in these resources transparently for the common good .

As long as selective, greedy and selfish individuals continue to sale these resources in the background for personal gain, unreasonable restrictions on national utilization of our resources will continue.

And that wont take us anywhere as a people. we will continue begging even for funds we raise from our God given nstural resources genuinely and selflessly put to good use.

It is time we invest more in agriculture and not in arms.

It is time we invest in energy and mining and not rhetoric.

Together we have a huge responsibility to build our national and jerk it upward from the shackles of avoidable under development and poverty and this we can best do by tapping into our natural wealth.

Lekeni ifyo imwe.