By Vincent Gunde
A Malawi Congress Party [MCP] diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala, says he has learnt with great shock and dismay that 10,000 out of 60,000 metric tonnes of maize in the custody of ADMARC, has gone bad.
Kamphangala said this is a sad news to the entire 19 million plus people in Malawi particularly those that are MCP diehards the MCP being a party in government leading an alliance with other parties and the majority of its supporters comes from central region which is regarded as an agriculture region.
He has since called upon MCP MPs in Parliament to rise up above party politics questioning government as to what exactly happened for a huge tonnes of maize to be rotten at the time that all ADMARC employees were fired.
Kamphangala said Government is owing Malawians explanations demanding it not to establish a commission of inquiry but to bring to book the culprit behind the maize to be rotten if it is indeed true saying many Malawians are not believing in this that government is lying.
He said the news has surprised all Malawians that the maize is rotten at the time that people are starving, going days with empty stomachs and the maize prices have increased wondering why government failed to release the maize in time before it got rotten.
The MCP diehard recalled that one of their own in the party Smolet Kachere was caught smuggling maize in his trucks to the neighboring Tanzania and revealed that there are people who stole huge quantities of maize at ADMARC but he didn’t name them.
He said Kachere asked the authorities to visit ADMARC that it has no maize in its grain reserves saying to this date, nothing has happened to prove Kachere’s allegations wrong, claiming that his case died natural deaths.
….’’There is no way ADMARC maize can be rotten at the time many are in need of maize from it for its price to go down at the market, there is need to make follow-ups to where this rotten maize was destroyed,’’….said Kamphangala.
He has advised MCP legislators who wants to bounce back into Parliament in 2025 to side with their people in constituencies for the people to know the truth warning them that failing to do so, they will be reminded to account for the rotten maize.
And speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture Sameer Suleiman join Malawians noting the reports with a great concern calling for the need to launch an inquiry to prove that the maize has gone bad.
Suleiman said the matter has been noted when the country is faced with hunger a development which is worrisome that the Tonse Alliance government under President Chakwera has no welfare of its citizens and the report that the maize have gone bad, is only true to those who are siding with the government.
Recently, Suleiman was in the news urging the Ministry of Agriculture to account for K109 billion meant for 2022/2023 Affordable Input Programme [AIP] claiming that Government managed to buy only 30 metric tonnes fertilizer.
