By MUBANGA LUCHEMBEONLY a few weeks ago, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema was gleefully on top of the world.Government efforts through a tripartite agreement between the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) and the Grain Traders Association of Zambia (GTAZ) to ensure the country had enough maize stocks to last up to the next crop marketing season seemed to have failed and backfired.Public support for the opposition leader had actually increased among some mealie-meal consumers, and support from his teetering political base seemed to have become increasingly steady.Mealie-meal prices were at an all-time high, and PF’s popularity hovered at all-time lows especially among consumers. While perhaps not the “tipping point of regime change opportunity” that Mr Hichilema hoped it was, the apparent commodity shortage was humming along loudly, and the UPND leader was not shy about taking walkabouts in some Lusaka city slums to whip up public emotions and support – albeit […]
The impact of winter maize on mealie meal prices
