Lungu warns millers

President Lungu with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justine Welby

President Edgar Lungu has warned millers, the business community and traders in the habit of abrogating state regulations on the exportation of maize and mealie meal of stern action.

The President sounded the warning when he met NGOCC Board members at State House who expressed concern over the artificial shortage of mealie meal in some parts of the country.

President Lungu says traders and millers should take his warning seriously as anyone caught transporting maize or mealie meal to neighboring countries will forfeit the cargo including the truck used to transport commodity to the state.

And responding to a question on the unfair application of the Public Order Act by the Police, President Lungu says he does not influence the Police in any way when it comes to the application of the Act contrary to what people think.

He says this is the more reason he wants to coordinate a meeting of political party leaders and the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs to resolve all matters relating to this piece of legislation.

President Lungu with NGOCC Board members

Meanwhile the Head of State has expressed concern that women in the country are still not coming out to apply for consideration for key positions, and has since urged them to be above bold in participating in governance issues.

Speaking at the same meeting, NGOCC Board Chairperson Sarah Longwe proposed that the country holds a Referendum separate from the General Election to ensure the approval and subsequent enactment of the expanded Bill of Rights, which she says is critical to the wellbeing of women, youths, people with disability, the elderly and the poor.

Ms Longwe has also called on called on President Lungu to quickly appoint and operationalise the Gender Equity and Equality Commission, which she says the NGOCC envisages will be a professional body comprising women and men of integrity to ensure gender discrimination is eliminated from the Zambian society.

Earlier, President Lungu met the visiting Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Justin Welby and highlighted the important role the church in Zambia has played in curbing political violence ahead of the August general election.

President Lungu said the church has always brought politicians together each time they had differences.

He says the PF has already started implementing what was resolved from the interparty meeting held recently and hopes all political parties are doing this in order to have peaceful elections.

The President further told the Archbishop of Canterbury that the government is spending huge sums of money in importing power in view of the electricity deficit.

And Archbishop Welby says had Zambia invested in many sectors in the 1970’s, the current challenges the country is facing could have been avoided.