News / Local
Bulawayo: Clean-up exercise on smuggled potatoes from South Africa
30 Nov 2010 at 06:39hrs | Views
THE Government has launched a nationwide
blitz on vendors selling imported potatoes from South Africa as the
produce is being smuggled into the country through the Beitbridge Border
Post, an official confirmed yesterday.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development's principal director for Plant Quarantine Services, Dr Cames Mguni, said the blitz was meant to protect local farmers.
He said the raids on vendors selling imported potatoes were an ongoing exercise being carried out nationwide.
"As I speak to you the team conducting the exercise is on its way to Bulawayo and from tomorrow the clean-up exercise will be under way in the city," he said.
Dr Mguni said the ministry was working with the police to rid the country of the imported potatoes.
"These vendors have no licences to import farm produce for sale. The potatoes are sold by illegal cross-border traders that are smuggling them through Beitbridge border post," he said.
He, however, said no charges were being levelled against the vendors.
"What we are doing is just to confiscate the potatoes," he said.
Meanwhile, a number of vendors at Kudzanayi long distance bus terminus in Gweru said yesterday they had lost potatoes worth thousands of dollars following the raid by the Ministry officials. The vendors said the exercise which started a week ago left some vending bays empty.
The vendors who said most of them were buying the potatoes from cross-border traders, said they were not aware that it was illegal to sell imported potatoes.
"The ministry officials should have first educated us before raiding and confiscating our wares," said one of the vendors who refused to be named.
Another vendor Mr Mthulisile Mafa said they only learnt during the raid that the imported potatoes were not supposed to be sold locally.
"If the officials had taken time to disseminate this information, we could not have wasted our money buying these potatoes for resale," he said.
Mr Mafa said following the raid, many vendors were now out of business.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development's principal director for Plant Quarantine Services, Dr Cames Mguni, said the blitz was meant to protect local farmers.
He said the raids on vendors selling imported potatoes were an ongoing exercise being carried out nationwide.
"As I speak to you the team conducting the exercise is on its way to Bulawayo and from tomorrow the clean-up exercise will be under way in the city," he said.
Dr Mguni said the ministry was working with the police to rid the country of the imported potatoes.
"These vendors have no licences to import farm produce for sale. The potatoes are sold by illegal cross-border traders that are smuggling them through Beitbridge border post," he said.
He, however, said no charges were being levelled against the vendors.
"What we are doing is just to confiscate the potatoes," he said.
Meanwhile, a number of vendors at Kudzanayi long distance bus terminus in Gweru said yesterday they had lost potatoes worth thousands of dollars following the raid by the Ministry officials. The vendors said the exercise which started a week ago left some vending bays empty.
The vendors who said most of them were buying the potatoes from cross-border traders, said they were not aware that it was illegal to sell imported potatoes.
"The ministry officials should have first educated us before raiding and confiscating our wares," said one of the vendors who refused to be named.
Another vendor Mr Mthulisile Mafa said they only learnt during the raid that the imported potatoes were not supposed to be sold locally.
"If the officials had taken time to disseminate this information, we could not have wasted our money buying these potatoes for resale," he said.
Mr Mafa said following the raid, many vendors were now out of business.
Source - chronicle
