Zambian mealie meal a hit in Victoria Falls

ZAMBIAN  traders are flocking to Victoria Falls in bicycles to sell mealie meal at reduced prices.

Recently, Finance Minister Partrick Chinamasa said the country was left with just seven months supply of maize.

According to reports, some shop owners are repacking the cheap Zambian mealie meal into smaller packages for resell to impoverished residents for a dollar a packet.

Thembinkosi Ndlovu, the southern region chairperson of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, said Zambian mealie meal was being smuggled into the country.

"This is a violation of the country's laws. This is smuggling and I have alerted my national leadership in Harare.  We want to find out how it is finding its way across the border when the government has prohibited the importation of mealie meal,"  Ndlovu is quoted saying.

"We have to find out what is happening at that border (Livingstone) otherwise we are in full support of the ministerial ban. Our fear now is that the cheap mealie meal will flow to every corner of Zimbabwe, greatly threatening the survival of local millers. The government's statutory instrument is intended to protect local producers who have been under threat from foreign companies".

In June this year, the government gazetted Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 which prohibited the importation of a wide range of goods unless under licence granted by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.