NO NRC, NO MEALIE MEAL!

By Kalobwe Bwalya

RESIDENTS of Chongwe are up in arms and are calling on the police to move in quickly and investigate reports suggesting that the Zambia National Service (ZNS) is refusing members of the community from buying mealie meal if they do not produce National Registration Cards (NRCs).

And UPND Kapete area ward councillor Francis Kabichi in an interview said it was true that ZNS was requesting for the NRCs before one could procure the commodity.

Mr. Kabichi said ZNS was not allowing anyone to buy the mealie meal without identification because most of the people were buying in bulk for resale.

“Marketeers are reselling mealie-meal in small quantities as ‘pamela’ in markets and this trend is denying access to other customers to buy affordable mealie meal for household use.

“So this is the reason why now there is that request for identification purposes, so that everyone can be able to get the commodity,” he said.

But community members say it was not fair that they were subjected to producing NRCs as a condition for them to buy the cheap mealie meal from ZNS.

A resident identified as Maximo Chifwakweni in an interview said people were being turned away from buying ZNS mealie meal without an NRC.

Mr Chifwakweni explained that on Tuesday he went to buy mealie meal only to be turned away because he did not have an NRC and further alleged some officers were also charging people to have access to the commodity if they did not produce an NRC.

He said it was becoming difficult to have access to the ZNS mealie because some people did not have NRCs and some had misplaced them.