M’membe makes court appearance, urges Hichilema govt to deal with escalating cost of living

Socialist Party (SP) President, Fred M’membe, has called on government to treat the high cost of living and increasing poverty levels as an emergency.

M’membe said government needed to stop pretending that things were okay when people were suffering and unable to afford the three meals a day.

The Socialist Party leader said this in an interview with Journalists after appearing at the Magistrate Court in Lusaka in a case he was charged with dishing misleading information.

“The major problem right now is njala, mealie meal, cost of living is escalating, families are failing to feed, yes we have other problems but the problem of food is the most urgent,” he said.

M’membe said good leaders were moved by the stress their citizens were going through and the current situation should make the United Party for National Development (UPND) led government to make urgent measures aimed at dealing with the high cost of living.

He alleged that a lot of people in the country were losing jobs against claims to the contrary.

“Banamayo abaleshitishitisha pa (women selling by the market) market lelo they are only getting about one third of what they used to get, if people were buying food for three meals now they are buying for one, it means business for marketeers naiya panshi,(business has gone down),” M’membe said.

He said this had a spiral effect on the economy because the marketeers who buy commodities from farmers and other suppliers are unable to make the same goods they used to buy in the past.

M’membe said God had blessed the country with a lot of natural resources which he alleged the current government was failing to utilise because of poor leadership.

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