 program. Now to kick off the show, obviously this is the biggest story that is trending on different media platforms as of yesterday when media was made aware of the notice of intention to cancel the society patriotic front by the registrar of society to give a bit of background. Allow me to go through this notice that was sent to the patriotic front. Notice of intention to cancel society patriotic front reference is made to the above captioned matter. Our letter dated 21st March 2023 and your response dated 14th April 2023. You are hereby notified that I intained on counseling your political party following your failure to comply with the order to avail a full and complete list of office bearers of your party. As you may be aware, it is a legal requirement under section 2 of the Society's Act Cup 119 of the laws of Zambia for every society to have a minimum of 10 office bearers. While this is a legal requirement, your party has only presented my office with three bearers since the year 2021. You may also be aware that my office wrote a letter dated 21st March 2023 to yourselves addressed to the Secretary-General, to the Secretary-General to avail a full and complete list of office bearers in accordance with section 19, subsection 1b, where you were given 21 days to comply with the saved order, which order you have failed to comply with. Now in light of the above, you are hereby notified in accordance with section 13, subsection 3 of the Society's Act Cup 119 of the laws of Zambia of my intention to deragest your party. You are advised upon receipt of this notice to make representations within seven days to show cause why your party should not be cancelled in accordance with section 13, subsection 2c of the aforementioned Act. Kindly acknowledge set receipt of this letter by signing and dating the attached copy attached here too. So signed Chief Registrar of Society. Last time D-Way, Mende. This is the notice that you received as a party yesterday. What do you make of this? I think we want to hear from you first before obviously we get into the details. Where is this coming from? What is the foundation of where this is built on? Thank you. Let me start by saying, Malice always runs very fast. The Gospel of Jesus Christ took a long time to be accepted by people. But Malicious information always takes prominence. And I'd like to assure Zambians, I'd like to assure members of the patriotic front that this is nothing but a storm in a tick up. There is nothing to worry about. And what I'd like members of the public to bear in mind is that how could it have been that the Chief Registrar of Society's accepted returns that only had three names when the provisions of the law had that they must always be ten? What was it that caused the Registrar in the first place to accept an application only with three of his bearers? Therein lies the Malice. And I'd like to just assure the Zambian people that this Malice will be addressed as quickly as possible. So there is no need to worry whatsoever. There is no cause for panic. Can everybody just rest peacefully knowing that there is nothing like registering the patriotic front? Because the patriotic front has been abiding by the provisions of the law. And I want to just assure everybody that we have not in any way committed any offense to cause the Registration of the patriotic front. Well, the Registrar of Society in this notice of intention to cancel the patriotic front indicated that they did right to the party to a very full list of office bearers, minimum ten as required by law, which the law has been quoted. Did you respond to that later? Yes. There's been lots of correspondence between the Registrar of Societies and the patriotic front. And this is the reason I'm saying this is just a storm in a ticker and it should not cause any worry whatsoever to anybody. Everything is in order and within no time the Registrar herself will have to pronounce that the patriotic front is in keeping with the provisions of the law. So in the response that obviously that that you wrote to the Registrar of Societies, did you also list the names of the ten office bearers? The very first submission we made had all the ten names as is required by law. The Registrar wouldn't have accepted our application if it only had three names because the law says there must be ten. And how could we have gone there and said Registrar we're coming with three names and we'll come with four tomorrow and we'll come with six next week. We couldn't have done that. Our initial submission and all the ten names. When was this done? The initial submission? 2021. 2021. Soon after the conference that we held at Molongwushi we made our submission with ten names. The 2021 that is two years ago. Yes. 2021. And the same names that you know exist on that later are still office bearers. They are still office bearers to date. They are still office bearers to date. I mean just think of it. The Registrar has the law in front of her and a person goes and says I'm coming to file names of office bearers for my society. The law says there must be ten but I'm filing three and the Registrar accepts and says yes you're filed and waits until two years later and says you only filed three names? No. That can't be. We filed our submission with ten names and this issue that she's coming up with and saying you only filed three names and so on is malicious. Totally malicious. But because she says she says she only has three names that you know patriotic fronters but submitted. I think she is the best one to come and explain to the citizens what she meant. She is the best one to explain that. For Clarit's sake. Let's run down the let's run through the names of the ten office bearers that were submitted at the Registrar of Societies. Edgar Chagwalungu is one. Samoe Mokopa is another. Emereen Kabanshi is the third. Steven Kampiongo is the fourth. Let me think. Sikazue is the fifth. Is Mr. Mokopa still active? He is an office bearer. Until we change, he's still an office bearer. Okay. Yes, there are ten names. I was under the impression that he resigned from the patriotic front. No, he did not resign from the patriotic front. He resigned as national chairman of the party but he's still an office bearer. Of the party. Until such a time that we go to the next conference. Alright, you've given me the five names. I've given you six names. Two, four, five. Five names. What are the other five names? I can't remember OFCAF or the names but I can assure you that there are ten names that were submitted. Ten names. But you are, you know, acting president, vice president of the party. You can't remember the names of the office bearers of the party. I don't have the list with me. I don't have the list with me. But I'm telling you that there are ten names. And if you, had you told me that you wanted those names, I would have given them to you. If you want, I can check my phone and I can give you all the ten names. I think for the sake of clarity, it will be important obviously, as before we proceed with the other matters for us to bestow this. I'm sure that before the end of the program I'll give you all the ten names. Okay. That is absolutely important. Alright, let's talk about the issue of electing the party leader, which is currently on ice, almost two years and still no sign of having a party president. What is going on there? If you can give us a background of what has delayed the patriotic front going to the conference. I'm sure you recall that we had set ourselves March as the date when to go to the conference, March 2023. Before we got into March, one of our members took the patriotic front to court questioning the legality of the current central committee. And because of that, we've had to wait until the matter is handled in court before we go to the next conference. So we're working on that and as soon as this matter is out of the way, we certainly will go into the conference to go and elect the next president of the party. Can you give us some form of projection on when you think? I can't because this is all dependent on how the matter is handled in court. And if you're following, you may recall that last week, the matter of the contempt was heard in Kitwa and the matter was adjourned to May. So I can't give you any indication. This will depend on how the courts handle the case. So if it goes until 2026, what happens then? If we're stopped by the court from making any progress with regard to electing the central committee or the next president, what do we do? We can't be in contempt. We can't. So our progress would depend on how quickly the court matter is resolved. So do you think if this court matter drags into next year and probably the other year, do you think this would affect the standing of the patriotic front as far as the politics are concerned in this country, the political fortunes of the patriotic front? Would that be affected? That is a highly debatable matter. There are some people who argue that the party will have a lot to benefit if we elect a president. There are also others who argue that the longer we take to elect the president, the better it is for the party. So it's a very debatable matter, highly debatable. But we ourselves already set ourselves the program that we're going to have an extraordinary conference to elect a successor to Edgar Chagualungu. Because as things stand, Edgar Chagualungu was given the mandate in 2021 to run this party until 2026. It just so happened that after the 2021 elections, President Edgar Chagualungu decided that he's going to step aside. And that's how he made me, Vice President, to act in his position. And this is what Miles Sampa is challenging, that I'm illegally acting as president. What does the patriotic front constitution say as regards the appointment of the Vice President and eventually obviously the acting president of the party in an event that the elected president decides to step aside? You see that again? What does the patriotic front constitution say as regards the appointment of a Vice President and rather the acting president in an event that the elected party president decides to become inactive? There are two positions that are provided for. One is that in the event that the president steps aside for whatever reason, then the Vice President steps in to act as president. In the event of death of the president, then the Secretary General takes over. Those are the two provisions in the constitution of the patriotic front. And in this particular case, when President Edgar Chagualungu decided to step aside, there was a Vice President who, in accordance with Article 61 of the constitution, had to step in and become acting president. Okay. So you were a Vice President because as far as I'm concerned, the Vice President was Madame Inongue Wina? No. After the elections of 2021, Madame Inongue Wina resigned as Vice President of the party. And in that position, I was appointed as member of the Central Committee appointed to take over the position of Vice President. Also remember that at that same time, Secretary General Muila also tendered a resignation together with Chairman Mukupa. Chairman Mukupa resigned, Secretary General Muila resigned, and President Edgar Inongue said he was going to step aside. And there was no other person who could have acted as President except the Vice President. That is the same Mr. Mukupa who also appears on the list of office bearers for the political party. So he resigned his position in the party and not necessarily resigning from the political party. He did not resign from the political party. He resigned his position as chairman. And at the registrar of societies, the office bearers are not designated officers at all. They are just office bearers, and there are 10 of them that are listed as office bearers. What is the function of the 10 office bearers? I'm interested in getting this matter out of the way for us to obviously progress with this interview. What is the purpose, the core function of the 10 office bearers? Do they actively participate in the meetings that the party has, the direction that the party... Those are basically trustees of the party, of the society. They are trustees of the society. They do not necessarily have to be chairman and secretary. And no, those are the trustees, the officials of the party, the officials of the society, whom the registrar of societies would hold accountable in the event that the party or the society is not abiding by the law that establishes them. So they are not necessarily treasurer and chairman. No, they are just office bearers. All right. Let's move on to the other matter. We are still obviously with the patriotic front politics. What are the fortunes of the patriotic front? Because we've noticed obviously from the time that the patriotic front lost the 2021 elections, there have been quite a number of the by-elections that have been held at parliamentary and also at what level. And the patriotic front has lost majority of these by-elections. In some cases coming out third to afraid members, socialists, that socialist party. Would you say the political fortunes of the patriotic front are dwindling? Having been in the opposition from 2001 and forming government in 2011 and having been in government from 2011 to 2021 and going back into the opposition gives us a vast experience in understanding the politics of this country. And we ourselves when we're in the ruling party, I'm sure you recall, that we were winning all by-elections, winning almost all by-elections because we had the power of incumbency. And it doesn't bother us that much that we're not winning all these seats, that the ruling party is winning all these seats. Also bearing in mind the environment in which these by-elections are being held, the environment that took place in Chilabombo, for instance, and you lose that seat. I don't think that gives you any goose pimples at all. It shouldn't even worry you because you know that the environment wasn't suitable. The environment wasn't good enough for any opposition political party to win. What happened in Serenje is a case in point. How do you expect an opposition political party to win an election when the election campaigns are mad with violence, with vote buying, with intimidation? So we're not worried at all. What is giving us confidence is the reception we're receiving from the people. Whereas people are calling us names and saying we're a dead party. When we go into these election areas, what is the response of the people? It's overwhelming. And the people themselves are actually shocked. So if the response of the people when you go into these elections are overwhelming, why is that not translating on the ballot? How do you expect people to go and vote when they're being intimidated, they're being beaten? You heard what happened in Chilabombo. The night before voting, people are being scared with gunshots. People are being told they were going to be beaten when they are seen on the queues. In a ward where there are 1,400 voters, they know each other. They know this is PF. They know this is this political party and if they are threatened with beatings, what do you expect? When you go and vote and all your polling agents are removed forcefully from the polling station, how do you expect your vote to be protected? How? And if you lose, would you cry? No. Have all these grievances been, you know, as the Electoral Commission of Zambia have been made aware of all these grievances? Yes. As the party's Petroleum Front has written officially to the Electoral Commission of Zambia. Even before the elections in Chilabombo, our officials in Chilabombo were caused for the Electoral Commission of Zambia to hold a meeting where the Electoral Commission of Zambia actually condemned the violence. So yes, the Electoral Commission of Zambia is aware. We've made all these complaints. We've put it on record and we put it on record for the sake of the record. So you are attributing these losses in the by-elections that have been held in the recent past or just from the time that, you know, the UPND took over office or took over government to intimidation and violence. So basically what you are telling us is the playing field has not been leveled. It has not been leveled at all. And I'm sure that you in the media have been following this. We've been complaining about this in all the by-elections that we've held ever since 2021. We've complained. You heard about my complaint about Guembe, where our people who are going to file in nominations were actually stopped at the entrance of the offices to go and file in nominations. How do you expect a party to win when it doesn't have candidates because another political party has stopped its candidates from filing in nominations? How? Can you tell me that anyone in his right frame of mind would celebrate Kabushi? That they won Kabushi? They won Quacha? How? When our candidates were bad from taking part in the elections, anyone in his right frame of mind wouldn't celebrate. No, anyone in his right frame of mind would say, we've lost because we did not lose. Look at what happened in Los Angasi. Our candidate was stopped from filing nominations. On the day of filing nominations, he was stopped. And you say, we lost? No, we did not lose. We did not lose. Well, the certain, obviously, some people obviously have been saying you are having, they're giving you the test of your own medicine. You did the same thing to the UPND when they were in opposition. You were in government. Loss of violence, of course, uncontrolled toxic behavior by PF cadres who literally terrorized potential voters that led to the Petroleum Front winning majority of the by-elections that comes to NCE and world level. So a certain section of society is saying, well, I mean, you're literally just ripping what you saw. You laid by example, so it's going to take time for the country to move away from the seed that you planted, which is germinated. And you are also, unfortunately, standing under that tree and the fruits are falling on your heads. That is a very sickening argument. When I hear people say that, I feel ridiculous because it's a very sickening argument. Society expects and is expected to develop. If indeed there were any atrocities that were being committed in the UNIP days, would you therefore justify the atrocities committed by the successor government simply because those atrocities were taking place in the previous government? No. That is a very sickening argument. Society has to progress. When the people said we're voting out PF, and if they argue that we're voting them out on the basis of caderism, would that also justify that the next government should also become use caderism? No. So whatever you're saying, we're sowing what we planted is being ridiculous because everybody expects that society will develop. And you do not compare evil to evil. You don't. What levels are you going to use to say, oh, they were more violent than they are? Violence is violence. Electro-Mal practices are electro-Mal practices. And if indeed the PF, when in government, was committing electro-Mal practices, did they go to court? Did they petition these electro-Mal practices? You're complaining about the same things. Are you going to court? Are you going to petition these Mal practices? We went to court. You know that yourself. We went to court over the Lusangazi matter. We went to court over the Kawishi Quacha matter. We have complained over the Guembe matter. We have complained over the Serenji matter. We have gone to the ECZ over the Jilabombwe matter. We've gone everywhere because we want to cleanse society. We want to make sure we leave society better than we found it. All right. Now, obviously we did talk about the issue of the conference that would eventually elect the party leadership. The matter is in court. What happens with the patriotic front now, between now and the time that the court clears you now to go ahead with your conference? What happens now? Because a lot of people have been complaining, especially sympathizers of the patriotic front, saying the reason the party seems to be disjointed is the fact that we do not have a head at an elected leader at the helm. What is your take on that? What happens now, between now and the time that obviously the court processes are exhausted? How is the party functioning ever since Edgar Tagualungu stepped aside? How is the party functioning? Because the party is running. We have members of parliament. They are functioning in parliament. We have council chairpersons. They are functioning. We have councilors. They are functioning. They have been by-elections. We are taking part. We are having meetings. We are having people speaking on all sorts of platforms. We are visiting our structures. What is not functioning? Probably they are alluding that to the fact that the majority of the by-elections that have been held from the time that the P.F. lost power, your party has lost majority. I have explained to you the reasons why we have been losing these by-elections. And I don't think in my explanation, I said it's because we lack leadership. I didn't say that. And I don't think it's true that we lack leadership. If you told me that, look, you're not paying salaries. You're not paying your rentals. You're not paying your electricity bills. You're telling me you're not having meetings. Yes, then you can say the party is ground to a halt. But the party is functioning. How is it functioning? We're holding central committee meetings. We're making decisions. Are we not being represented when matters come up in court? The registrar now wrote and I told you we are handling that matter. If there was no leadership, would we be handling these matters? No. The loss of by-elections cannot be attributed to the lack of leadership. That is far-fetched. That is terribly far-fetched. Tell me what difference will it make for you to go to a conference and elect a person and say, we've elected this person. They are now president of the party. Is it that person who will go campaigning countrywide? No. It is not that person who will go campaigning countrywide. Is it that person who's going to stop all the atrocities that are being committed? All the electoral irregularities? Is it that one person who will stop it? No. No. So it is not true. And to ask me what happened between now and then, the party will continue to function. And it is that same leadership that you're saying there's no leadership that is given the mandate to organize that conference. Do you see how ironic what this whole discussion is? There is no leadership but arrange a conference. Who's going to arrange the conference if there's no leadership? There is a leadership that is holding the fort. The leadership that is going to move this party to the conference. There is a leadership. There is no leadership vacuum in the patriotic front. There is none. Even after my, after Miles went to court and got the injunction restraining me from being referred to as acting president and restraining Onri Bocilango from being referred to as acting secretary general. There is no leadership vacuum because I continue to exercise my function, my constitutional function as vice president of the party. And there is no other office above the vice president that is being occupied for the time being. So the whole decision making process lies on me as vice president. And the administration of the party lies in the deputy secretary general in the name of honorable Nixon Chilangua. Whether he's called acting secretary general or not is inconsequential. Whether I'm called acting president it's of no consequence. I am functioning as vice president and managing the party in that position. All right. There's another issue obviously that has you know taken different media platforms by by storm. There have been a sessions from you know certain you know sectors who are peddling the story or narrative that President Ed Galungu is plotting a return to active politics and possibly will be the presidential candidate for the patriotic front in the next general elections 2026. Is there any truth to that? I've had many discussions with President Ed Galungu and I'm sure that he has been in public domain himself. I remember a screaming headline in one of the newspapers saying I have no energy for presidency. He said that himself and he's quoted. So all I can say is what I've been hearing from him what I've been reading about him over this matter is that he is not available. Full stop. All right. And the ones who are peddling the story. I saw a story a few days ago. President Ed Galungu broke his reconciliation between Emeritus Archbishop Pumbundu and the current Archbishop Alec Banda in a bid for his political comeback. How they brought him that? I don't know. This is the speculation being created by people who want to create anxiety in society. What is wrong with President Ed Galungu taking the stand that he took to bring two brothers together? Is there anything political about it? No. What does the P.F. Constitution say about the elected party president stepping aside and completely detaching from the P.F. was obviously on the list of office bearers. He still exists as party president. What does the Constitution of the patriotic front say about an individual like President Ed Galungu detaching himself completely from the patriotic front? He still has to hand over to the next elected president. That's the position. In the patriotic front, a president can't just abdicate and say, I've stopped. I'm going away. No. He is bound by the Constitution to hold on to the instruments of power and hand them over to the person who is duly elected. We are discussing stead of affairs of the patriotic front. And much later, obviously, we'll look at matters to do with the state of affairs in the nation, stead of the economy. We'll talk about that. And much later, in the next 15 minutes, to be precise, we'll open the phone lines for you to come through. And in a way, in with your question or contribution, you'll be calling us on 09750, rather 09797, 977860. That is 09797, 977860. So that is the line that you'll be using to come through and weigh in with your opinion or the question on the matters that we are discussing. All right. Let's move on to the other issues. Let's move on to the other issues. Are we going to see a united patriotic front going forward? Because already, you have one of your top flight members, member of the Central Committee, dragging the party to the court. In the recent past, a few weeks, or is it a few months back, there was an audio of two presidential, aspiring presidential candidates of the patriotic front, engaging in a conversation that indicated that they were not comfortable with people who came from different political parties vying for party president. This gives an indication that there's a potential split that is coming in an event that obviously one of the members who these two heavyweights of the party are not comfortable with is elected as president. Are we going to see a united patriotic front beyond the national conference? You know that elections are always, especially competitive elections, are always divisive. Any kind of election is divisive. Those who win are happy. Those who lose are unhappy. And this is the reason why the preparation for the conference is very important. It is actually more important than the conference itself. This is the reason why we had to take time to agree. How are we going to hold the conference so that we emerge stronger? Because by nature elections create friction. And when you tell me about the statements that are being made by members and so on and so forth, those are opinions that they're expressing as individuals. And these are members with huge following within the political party. So in an event, this is why I asked you a question, that in an event that, say for example, because you know obviously what that audience was saying is that these two members are not comfortable with a person that is coming from the MMD taking over the party president. Now in an event that that particular person coming from the MMD takes over the party presidency, and these two individuals are not comfortable with that person obviously. They'll be a split. And you know what they say. I mean, politics numbers do matter. So these two individuals do have huge following within the political party. So I was explaining to you that the processes leading to the conference are even more important than the conference itself. What does that mean? It means that as you are going towards the conference and you're hearing comments such as those, you want to manage them. You want to manage these different opinions. Have you managed these different opinions? I've told you there's a leadership in place and I am that leader. And whenever I hear things like that, I am quick to bring people together to say, where are we going with this? Is this helping us build? Or has it got a risk of breaking us? So it brings me back to my question. Are we seeing a united patriotic front beyond the national conference? We're doing everything humanly possible to make sure that we emerge from the conference more united than we have ever been. That is our aim. All right. For the benefit of time, let's look at the state of the economy. Would you say that the United Party for National Development, UP, and its government, government's economic restructuring and recovery is working for this country? Unfortunately not. We were told that within a few months of forming government, they had struck a deal with the IMF and because of that deal, the economy would be back on the upswing. It is now two years later that IMF deal has not been broken yet. We were told that the PF government was borrowing recklessly within a short time. We have seen that they are borrowing even more. We were told that the PF was mismanaging the economy and that's the reason why the dollar was 17, 18, 20 kwacha. They tried to bring it down. What has happened? It has created a crisis in the economy. When you have a stable exchange rate, people can plan. As things are now, businesses can't plan because the kwacha is going up and down like a yoyo. Today it's 15 kwacha. The next day it's 17 kwacha. The next few days it becomes 15 kwacha. People can't plan. The economy can't be said to be stable. But I was pretty much the same instead of affairs when you were in government. Not at all. Not at all. You didn't see the kwacha fluctuating on a daily basis like it's doing now. No. You didn't see fuel prices increasing and decreasing every month. No. At least we're giving Zambians and business people a three months planning period. Not a monthly planning period. No. Look at shops go to East Park Mall. Even at a month and go to East Park Mall and see if people are spending. All suppliers of goods and services to this government have not been paid their money. Because of that a lot of people have become jobless because a lot of small enterprises have had to close down. Which economy are you talking about? They're allowing minds to externalize all profits. They're giving them tax incentives. Tax breaks. And yet overtaxing the small players. Tell me when you last remembered minimum shortages in Zambia. The last time we had minimum riots in Zambia was before 1991. Ever since then we've noted food riots. And now you're hearing people stoning trucks, truckloads of minimum. Why? Because the economy is not performing. And that's where I was taking the conversation actually. The Food Reserve Agency announced the opening of the 2023-2024 crop marketing season and the purchase of designated agricultural commodities. Now the exercise will run from 1st of May that is next month 2023 to the 31st of October this year. Now the Gazette notice issue doesn't have the set flow price and of concern. The opening of the crop marketing season has come three months earlier. Now the Food Reserve Agency traditionally opens the marketing season in July and the exercise runs to September, October of the year. Why do you think the FRO year opened the marketing season early? Because they sold the maize that was supposed to be strategic reserve. Simple. They were forced. They were told. I'm sure you remember the president had an index saying how can you hold on to this maize? And yet the people supplied it have not been paid. Sell the maize to pay the farmers. Why? Because there is no understanding of how strategic reserves are financed. Strategic reserves of any nature whether food or oil are not financed by FRA or the oil marketing companies. No. They are financed by Treasury. But for him he says sell the maize that is strategic reserve to pay the farmers. This is the crisis he has created. And you are right to buy maize now in April when the moisture content of maize is above 12.5%. How they store it? We don't have sufficient capacity in Zambia to dry to artificially dry maize. We don't have. So even if that maize is bought and taken to millers, millers won't mill it because the moisture content is too high. This is all being done because of desperation. They have created this desperate environment. So what you are telling us is that we should dress ourselves for the food crisis? There is bound to be a very big food crisis, I can tell you. I can assure you. They have not set the floor price now because they know that if they set the floor price, what will happen? A lot of the farmers will not even sell the maize. You heard Kenyan saying they are willing to come and pay 300 kwacha for a bag of 50 kg maize from Zambia. And you expect that the farmer will say, yes, because of your misplanning Mr. Againde, we are willing to sell our maize to you at 100 kwacha, 120 kwacha like last year? No way. But don't you think it will also be reckless for government to allow people to come and buy maize from this country? That's the exportation of maize. Don't you think, obviously, government will move in with an SI to stop the exportation of maize, to ensure that farmers sell to the food reserve agency? For food security's sake. Do you remember the minister responsible for food security going to parliament and vowing? He vowed, never ever again are we going to stop the export of maize. Didn't you hear that? He said it himself. It wasn't us. It was him, representative of President Againde. And even President Againde himself are going to keep an open border policy. He exported maize, Boana, without collecting duty. When we're exporting maize, we're making sure that we don't export below the strategic reserve. When we handed over power, when Edgar Chagualung went and handed over the instruments of power to President Againde, he also handed over to him 1.5 million metric tons of maize in the FIRA silos, 1.5 million metric tons. The food reserve, the strategic reserve for Zambia is 500,000, but he handed over three times more in 2021. Because of our culture policies in 2022, we had another bumper harvest, 3 million metric tons. Zambia's consumption is 150, 160,000 metric tons a month. And the reason we came up with 500,000 metric tons is because we knew the lead time that is required to import maize from Brazil is three months. That's how we set 500,000 metric tons as the strategic reserve. And we put that strategic reserve just in case there is an agricultural calamity. The farmers don't produce, will have three months lead to import maize. We didn't say you can set it away and then go and import. No, that is strategic reserve which the country must have at any given time. But they recklessly sold all that maize and now there is no maize left. And they were saying there's enough maize to lead us up to the next season. If there is enough maize to lead us up to the next season, why have they told the Faray to buy maize which is not ready for grinding? Why? Because even in the village, women don't go and start grinding or pounding maize which has a high moisture content. No.