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The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has observed that the looting of shops belonging to foreign national in some townships in Lusaka goes to show the extent to which poverty levels in the country have risen.
CSPR Information and Communications Officer Maxson Nkhoma says the looters are helping themselves to things such as mealie meal, salt, cooking oil and other essential goods an indication that people are hungry.
Mr. Nkhoma says the country should intensify efforts in addressing the high poverty levels before the people start engaging in illicit activities just to put a meal on the table.
He notes that the cost of living in Zambia is way too high, forcing people to resort to looting shops simply to survive.
Mr. Nkhoma says this is especially that even in areas not affected by ritual killings residents descended on foreign owned shops in order to have something to eat.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nkhoma has advised farmers across the country not to rush to sell their maize to private buyers during this marketing season.
He says the commodity is likely to have more market later in the year which will benefit farmers if they held on to their maize.
QFM
Extent of criminals minds you have.
Looting and burning of shops is or may not necessarily indicate levels of poverty among our people. Sometimes criminals and people with evil intentions may take advantage of a situation and cause riots and looting. Looting has also been seen and reported among people living in so called affluent countries where poverty levels are low. I challege CSPR to give us data or statistics indicating that current looting of shops shows extent of poverty levels among people living in affected townships or compounds.