Playing on the stupidity of a
regular man who cannot know that aromatic chemicals are used in most processed
foods, the communists at Bwinjimfumu Road have found it appropriate to help
their friends to pronounce Zambeef as a company that deliberately uses leukemia
causing, dead bodies embalming chemicals to keep its meat fresh for long at the expense of people’s health
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| Zambeef, Zambia biggest meat firm comes under scathing media attacks |
By
Nyalubinge Ngwende
The communists at Bwinjimfumu
Road have succeeded to get us right into the frame of mind they desire: to join
a crusade to believe that Zambeef has been feeding us on a dangerous chemical
that is not only used to embalm dead bodies, but potentially dangerous to human
health.
The Post Newspaper story of
Friday 21, 2013 writes:
“According to the analysis by
the Ministry of Health's Food and Drugs Control Laboratory conducted in Lusaka
last week, aromatic aldehyde was detected in all the samples. The analysed
samples included packed ox-tail marked CNN/001/F/2013, packed ox-tail marked
CNN/002/F/2013, packed ox-tail marked CNN/003/F/2013, packed ox-tail marked
CNN/004/F/2013, packed ox-liver marked CNN/005/F/2013, packed ox-liver marked
CNN/006/F/2013, packed ox-hooves marked CNN/007/F/2013 and packed ox-hooves
marked CNN/008/F/2013. Health experts told The Post yesterday that aromatic
aldehydes, which they compared to Benzene or jet fuel, are powerful
preservative chemicals that are dangerous for human beings as they cause
diseases such as Leukaemia.”
This paragraph does not tell
us where the samples were collected and if they were collected to help Zambeef
be aware that there suppliers were delivering them products that have a
dangerous chemical.
All it does is to make us believe
they have real Zambeef products in their hands which are intoxicated with
strong, benzene like chemicals (that can even fly a jet).
If those who are
investigating this case were in anyway doing it independently without detailed
instructions at the back of their mind, what the public would have been
informed about is their intervention at Zambeef to ensure the meat they supply
to the public is safe from unpalatable amounts of aromatic aldehyde. They would
have told the public that any excess aromatic aldehyde could lead to cancer
such as leukaemia. But there is extreme sourness in the content accusing
Zambeef of deliberately injecting the chemical in the meat.
The story quotes a source:
"For example, if someone dies here in Zambia and they come from the UK, in
order for the body to reach the UK fresh, we inject the aromatic aldehydes in
the veins. So it is clear that they use it to keep their beef fresh for a very
long time," the health experts who opted to remain anonymous said.
It further states: "Aromatic
aldehydes are very dangerous chemicals and it is unfortunate that Zambeef is
actually using that chemical to keep their beef fresh. It is common knowledge
that the only reason Zambeef is using that chemical is because they want to
keep their products fresh." They said the presence of large quantities of
aromatic aldehyde in the beef Zambeef Plc imports would be a clear indication
that the substance was deliberately put there to keep their beef fresh.
This is deliberate aim to
cause disturbance in the minds of members of the public. By choosing a highly toned language saying
aromatic chemical is used for embalming bodies is not in any way meant to
inform but to alarm—a well calculated choice of discourse ...dead bodies
conjure a lot of ghostly feeling in the mind of a human being and those living
do not want to be associated with lifeless things ...therefore Zambeef products
will be shunned.
There is every reason to
believe that The Post Newspaper was used to deliver a dirty parcel bomb to blow
up Zambeef, after well packaged at the Ministry of Health's FDCL (Food and
Drugs Control Laboratory) and CCPC (Competition and Consumer Protection
Commission).
These public institutions,
joined by CUTS international (Consumer Unit Trust Society International), were
particularly selected as sources because they are already known to be part of
the scheme and had rehearsed what to say—force as truth on the minds of the
public a theory of aromatic aldehydes being used in Zambeef meat.
The communists at Bwinjimfumu
they are part of this group that is why they pronounced it. They know delivering
the pronouncement with all these institutions in consent will help to lull people
into false security. First they make us feel insecure by portraying Zambeef as
a villain, then bring into the picture FDCL and CCPC as greatly concerned ...serious
with protecting the public from dangerous meat that Zambeef is putting on their
plates. It triggers public outrage against Zambeef. In whatever manner the meat
firm will try to prove that aromatic aldehyde is not poisonous, the sales of
its imported meat would already have been severely hurt.
It is not surprising that
today’s Post Newspaper edition (June 22, 2013), carries a story of Zambeef
pulling imported meat off the shelves.
Zambeef public relations
officer Justo Kopulande said yesterday: "In the light of recent media
reports to the effect that there are dangerous levels of Aromatic Aldehydes in
our imported beef products, we have immediately recalled all imported beef
products from sale from all our outlets country-wide with immediate effect.
Only local beef and beef products are currently being sold in all our outlets. Zambeef
has never and will under no circumstance ever knowingly supply sub-standard
products to the public."
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| Post Newspaper Owner Fred M'membe |
But this is not what the
whole clandestine campaign is all about. We cannot tell as for now where all
this is coming from and how far it has to go. We just look back at how The Post
Newspaper has been hinting, in a more cantankerous manner, about opposition
leaders UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema and NAREP Elias Chipimo Jnr. thinking they
have a lot of money that they can run political parties out of their pockets.
These opposition leaders, or
others in the political circles, could have direct links to Zambeef as
shareholders or they could be suppliers or, maybe, some of their financiers
could be linked to Zambeef.
The other way round is that
the communists at Bwinjimfumu could be doing this to soften Zambeef to help out
their declared friend, Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front to gain access to
the meat company’s opportunities. We have heard that the newspaper will not do
anything unless it has to serve its interests. Its interests now are to make
the Patriotic Front achieve its ends, regardless the means.
Zambia has a lot of consumer
risk products, some that are even more dangerous than the aromatic aldehyde
chemical suspected to have been introduced in high dosages by the country’s
meat company to keep its imported meat fresh for a long time.
However, the FDCL and CCPC
look to have been on a well detailed mission, planned, centralised and
extremely organised battle against Zambeef.
"We received
correspondence from the provincial medical office in the Copperbelt in which
they are talking about this matter. One of the inspectors took the samples to
Food and Drug Control laboratory and they informed us about the meeting
yesterday Tuesday," said Brian Lingela, CCPC director.
It has never been a practice
by health inspectors to work with CCPC. When they bump into meat or any food
product that is unwholesome, they do their own report and take it to court for
disposal.
The idea to leave out the
Veterinary authorities at Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and Zambia
Bureau of Standards who also have a direct hand on these issues confirms a
calculated battle, with CCPC and FDLC being the battle rooms where they are
launching the public bombardment campaign against Zambeef.
Lingela says: “the provincial
office in the Copperbelt also requested the commission to attend a meeting that
took place in Ndola yesterday. ...and his
office had since sent a representative to attend the meeting in Ndola ...with
the commission was hoping to hear the matter and also find a solution”.
If Lengela was still waiting
for information from his officer who attended the meeting at Ndola medical
office, why did he choose to pass a strong verdict indicting Zambeef as guilty?
He is quoted in the same
story saying: "What Zambeef has done is unacceptable...”
This is not the normal
language of an independent mind on a case like this. He comes out incriminating
Zambeef before hearing the conclusion of the Ndola meeting? Sounds like he was
well informed ahead of the meeting what was expected to be their conclusion
This is confirmed by the way Lingela sets loose his hounds for a vicious attack on Zambeef by saying, “...and
what health inspectors have done is a commendable job which needs support from
consumer organizations."
He deliberately sets the
hounds on Zambeef so to strengthen their case.
The Post Newspaper tried to
recruit the Lusaka City Council into strengthening its case against Zambeef. It
was done in futility, but the public health director Greenford Sikazwe at the
local authority distanced himself from the kill.
"It is not true that
Lusaka City Council inspectors are the ones who were investigating this issue,
so your story is not true," Sikazwe said.
The Post uses its own sources
within Lusaka City Council who confirmed that “it is true the samples in
question were not sourced by the local authority but by a council from the
Copperbelt and that all at Lusaka City Council were aware of the results from
the samples”.
We find this truly unusual
way of working by public health inspector in councils and at the ministry of
health. They hardly collaborate and share this information. They act
independently and without any volition of the specific business to target. It
could be happening under the Patriotic Front, but without any public announcement
of this new policy of collaboration exposes sourness in the whole ‘scum’.
Asked if his department has
ever received complaints relating to Zambeef products, Sikazwe answered in the
affirmative. "We received complaints (in May 2013) but the issues were
being dealt with at Ministry of Health," he said. Asked why they could not
carry out an independent investigation on the products as a department, Sikazwe
said his department works on delegated legislation from the Ministry of Health.
"That's why we couldn't act there and then because it was being addressed
by the Ministry of Health," said Sikazwe.
If it is not Bwinjimfumu and
its friends who after getting at Zambeef, who else could have delegated them
and those who took the complaint to city councils in Lusaka and the Copperbelt?
We are yet to know who did, and the country is already questioning?
We know that a normal public
health concern does not take a vicious attack by mobilised group of watchdogs a rehearsed
consent on an issue like setting awash the Zambeef products with unpalatable statements
like ‘leukaemia and embalming dead
bodies’.
The Post Newspaper story is
nothing but a pronouncement by those who are part of the group bent at pulling
down Zambeef or softening it to go crawling to the palace and conform to their
needs. It was planned and Zambeef could only be a victim of ill intentions not
necessarily that it is guilty of gross negligence.
NN
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