13 Jun 2018

The Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Ms Bogolo Kenewendo told Parliament that local millers were protected by the Control of Goods and Prices and Other Charges Act. For millers products include the 70/30 import restrictions on maize meal and other maize and sorghum products.

Ms Kenewendo was responding to Member of Parliament for Ramotswa Mr Samuel Rantuana who had asked what government was doing to protect the local millers against the influx of imported cheap products from foreign milling companies.

The minister  pointed out that since 2015, the milling industry specifically the wheat flour millers had been protected against unfair competition from imports through a wheat levy of 15 per cent under the Control of Goods, Prices and other charges Act.

The levy, she said, was meant to bring prices of imported products at par with the domestic prices to enable the domestic milling industry to build capacity and become competitive. Ms Kenewendo said the Control of Goods,

Prices and other charges Act required that 70 per cent of the products be sourced locally and 30 per cent could be imported once there was proof that the local quota had been exhausted.

"My ministry is doing all it can to protect local industries and the employment they have created," she said. ENDS