Allow dialogue, Church tells politicians

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 10:49:18 +0000

By CHARLES MUSONDA and MUKOSELA KASALWE

ALL political leaders must give national dialogue a chance to succeed without preconditions, with a view to level the playing field, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) has said.

Speaking at a joint media briefing with the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and the Zambia Council of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) in Lusaka yesterday, EFC board chairman Bishop Paul Mususu said the political leaders must restrain themselves and their members from making inflammatory and irresponsible statements.

“True dialogue means a change of heart, attitude and behaviour. It is a project, an on-going process and effort. It is the way of life for us Christians which should be heard in our words, seen in our faces and actions because it is in our hearts.

“Lack of peace hurts everyone especially the weak, the elderly, the poor, women and children. It hurts us Christians because we are essentially brothers and sisters of Jesus who identifies himself with the same poor and suffering,” Bishop Mususu said.

He said despite public pronouncements that Zambia was a peaceful country, the reality on the ground was different due to many acts of injustice, a growing culture of corruption; and utterances out of deep seated hatred.

“We therefore earnestly appeal to all our political leaders to stop insulting each other or anyone who does not agree with their political opinion and start genuinely to respect fellow political players as legitimate opponents with their constitutional right to hold their political opinion…

“All political party leaders must declare and enforce zero tolerance for political violence and bring culprits to book by handing them over to law enforcement institutions,” Bishop Mususu said.

 And ZCCB president Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu called on authorities to take drastic steps to stamp out
endemic corruption among public servants, which had reached epidemic proportions against the backdrop of the highest poverty index.

“It is unacceptable that some public service personnel have amassed enormous wealth in dubious or highly questionable ways and within a short time in the service.

It is a scandal that year in and year out, the Auditor General’s report reveals hair-raising misapplication and misappropriation of huge sums of public funds by public officers but few, if any, culprits are punished,” he said.

CCZ president Bishop Alfred Kalembo wished Zambia peace, which meant love, forgiveness, reconciliation, goodwill and good relationships between people.  “This is the good news meant for people of all races, pigmentation, religions, tribes, political affiliation and
ideologies.”