Use Christmas season to forgive, politicians urged

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 14:52:51 +0000

EVANGELICAL Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) has called on politicians to take advantage of the Christmas period and ensure that they settled their differences and forgive one another.

EFZ executive Director Pukutah Mwanza said that Christmas was a merry period for everyone and a good time to forgive and reconcile with one another.

Rev. Mwanza said that politicians needed to put away their differences and forge ahead in working together for the benefit of the country.

“It is important for all our political leaders to utilise this Christmas period and settle their differences and let go of whatever may have happened in the past. It is important to forgive each other and be role models to their supporters to show that peace and unity is possible despite our political differences,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Lusaka residents have echoed the sentiments for the need for all people to put aside their political, tribal, racial and religious differences and unite as one for the benefit of the country.

They have charged that it is important for the county to crossover into a new year as a happy and united people who should stand together despite their different political differences.

Carol Kaonga, a resident of Kabwata, said that people needed to move past everything that happened in 2016 especially incidents that characterised the August 11 general elections.

Ms Kaonga said that people needed to continue with their lives and strive to make Zambia a united, peaceful and orderly country once again.

She said that the differences that people have should not make them become enemies but instead they should learn to live together despite their differences.

‘’We should move past the elections as a country and just embrace one another even as we approach a new year. We will always have differences like they say in Bemba ‘imiti ikumyene taibula kukwesana’, which simply means that as long as we live in the same country, we will have differences every now and then but those differences should not result in conflicts where we start injuring one another but let us all ensure that we tolerate each other and understand that we cannot always agree on everything,’’ she said.

And Donald Chisanga, a resident of Chilenje, said that it was important to embrace the spirit of peace and unity and learn to live together as one.

Mr Chisanga further said that Zambia has always been known to be a peaceful and united country, hence the need for Zambians to embrace each other.

He charged that it was unfortunate that some people still wanted to be bitter and cold towards one another on account of politics when the nation was supposed to move forward after the elections.