THE incessant killings of old people on suspicion that they practise witchcraft should be stopped immediately. The killing last weekend of a woman in Chibolya is the latest installment in the increasing barbaric onslaught on old people.
We concur with the observation by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) director Florence Chibwesha that the killing of the Chibolya woman was an act that should be condemned by all well-meaning Zambians.
We, like the HRC, regret that a human life which is supposed to be so sacred could be taken away in such a brutal manner. It is unacceptable and should never be condoned, no matter how serious the crime one has committed.
It is important that people remember that the Constitution of Zambia guarantees everyone the right to life and that a person is innocent until proved guilty. The Chibolya woman is no exception in commanding such a right.
The killing of the woman comes barely a week after a 71-year-old Serenje peasant farmer was  brutally killed in almost similar fashion by  unknown people  who  hang  him  to a  tree on suspicion that he was practicing witchcraft.
Make no mistake; nobody should be blind to the fact that every day that comes only makes all people grow a day older. If it becomes the norm that every old person is into witchcraft, it means at one point the entire generation of old people will be lost.
Remember that today’s youth will be tomorrow’s elderly generation.
There is need for a generational transition where each side of divide has no mistrust over the other. No society can survive without a blend between the young and the old.
This is not the way the country should throw away their cultural heritage which is embedded in the people who lived yesteryear. Is not just strange that more often than not, young people run to elders for conflict resolutions but later turn on them as wizards?
No matter how much a person is aggrieved, there are laid down channels of seeking redress through the police and later the courts of law. We call upon people to always exercise maximum redress. Taking the law into one’s hands should be avoided at all costs.
Instead of killing these old people, society should start looking at them as a colossus of wisdom from which the younger generation could tap into. The way society collectively looks at the aged should change if we are to respect them.
We have noticed of late that mostly youths have taken to confrontational means of resolving disputes, which should not be the case. The situation gets out of hand with rampant political intolerance and failure by people of diverse groupings to co-exist.
The HRC director was spot on when she advised that the police and other law enforcement agencies must step in and ensure old people are protected from barbaric beatings by people who accuse them of practising witchcraft even without proof.
Mind you, these old folks have no ways of stopping the hands of time from ticking their youth away so that they remain forever young.
Therefore, we feel no person should be victimised solely because nature has dictated that they should no longer look young anymore.