By CHIDA SAKALA –

THE Church is saddened by the continuing disregard of the resolutions made at the political parties’ indaba on peace and unity.
Northmead Assemblies of God and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) are concerned that political parties have not stopped engaging in violence and hate speech against one another despite promising to refrain from such acts during the indaba.
EFZ executive director Pukuta Mwanza said the church was deeply concerned about the continued violence and name-calling among political players and yet they resolved during the indaba to denounce such practices.
“It’s very disappointing because so far, none has shown commitment to the resolutions of the indaba and instead we have seen hate speech and violence still continuing. We still continue to see the military fatigue that was discouraged because it carries a kind of militancy.
“So we are deeply concerned and we would like to see all the political parties really re-thinking about this and toning down,” he said.
Reverend Mwanza urged political party leaders to emulate President Edgar Lungu’s stance on urging party members to tone down their language and ensure that they refrain from basing their campaigns on personalities.
Northmead Assemblies of God Bishop Joshua Banda said it was unfortunate that politicians had gone against the indaba resolutions as demonstrated by the manner in which they spoke about their opponents.
Bishop Banda warned that hate speech had the potential to fuel violence as was the case in other countries.
“Speaking in my capacity, my observation is that there appears to be this unmanaged aspect of an exchange of hate speech which is really not right and is still a concern. Our leaders really have to see to it that hate speech, insults, are not welcome.
“Those things were indicated categorically as not welcome and that we should not treat them lightly because when we look at where there are challenges, it’s where people have been careless with what they had to say,” he said.