By Mark Simuuwe
THERE IS NEED TO ENGAGE ALL CHURCHES ON THEIR JURISDICTION UNDER THE SOCIETIES ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
We are not done celebrating; so why didn’t the clergy issue a statement or Pastoral letter before the elections ?
In Kasama we had some clergy literally going public at a rally campaigning against the government and we picked the information on how they were distributing money to voters to aid the opposition . At that point , we made it clear that whoever is caught will regret as to why chickens have no horns .
We further continue to remind our members across the country to continue to monitor some clergy who supported opposition in Chawama constituency where they were literally dishing out money and sponsoring people that posed as ECZ , wearing reflective jackets in collusion with opposition, and stood by the polling stations where UPND was seen to be more popular, telling the electorates that their name was not in the register and in some cases told voters that their name was at another polling station until such voters were out of time and disfranchised.
This may be the 2026 strategy ; we need to build a robust security system around this as a country before our sovereignty is compromised by the church. The church must not and should never decide political leadership on behalf of citizens.
For those who have done political science , you may recall , that such a mistake of allowing the church to decide political leadership was made during the Roman Republic State, and it was agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia , to never again allow that to happen in the world .
The treaty of Westphalia is what gave birth to America’s Civil and Political rights as a foundation of their constitution. It means , the church and the secular world should never jointly run the secular world .
To have the church in collusion with the political parties send back voters as experienced in Chawama and as attempted in Kasama is a criminal offence in Zambia !
There is also need for government to engage leadership of churches, including the Vatican City for the clergy that may be doing similar criminal activities , and also engage those known clergy involved so we establish if that is the approach they want to take in a sovereign state, then enforce available laws .
As we have stated before, genocide or people
Killing each other in Rwanda was started by a Christian Radio station which spread hate speech and focused on negative reporting against government.
To date , we have some Christian Radio stations running hate speech programmes and dividing the country in the name of malicious excessive freedom of expression, yet such media fall under the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the state has the power to revoke the licenses.
The danger of using Christian radio stations is that it may create agitation and anxiety where political supporters may want to attack radio stations including presenters, which act is against the UPND foundation . We must not allow ourselves to act after the situation has degenerated into this level.
Before it is too late , the IBA must engage such media institutions or we may help them to do that .
Having a political opinion as a right should not threaten the rights and freedoms of other people , or our enjoyment of rights should not affect the enjoyment of other people’s rights – this is the principle about enjoyment of rights and freedoms.
Finally , the Societies Act is instructive as to the role of the church and what the church cannot do especially when it comes to taking part in politics , and military activities ; pursuant to the Societies Act , government must begin engaging all the churches on their role and their jurisdiction or boundaries.
Our laws in terms of the participation of the church in supporting politicians publicly are not different from those of Rwanda and Russia .
We also have the public Order Act which regulate political or public gatherings; therefore , the churches must choose whether to worship so that they are protected by the Societies Act , or discuss politics so that the Public Order can take effect.
In Russia , churches that supported regime change were closed under the laws similar to ours .
There is no need for such draconian measures. If clergy are overstepping their limits, the law can kick in.
Otherwise give them some slack. Voters are not stupid. Bill 7 and Kasama mayoral election attest to this.
The Hate Radio in Rwanda, RTLM ( Radio Television libre Des Mille Collines ) was owned and Funded by Hutu Extremists, among them Felicien Kabuga… Ferdinand Nahumaraba Historian and Jean Bosco Baragagwiza.
No Christian Radio station participated in Hate Speech in Rwanda.
The Catholic Church was a sanctuary of people running away from Hutu Extremists, and was equally a victim. There are known Catholic priests who were killed in the Rwanda Genocide.
Suggesting that community Radio Stations in Zambia should be closed because they are not Vuvuzelas for Hakainde and his UPND government is nonsense. For the Catholic
Church run Community Radio Stations 80% of their programs are on evangelisation and of Religious content..
Simuuwe’s poorly written article, poorly researched is total nonsense.
Cont’.
In the 1994 Genocide, 3 Catholic Bishops, 103 priests, 47 Friars , 65 nuns and Thousands of Catholics were killed.
The Catholic Church opened the churches to Rwandans escaping from the Genocide without discrimination.
Some people in this Sanctuaries were killed by the Hutu Extremists, and later by Paul Kagame’s RPF when he over ran the country.
When it suits them rulling political parties rally through churches hence their persistent appearance in different churches were they make “justified” donations, when they find churches which reject their approach, those churches are vallified. To be straight on this issue the Catholic faith has been active in defining political direction since the UNIP leadership and justifiably so, we all in opposition supported them. They came in hard against the MMD third term and justifiably so, we all in opposition supported them. They came hard on the PF caderism and justifiably so, we all in opposition supported them, so the trend is that they have supported the wishes of the majority being with the people and being one of the largest church in Zambia, the feel what the people want and talk against that which the people do not want. They have been active now against power outages, high cost of living, unfair treatment of opposition using draconian laws, unfulfilled promises, delayed payment of farmers and many other issues most of which are justified so it is not surprising that the rulling party is cross with them because that has always been the case through all the political parties that have taken power in this country, and looking at the above trend, it shows that they have always been on the side of the majority, so smell the coffee and align with the people to avoid what has happened to previous political parties in power, because the results have been evident for all in the above scenarios. It won’t change now and by plotting a graph the trend is clear
Iwe ka Samlindo.There is a very big difference between advocating and speaking for the weak and actively participating in partizan politics for regime change.Just accept that Archbishop Alick Banda was entangled in his love for earthly things.There is no need for some clergy to start engaging in criminal activities to vent frustrations in the name of the poor…… Shaa!!!