Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops formerly Zambia Episcopal Conference has observed that Zambia’s record of being peaceful is increasingly being threatened by the increasing incidents of politically motivated violence and continued tension between members of Political parties.
In a Pastoral ahead of the August 11th elections, the Bishops are deeply saddened by the increasing number of cases of political violence in the run-up to the August 2016 elections.
They have expressed disappointment because the current trend is contrary to the commitment that was made to the nation by the 19 heads of political parties at an Indaba held on 29th March, 2016 and facilitated by the three church mother bodies.
The Catholic Bishops have noted that the senior leaders of political parties themselves are the ones to blame for this violence because they know who the perpetuators of this violence are.
They add that the habit of finger pointing and blame shifting is making violence to escalate because of individual leaders not taking responsibility when things go wrong.
The Bishops also note that the condemnatory voices of political violence by some leaders have not been strong enough to deter various political cadres who have continued to fan violence in different parts of the country.
They lament the fact that the current spate of violence may have a serious impact on the voter turnout as many eligible voters might fear going to vote due to security concerns.
The Bishops have since urged the politicians across the political divide to make every effort in ensuring an effective way of cadre management and to immediately tone done their confrontational rhetoric, stating that what Zambians are expecting is for them to focus on key governance and developmental issues that will help the electorate to make informed decisions.