Church derails talks

….3 church mother bodies accused of having hidden agenda and obstructing justice

Dialogue is the heartbeat of democracy. It promotes coexistence and smoothens the development processes within and without the country. —Rev. Kaela

THE three church mother bodies have been accused of technically derailing the dialogue process by scuttling an approved arrangement where the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) was assigned role of facilitator while the church was to chair the proceedings.

In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, Bishops Council of Zambia (BCZ) secretary-general Reverend Able Kaela charged that the three church mother bodies, the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Conference of Catholic Bishops, have derailed the dialogue process by disregarding what was agreed upon that dialogue should be inclusive. Rev. Kaela accused the three church mother bodies of harbouring a hidden agenda for wanting the ZCID and other political parties out of dialogue.

He has agreed with President Edgar Lungu’s stance that if dialogue is to take place, it must embrace all political parties and the ZCID. “In fact we cannot call the three church mother bodies a church because it is not representing all the 14 umbrella bodies in Zambia. It is more like the three church mother bodies have separated themselves from the main theme of all 14 umbrella bodies which is very clear that dialogue should be inclusive and we are surprised that from nowhere, our brothers want the ZCID out of dialogue. “President Lungu was spot on, we as BCZ are in total support of what the

President said that without the ZCID, dialogue should not take place. It seems our brothers (the three church mother bodies) have a hidden agenda and they should not think that they have monopoly of wisdom,” Rev. Kaela said.

And a political commentator, Patrick Luneta has observed that the anticipated national dialogue may fail because some principle stakeholders have set different goal posts and have clandestine motives for political capital.

Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr. Luneta said inasmuch as the national dialogue was the only redemptive and remedial process to restore national unity, foster social, economic and political stability, some principle stakeholders were holding the entire nation at ransom because of setting pre-conditions that tilted towards serving their political fortunes during and after the process.

And the Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU), an umbrella body for students’ unions, has called upon the Church mother-bodies and other faith-based organisations to work as partners with the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID).

Meanwhile, the UPND is now ready to dialogue without any conditions on a number of issues affecting the country such as the Public Order Act and for the process to be led by the three Church mother bodies, says party president Hakainde Hichilema.