No church gatherings in schools - Veep

VICE President Inonge Wina has maintained that the suspension of churches gathering from schools stays.

And Ms Wina has encouraged churches to apply for land from councils so that they can construct their buildings.

The Vice President said that allowing churches to continue congregating in schools would be risky and costly for the government.

This follows appeals from the Kitwe District Pastors fellowship a to government to lift the suspension and allow them to continue congregating in schools. The Vice President was speaking in Kitwe when she met the Kitwe District Pastors Fellowship last evening. The Vice President is on the Copperbelt on a three- day working visit.“Allowing churches to again start congregating in our schools will be costly because it will require a lot of chemicals for the schools to be sprayed on a daily basis,” Ms Wina said.

Earlier, Kitwe District Pastors Fellowship Chairperson Raddy Lewila said that the suspension of churches meeting in schools would negatively impact communities.

He however appealed to government to withdraw the introduction of comprehensive sexual education in schools and allow for scrutiny.  “This kind of education will only promote moral decay in our communities. Let the matter be withdrawn so that we can go back to the drawing board and scrutinize further,” he said.

Meanwhile, Provincial Minister Japhen Mwakalombe said that the church was working well with the provincial administration, a situation he said should be commended.

Mr Mwakalombe said that the church had always been there to offer guidance and counsel to the political leadership in the district and province at large.