‘ZAMBIANS FEEL INSECURE, UNSAFE’

The Archbishop of Lusaka says the endemic high cost of living, the looming hunger, the malice of the political elite against the governed coupled with the worst cholera outbreak ever which saw the state bury victims without funerals has undermined and threatened the country’s peace and security.

Archbishop Dr Banda particularly bemoaned that, due to information management challenges Government buried unaccounted for victims of the cholera outbreak without the knowledge and consent of their relatives, an act that has caused deep distress and trauma in communities.

“This outbreak has claimed many lives of our people and has left trails of emotional, mental and spiritual distress. There has been a challenge with information management of the sick and subsequently the dead, who have been buried anonymously, and without a funeral. Unsuspecting families, have only come to learn of the fate of their loved ones, long after they have been buried without their knowledge and consent. What a trauma! And how to cope with such a tragedy,” Archbishop Dr Banda said. Dr Banda, says Zambia has reached a point where citizens are getting more agitated with tempers flaring within themselves, the emotions which have become a threat to the safety and security of the nation and its people.

In his Lenten message yesterday themed: “Master, Don’t you care? We are going down,” taken from the Book of Mark; 4:39, Archbishop Banda noted that Zambians were now more afraid of themselves than their circumstances, their vulnerability and their powerlessness in the face of hunger, high cost of living and the political malice by the political elite against their own citizens.

“Our Season of Lent this year comes at the tail end of the worst cholera outbreak in many years. The outbreak claimed many lives of our people and left trails of emotional, mental and spiritual distress. There has been a challenge with information management of the sick and subsequently the dead, who have been buried anonymously and without a funeral.” Archbishop Dr Banda said.

“Coupled with the foregoing is our endemic high cost of living, the looming hunger on the horizon and indeed the malice of our political elite. This scenario sends shivers to our faith, it questions our safety and indeed it threatens our sense of security. As we dread the obvious, God seems absent, if anything passive and indifferent to our situation of need,” he said.

He said the fears Zambians were having about themselves coupled with the sense of vulnerability were disorienting and beating the faith of many of the believers thereby threatening “Our sense of security and safety.” Archbishop Dr Banda said it was certain that Zambians were emotionally, mentally and spiritually distressed to the extent that they could be entertaining that God did not care about their predicament.

“However, God cares deeply, and He responds to our cries for help. But He does so in ways that we do not expect; in ways that we do not understand, and in ways that we do not know. Yet, God is always present with us. He is with us in times of apprehension, in times of fear, and in times of helplessness. He is with us in times of disappointment and in times of death. However, we need the eyes of faith to recognise His hand at work in the seemingly distressful events of our life,” the Archbishop said.

Archbishop Dr Banda said even in the face of apprehension as a result of the fears of powerlessness and helplessness, Jesus was calling the Church and its flock to faith.