The Church of Central Africa Presbytery (CCAP) General Assembly has asked President Lazarus Chakwera to ensure solid interventions to tame political violence ahead of the September 16 General Election.
The CCAP General Assembly, which comprises the three CCAP synods in Malawi namely Livingstonia, Blantyre and Nkhoma as well as Zambia and Zimbabwe, also expressed concern over hunger and rising cost of living .
Briefing the media yesterday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe after the meeting, CCAP General Assembly moderator the Right Reverend Biswick Chimbalu said the President, reacting to concerns of violence, challenged the clergy to play a more expansive role in helping to curb violence.
He said: “The President stressed that as a church, we also need to take a role in telling our followers not to participate in violence of any form because some of those people who practice these dreadful acts belong to the church.”
Presidential adviser on religious affairs the Reverend Brian Kamwendo said the CCAP General Assembly wanted to pray with the President.
He said apart from political violence, the meeting also discussed crop diversification as a means of averting climate change impacts.
Said Kamwendo: “The assembly came to pray with the President and discuss several issues, including agriculture diversification as far as agro-economics is concerned in the face of climate change.”
Recently, panga-wielding and masked thugs have disrupted peaceful demonstrations in full view of police officers.
During the opening of the Budget Meeting of Parliament underway in Lilongwe, some thugs also punctured tyres of vehicles belonging to two female Democratic Progressive Party parliamentarians while in January this year, three female supporters of the governing Malawi Congress Party were harassed, beaten and undressed in Ndirande Township, Blantyre.
