Clergy defuse Mbayani tensions

Faith leaders in Mbayani, Blantyre, have diffused tensions that erupted between supporters of Member of Parliament (MP) for Blantyre Kabula Constituency Felix Njawala and his aspiring rival Rashid Gaffar.

Earlier this month, sympathisers of the two politicians engaged in fierce clashes following the decision by both Njawala and Gaffar to renovate a police unit that was razed down by angry residents who accused law enforcers of failing to serve them.

The residents were angered by the police failure to act swiftly on a 16-year-old boy who pulled the trigger on businessperson Feston Chipinda after disagreeing over payment for a packet of fresh milk.

Chipinda died of gunshot wounds.

The two politicians offered to renovate the unit and bring back police officers to the area.

The offers brought tensions between the rival parties, with each accusing the other of frustrating development projects in the area.

However, with technical support from the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust, an interdenominational Christian grouping moved in and organised a series of roundtable discussions for the warring parties to sheathe their daggers.

“During those roundtable discussions, we told them that politics is not violence. We also appealed to them to practise civilised politics by resisting acts that would fuel conflicts in the area,” said leader of the grouping, Evangelist Linly Mbeta.

Mbeta said in most cases politically motivated violence arises from failure by politicians to come up with an agenda for their candidacy.

She said it is imperative that politicians are empowered with skills to develop an agenda for their campaign to avoid conflict.

“Most of our politicians don’t know that it is possible to win public support without using intimidation and coercion. That is why we faith leaders approached Nice to assist us so that we can start providing some training to political leaders as a way of promoting issue-based campaign,” said Mbeta.