The Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), have said that despite the public pronouncements that Zambia is a peaceful country, \u2018the reality on the ground is different due to many acts of injustice, a growing culture of corruption, incidences of violence and utterances out of deep-seated hatred\u2019.<\/p>\n
They have appealed to the region\u2019s political leaders \u2018to stop insulting each other or anyone who does not agree with their political opinion\u2019 and to \u2018start genuinely to respect fellow political players as legitimate opponents with their constitutional right to hold their political opinion and to propagate it among the general public\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt demands that all political party leaders declare and enforce zero tolerance for political violence and to bring culprits to book by handing them over to law enforcement institutions,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means that all political leaders must give the planned for \u2018national dialogue\u2019 a chance to succeed by committing themselves to dialogue without preconditions with a view to levelling the playing field.<\/p>\n