Thursday, March 28, 2024

Copperbelt PS orders Churches to limit hours of Services to less than 2 hours

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Muchinga PS Bright Nundwe
Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Bright Nundwe

Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Bright Nundwe has called on all religious organizations in the province to ensure that they meet the set standards as they congregate.

Mr. Nundwe said in statement to ZANIS in Ndola yesterday that all religious meetings in the province should be reduced to less than two hours and ensure that all congregates leave the meeting place immediately.

Mr. Nundwe advised churches to meet other requirements such as providing soap for hand washing, clean up the surroundings, provide clean sanitary facilities, avoid handshakes and sensitize congregants on the epidemic.

He warned religious organizations who do not meet the set standards will have their religious facilities closed.

“All other gatherings should meet minimum Public Health Regulations and guidelines, further I urge all religious organizations in the province to co-operate,” Mr Nundwe said.

The PS said this is being done to ensure quick the control and elimination of the cholera epidemic and also to prevent the spread of cholera in the province.

Mr. Nundwe also called for strict enforcement of the Public Health Regulations and guidelines by health inspectors from ministries of health and local government.

Since the outbreak of the cholera epidemic Copperbelt province has recorded a total of seven cholera cases while at national level more than 2500 cases of Cholera have been recorded.

38 COMMENTS

    • I really don’t know why people can not worship at home. With this technology sure, we can do it in our homes especially in this time of cholera. Remember God is spirit and those who worship him should do so in spirit. so if you think ku church is better and will make you closer, then you need to check the scripture further. Thanks All.
      If I were president of mother Zambia, I would make sure rule of law is top and disband any rule of man. It is because of rule of man that has led to the cholera outbreak due to emotional decisions. with rule of law, there is no emotional decisions just laws and regulations. You break one you pay for breaking it. If that was the case, you wouldn’t be seen people building any how, speeding any how, throwing litter any how, street vending any how etc But…

    • etc But because we have been ruled by man since 1991, things have deteriorated. We need the constitution of Zambia to take it’s place then you will see meaningful development. Law is the strength of the western world.

    • Why is it that it’s just the church that is receiving attention of the government? Why only warn the church? Why only limit the number of hours for church services?
      Also why is it that now every clone wants to instruct the church?

    • Juliet Perth, Zambians want to be seen by others worshiping and going to church. It’s not a personal relationship between them and God but with God and everyone else. Zambia are even holier than the people who brought them the religion.

    • Debo,
      Very true. We are holy by the looks. What I know for sure is that a real christian will abide by the law of the land. As the saying goes, “a good christian is a good citizen.” if indeed Zambia had good Christians as they claim to be, Cholera would be something we hear about and not experience. Just look around, there are some good Christians in Zambia and you will know them by the fruits. Most of them, maybe poor but clean in dressing, clean in talking, clean food. Real christians take care of themselves and are hard working people and don’t rely on others to feed them. Real christians don’t whinge all the time but look for ways to succeed. I know them and seen them. Not those so called christian bani bone bani bone type. Awe sure mwandini.

    • The govt should come up with an aggressive campaign against UBUSANKU to avoid deaths from preventable diseases like cholera. Not ordering people from congregating together. They must tackle the root cause of the problem, not enforcing stup!d short term cosmetic solutions. Can’t they learn from Singapore’s cleanliness laws? To be murdered by a disease that shouldn’t be there if only your environment was kept clean is indicative of the rot in govt. And this disease has been recurring over many decades with mathematical precision and yet no single solution has been formulated to counter it. What does this say about the so-called leaders?! I don’t think you need a psychiatrist to nail it for you. Zambia is governed by demented lunatics! There just can’t be any other explanation!

    • AFRICANS like to pray too much. That’s why they don’t develop as much. This should be a permanent arrangement to restrict too much praise and worship and all that to the minimum.

    • A humans attention span is 20 minutes tops. I pity those pastors that keep going on and on for 4 hours showing off their gift of gab and faux righteousness because their message stopped being received and internalized at the 30 min mark at start of sermon.

    • THE DEVIL IS AT WORK
      MEANWHILE, BARS WHERE PATRONS SPEND MORE TIME IN TOILETS, HAVE MORE DRINKING TIME
      AND WE ARE A XTIAN NATION?

  1. Uko, Kaya mwe. Does this guy live in Zambia? Have you ever seen a Church in Zambia, especially those that have been vocal on this issue, hold a service for less than 2 hours? Don’t you know why they even have evening services. All Churches in Zambia are terrible at time keeping.

    This is another unnecessary fight PF want to pick up with the church. So, how are they going to enforce this. Station the Police and soldiers at church gates with stop watches in their hands?

    Very laughable directive and unnecessary

  2. Forget the 2hr churches limit , lets have unlimited & mandatory once a month public cleanup of our cities like they do in Rwanda. The cleanliness of Kigali and Windhoek Namibia makes us Zambians look lazy ,dull and dehumanized in comparison.

    • I pay taxes so that the government can clean my city. Last December the total PAYE taken by ZRA from me alone was over K15000.00. Where do they take my money? They get my money so that they can provide services such as cleaning. If they fail, they can always stop getting our taxes and as a community we can organize ourselves and clean our own surroundings and communities. I keep my house clean and pay taxes. Those who don’t pay taxes (as is the case with most kaponyas) should be mobilized to clean up the filthy they generate in the course of their activities. Where can I find the time to go and clean up the city centre when I pay very high taxes every month so that the city can be cleaned. It’s a very simple equation.

    • Bo Inonge Wina

      K15000.00 is too small, in a country were most of materials used for operations are bought in US dollars. Your K15000 is almost $1700.00 but again look at the number of people who work and pay towards PAYE. A very few people do contribute PAYE. Not sure if K15000 was for the entire year or just December? In all scenarios it is not enough as you may know our president uses some of it to travel plus corruption and looting by his cadres nisotambe. Zambia needs everybody to work together and make our cities clean. It is not GRZ alone and from history GRZ has disappointed us. Another thing is that our local councils don’t even operate efficiently or at all.

    • Inonge Wina your taxes pay for police,teachers and medics.Cleaning the city is local council’s docket and even in USA we pay extra fees purely for garbage collection by private firms.

    • Juliet Perth and Enka. The K15000 PAYE is just for December as I mentioned in my post. And I can assure you that very few Zambians pay that kind of PAYE in a month. They can still divide that money and give part of it to councils for cleaning the city. The biggest problem we have is accountability. We can even go ahead and start contributing to the council but the streets will continue being dirty and no one is going to be telling us how they’re using the money. Successive governments in this country have taken populist directions where very few people are paying PAYE. The government has chosen to exclude majority (over 75%) Zambians from contributing PAYE by raising the threshold to over K3000.00. Tax should be every person’s responsibility.

  3. Zambians: Can you see how the devil works: It brings cholera so that Prayers are removed or lessened to less than two hours and alcohol is promoted to Eight hours: What a Christian Nation. The devil you are promoting will never win in Jesus’s name. Beer will never drive the economy of this country. If you cannot use copper, Emeralds, Agriculture, Mukula tree, Gold and other minerals which God has given to Zambia, beer will never, ever drive the economy of this country. Drunkards will always remain as drunkards and will never progress.

  4. Rwanda needs to teach Zambians the rocket science of keeping a city clean,free of cholera and free of filthy road side kaponyas.

  5. You contract Cholera within seconds!!!!!! What kind of thinking is this? Just enforce rules that each church should observe. Its either you congregate or you dont

  6. This ma did admit that he was not educated so dont be too harsh, but he did say he will come down on you, ankther pf edict

  7. All bars should be open for not more than 2 hours a day! No, wait! That might slow down economic activity in Zambia… What strange times we live in!

  8. How many hours does it take to contract this disease? Please! a PS is supposed to be the most educated around all politicians but this one sounds the other way round! Emphasis should be on churches attaining the minimum public health requirements each time they gather not the useless time limit!!

  9. I did not know that we can time cholera in this manner. So in the wisdom of PS cholera is time bound.
    Just where do we take tax and PAYE?
    Disaster!

  10. MMD Chief Bootlicker – kikikikikikikikikikiki. Very good advice. They should avoid unnecessary fights because implementation of that directive is impossible.

  11. Is church the easiest organization to deal with in Zambia. Everyone wants to be a champion over the church forgetting that the owner of the church is in control of life. He can take away your life without cholera. #RESPECT THE CHURCH

  12. We worship morning to evening and 2 hours is unthinkable to us SDAs, what a challenge? He whom we worship has capacity to heal, why fear!!!

  13. Anyone can Google and find out how cholera spreads. It is through contaminated food and water, not “public gatherings” unless maybe by handshake. A compound bar would be the perfect place to get it, where beer bottles are kept in a bucket with ice and water

  14. Without necessarily alluding to the Cholera issue that needs to be dealt with robustly, I am curious, in terms of procedure, as to whether the provincial PS actually has power or authority to simply order churches to reduce their service time. A few days ago it was the local government minister ordering bars in Lusaka to only operate from 11 to 19 hours. I know I could refer to the heap of laws, bye-laws, regulations etc. to try and find what they say, but it’s just a wonder that there are so many examples of every government Jim and Jack official just waking up and issuing all sorts of directions or orders. I am sure some of these can be challenged.

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