By JOHN SAKALA
The Pastors Fellowship of Chingola has apologized to Chingola Mayor Titus Tembo for scathing remarks they made against the mayor on local community Radios after the Council had razed down their church buildings.
Soon after Chingola Municipal Council had demolished the churches located near the rail line in Chikola, the pastors who owned the same churches are reported to have rushed to the radio station where they issued unbaptized remarks.
Apologising yesterday when Mr Tembo was invited to meet the pastors, World Harvest Ministries Resident Pastor Edwin Simasiku said it was wrong for the involved Pastors to rush to the media before seeking audience with the office of the Mayor.
Rev Simasiku said the clerics are ready to corporate and work with the local authority in order to bring sanity to the district.
He said the clerics involved were counselled by the fellowship, hence the apology from them.
Speaking earlier, Mr Tembo wondered how the congregants would obey laws when the church leaders were in front to deliberately overlook the laws governing land administration.
He said the owners of the demolished churches were engaged and advised to stop because the churches were too near to the rail line.
“The local authority fired the warning shots when we only removed bricks in corners of the churches and invited the owners to the council. They disobeyed and simply rebuilt the demolished corners. We served them with notices and they again ignored them. That’s when we moved in to show leadership.
“As church leaders you have a big responsibility on your shoulders than us as politicians in ensuring that Laws of the land are followed. Let’s do the right thing for the first time because we owe it to our grandchildren. In Chingola we are not short of residential accommodation, we are simply short of economic activities,” he said.
Mr Tembo who was accompanied by Chikola Ward Councillor Martha Chanda said during the normalization of some ills done in the land administration, there would be casualties.
He said is open to engagement together with the Chingola Council.
The Mayor took time to highlight how land can be genuinely acquired through a third party, from the council as an agent of Ministry of land or directly from the Ministry of Lands.
