SACCORD executive director Boniface Chembe says the behaviour of PF sympathisers that attacked NDC officials at 5FM last week has capacity to jeopardise the spirit if reconciliation which the country is currently in.

Commenting on the matter in an interview with yesterday, Chembe said it was sad that the incident happened at a time when the country was in the festive season preparing for the celebration of Christmas and the New Year 2018.

Chembe encouraged all political players to tame their cadres for the sake of peace, reconciliation and national unity.

“As SACCORD, we believe that all stakeholders in the political arena in Zambia must as much as possible start embracing the spirit of national dialogue and reconciliation which is currently being spearheaded by the Commonwealth through its special envoy Professor Ibrahim Gambari. What happened at 5FM last week where cadres attacked NDC members is totally unfortunate and it goes against the spirit of oneness and the festive season that we are in but more so, the season of reconciling and national dialogue. Acts of violent nature which seek to disturb that sense of peace, unity and reconciliation are something that we must reject as much as possible,” he said.

“I think going forward, we want to appeal to all political players to desist from engaging in any acts of political violence or in any act of violent communications so that as much as possible we can embrace the spirit of the season in which we are. Political leaders must also tame their cadres so that we can begin to create an environment that will assist us to be in a position to come to the same table and come up with an amicable way forward on many issues that we must address as a country in an effort to broaden our democratic system of governance.”

Chembe called for peace from all citizens including political party sympathisers.

“This appeal is to everybody, whether you are a sympathiser or a non sympathiser, as long as you are a Zambian citizen that cares about the peace of this country, it is important that we desist at all costs from engaging in acts of political violence. What transpired at 5FM between NDC members and the cadres is unfortunate and our hope is that going forward, we will not continue to see such acts of violence take place in our country because that’s a very bad spirit for a country,” said Chembe.