By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
THE United Church of Zambia (UCZ) has conducted countrywide prayers seeking God’s intervention in the wake of escalating deaths resulting from road traffic accidents.
On April 4 this year, a Mazhandu Family Bus lost control between Kapiri Mposhi and Kabwe on the Great North Road, an accident that resulted in seven deaths.
Last weekend, 25 people died after a Wada Chovu bus collided with a Mercedes Benz minibus near Kabwe on the Great North Road
Another accident happened in Mpongwe last week, where several lives were lost.
Other parts of the country experienced the same fate.
UCZ secretary general Peggy Kabonde directed all congregants at various UCZ churches to pray and ask God to intervene in the problem.
Lusaka’s Trinity Congregation minister-in-Charge Lloyd Sikaundi said during a Church service on Sunday that Rev Kabonde had instructed all churches to pray for reduced losses of lives among the travelling public.
Rev Sikaundi said the accidents and the number of deaths recorded recently needed spiritual intervention.
“The deaths have a huge impact on the loved ones that have remained. We need to pray for God to comfort them because they are facing a very difficult time,” he said.
Rev Sikaundi said external forces had had a hand in the accidents because the devil was interested to see misery in people’s lives.
He said bus operators also needed prayers to help them find solutions to the accidents and properly guide their drivers.
One of the people who died in the accident which happened on April 4 this year was a member of the Trinity Congregation who was travelling from Chingola to Lusaka to prepare for her wedding that was scheduled to take place last weekend.