RACS is promoting partizan activities on the pretext of training chaplains for community service when their real motive is to prepare for the 2026 polls. There is nothing new RACS is offering given that Pastors and Church leaders have been in the community providing a service long before the UPND was born, besides, the State do have their own trained chaplains. We also have pastoral and theological institutions specialised in training pastors and chaplains. The UPND promised not to divide the Church but are doing the exact opposite through RACS. The UPND are championing dangerous politics in the Church. The UPND should be resisted for tempting the Church to become partizan. Pastors who are resisting to join RACS are being perceived to be political opponents by fellow Pastors. We therefore castigate the RACS project under the UPND for the same reasons we castigated Pastors for Lungu project.

We must mention here that while Pastors for Lungu was a creation of individual Pastors, RACS is a creation directly under the Secretariat of the UPND. We ask, why should the UPND be tolerated for practicing what they condemned the PF of doing? UPND shouldn’t be promoting partizan activities in the Church and potentially causing divisions amongst Pastors. All Pastors joining RACS should know that they are joining a political party and therefore becoming partizan to be deployed for 2026 and later discarded like nothing. The issue we see with RACS is that it’s being disguised as simply a program for training chaplains when in fact the real intention is to promote an agenda for the political party (a party that called NDoP as useless).

While individual Pastors may be free to join RACS (UPND), we guide that Pastors get to ask questions to fully understand what it is that they are joining to make an informed decision. Pastors Fellowships and Churches are hereby advised to be very careful that they don’t support an agenda that has the potential to promote divisions. Keep RACS away from the Fellowships, it’s a recipe for unnecessary confusions. Further, we advise Pastors that RACS is not a part of the State and therefore the narrative being peddled suggesting that RACS is supported by the office of the Republican Vice President is false and should be dismissed with contempt.

The Government of the Republic of Zambia has a department of National Guidance and Religious Affairs to handle all business of religious nature and usually works in collaboration with the Church motherbodies in most cases. We have observed that unsuspecting Pastors are presented with an impression that once they join RACS they will get empowered and employed. UPND is a political party and therefore has no mandate whatsoever to train Pastors.

We now present information from the RACS initial document dated 27th December, 2022 that informs on its operating principles. In this document, the following are stated and we briefly touch on a few;
1. Preamble
2. Mission
3. Objectives

1. Preamble:
The Religious Affairs and Chaplaincy Services (RACS), is a self-regulatory
Specialised Committee under the National Management Committee (NMC) inthe United Party for National Development (UPND). More so, it should be emphasized that all members areadvised to acknowledge that the UPND constitution shall remain supreme overthe entire RACS document.
(On page 3 of the document)

2. Mission Statement:
The Religious Affairs and Chaplaincy Services (RACS) exists to help the UPNDmotivate existing members and attracting new people to join the party. This isimportant in order to ensure sustainable growth that culminates into assuredelectoral victory in current and future elections at all levels.
(On page 5 of the document)

3. Objectives:
(a) To recruit, train and commission Community Social Chaplains in eachward in Zambia who will be stationed in their respective areas to provideeconomic, social, spiritual, and cultural knowledge to UPND membersand the larger community as a mitigation measure to the party and its government.

(b) To establish small offices within UPND structures at every level which shallbe called “Center for Community Transformation” (CCT) where thechaplains shall operate from.
(On page 5 of the document)