Lusaka - Officials at a Lusaka school run by the Muslim society have come under pressure for declaring 14 Christian teachers redundant in preference for believers of Islam.
The Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA) and the Labour Commissioner on Monday asked Lusaka's Makeni Islamic School to explain why it declared 14 Christian teachers redundant and replaced them with Muslims.
This comes in the wake of a complaint by the 14 teachers who allege that they were declared redundant under the pretext that the school was reducing its staffing, but were shocked to learn that their places had been filled.
The situation at the school is tense as Christians press for the unconditional reinstatement of the Christian teachers.
The teachers were laid off last December, and asked to vacate the predominantly Muslim compound in Makeni area.
Letters of redundancy served to the teachers say they were laid off because of the small number of classes at the school.
A check at the institution, however, revealed that the school had engaged about nine Muslim teachers who have been accommodated in the houses previously occupied by the laid-off teachers.
"The decision made by the committee to reduce the number of staff in schools had to do with the small number of classes and the reduction in options offered.
"This rationalisation measure inevitably pointed to what would be an irrational use of manpower if our staffing levels were to remain the same," read in part, a letter written by a Mr A Mahdi to the teachers.
Last year, the Makeni Islamic School was accused of religious segregation and was said to favour Muslim teachers, who occupy a large chunk of the houses in the compound.
The laid-off teachers have since taken the case to the ZCEA which has asked officials at the school to explain their position before the association can take further action.
The remaining Christian teachers at the school expressed insecurity and said they were not sure whether or not they would remain at the school for a long time.
"There are rumours that by the end of this year, there will be no Christian teacher here... we are just working as the days come," said a teacher who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.
He said some Zambian teachers have had to pretend to be Muslims in the past, while others had to change their names and adopt Muslim ones to escape the chop.
Zambia is a predominantly Christian nation with other religions sharing less than 20 percent of the population.
Very few indigenous Zambians are Muslims with the majority of these being Asians.
In the past, Asians have had to give poor Zambians money and goods as a way to make them change their religion. - Media24 Africa Service