DON’T ACCEPT MWIIMBU’S APOLOGY – TEMBO TELLS CATHOLIC CHURCH
Opposition Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) leader Sean Tembo has advised the Catholic Church not to accept the apology rendered by Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu.
On Saturday 18th May, 2024, Mwiimbu during a press briefing rendered his apologies to the Catholic Church for the incident which Police officers stormed a private meeting between former President Edgar Lungu and Bishop Clement Mulenga in Kabwe.
Tembo says an apology to the Catholic Church during his press briefing of yesterday afternoon should not be accepted by the Catholic Church because it is partial and half-hearted.
He says there were two parties having the said private meeting, that is the Bishop and Lungu.
Tembo wonders to under what moral standard did Mwiimbu find it necessary to apologize only to the Bishop and the Church, but not to the Lungu.
He says during his protracted press briefing, Mwiimbu kept on ranting about how Lungu is subject to the Public Order Act.
“I think Mr. Mwiimbu needs some basic education in the law. The legislation in question is titled the PUBLIC Order Act for a reason. Because it is meant to regulate PUBLIC gatherings. There was nothing PUBLIC about the private closed door meeting that the 6th Republican President was having with the Bishop in the Bishop’s office. If the law was meant to regulate private meetings, as Jack Mwiimbu seems to argue, then it would have been titled the PRIVATE Order Act. But it is not. And that is why it is titled the PUBLIC Order Act,” he said.
Tembo further says the Zambia Police, in their lame statement issued on Friday afternoon, claim that they had information that Lungu intended to address two public gatherings in Kabwe that day, and that is the reason they stormed his private meeting at the Bishop’s office.
He says it appears that the reasoning of the entire Zambia Police is beneath that of a two year old.
“If indeed the claims by the Police are true, then why did they not wait for the 6th President to actually hold the alleged public gatherings before challenging him? Why disrupt his private meeting in the Bishop’s office, based on speculation that he later intends to hold a public gathering?” Asked Tembo.
Tembo says Mwiimbu and his fellow sycophants in Government should be informed, in no uncertain terms, that Zambia is not their father’s country.
” Zambia belongs to all Zambians, including President Edgar Lungu. The 6th Republican President has a right to go wherever he pleases in this country, whenever he pleases, without any let or hindrance. That right is not and cannot be granted by Government.
“The freedom of movement that President Edgar Lungu must enjoy was bestowed on him at birth, by the Constitution of this Republic. The only way that President Lungu can be denied his Constitutional right to freely roam around the breadth and length of this country is if Jack Mwiimbu has suspended the Constitution.
“So the question that we perhaps need to pose to Jack Mwiimbu at this juncture is; have you suspended the Constitution of Zambia?” Said Tembo