🇿🇲 EDITORIAL | Archbishop Banda & Church Persecution Narrative
Zambia is drifting into a dangerous argument, one that confuses institutions with individuals and accountability with oppression. The summoning of Archbishop Alick Banda by the Drug Enforcement Commission has now been framed by sections of the opposition as a full-scale war by President Hakainde Hichilema against the Catholic Church.
This framing is not only inaccurate, it is intellectually dishonest and politically reckless.
Let us begin with the facts. The DEC has summoned Archbishop Banda in connection with a specific matter: a motor vehicle belonging to the Zambia Revenue Authority that was irregularly disposed of and later found in his possession. The Commission has stated, on record, that the summon is procedural, investigative, and not a charge. It is issued to a named individual whose name appears in official records, not to the Catholic Church as an institution. The vehicle is in DEC custody. The paper trail exists. These are verifiable facts, not political opinions.
What the opposition has done since is to deliberately blur this line. Statements from Fred M’membe, Harry Kalaba, and others recast a legal process into a religious crusade. Language such as “Calvary,” “carrying the cross,” and “war against the Catholic Church” is emotionally powerful but analytically hollow. It shifts the conversation from evidence to symbolism, from law to mobilisation. This is not accidental. It is strategy.
This is where the framing collapses. The Catholic Church is not Archbishop Alick Banda. No church, Catholic or otherwise, enjoys immunity from the law through its clerics. Across the world, Catholic priests, bishops, and even cardinals have been investigated, prosecuted, and convicted for financial crimes, abuse, and corruption.
The Vatican itself prosecuted Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once a powerful papal adviser, and sentenced him to prison. No one claimed the Vatican was persecuting the Catholic Church. Accountability of a cleric was treated as accountability of a person.
Zambia is not an exception to this global reality. Pentecostal pastors, prophets, and church founders have appeared in Zambian courts, some convicted and jailed. At no point did the nation erupt into claims that Christianity itself was under attack. The silence then, contrasted with the outrage now, exposes the inconsistency. If the principle is that summoning a cleric equals persecution, then every prosecution of a religious figure in Zambia’s history becomes suspect. This position is untenable.
The opposition’s narrative also suffers from selective memory. The Patriotic Front, now loudest in accusing the State of persecution, presided over an era in which public institutions were looted, assets irregularly disposed of, and state property handed out as patronage.
It was under PF that vehicles from ZRA and other agencies found their way into private hands. It is those very transactions that are now under scrutiny. To demand accountability while in power, then cry persecution when accountability arrives out of power, is not moral consistency. It is political convenience.
What is happening now mirrors an older PF habit: framing every challenge through identity. When Hichilema was in opposition, it was tribe. Tonga versus the rest. That framing poisoned national politics and permanently damaged PF’s standing in large parts of Southern Province and beyond. Today, the same logic is being repurposed. Not tribe, but religion. Not Tonga, but Catholic. It is the same tactic, dressed differently. And it carries the same risk of backlash.
The truth is simpler and less dramatic. Archbishop Alick Banda is a Zambian citizen. He has rights. He also has obligations. If his name appears in records relating to irregular disposal of public assets, the law requires explanation. Appearing before investigators does not strip him of his priesthood, nor does it diminish the Church’s prophetic role. It affirms a basic democratic principle: no one is above the law, and no one is beneath its protection.
Turning a summons into a street procession may energise supporters, but it does not answer questions. It also risks dragging the Church into partisan warfare, something the Catholic Church itself has historically resisted, even while speaking boldly on governance. The Church’s moral authority is strongest when it stands above political games, not when it is conscripted into them.
Zambia needs clarity, not confusion. The DEC must follow the law professionally and transparently. Archbishop Banda must be treated with dignity and fairness. And the opposition must stop weaponising faith to shield individuals from scrutiny. A church is an institution. A cleric is a person. Accountability is not persecution.
At The People’s Brief, our position is simple. Facts matter. Context matters. History matters. And truth is not improved by noise.
© The People’s Brief | Editor-in-Chief
What ever the UPND brief can say , we the faithful of the Catholic Church know that our Church and our clergy are under attack by Hakainde and Government.
It’s not just one isolated event of Archbishop Dr Alick Banda. It’s a pattern of systematic harassment of the Church were even a Priest can be called out for a Homily delivered in Church.
Insults have been labelled at Catholic Bishops with Impunity..ArchBishop Lungu of Chipata was threatened, attacked , ridiculed by Cornelius Mweetwa.
ArchBishop Of Lusaka Diocese was called the Lucifer of Zambia by Batuke Imenda, the UPND Secretary. No apology has been rendered to date.
We had some Catholic Churches in Ndola sealed and congregants handbags searched when the government heard that the late Edgar Chagwa Lungu was in Ndola.
How honestly could Edgar Lungu hide in a Lady ‘s handbag?
The Solwezi Priest was called out over a homily, and it was only withdrawn after an uproar from the public.
Father Salangeta of Chawama was threatened over a Homily, and it had to take the Archbishop Dr Alick Banda to come to his rescue.
The Police in Kabwe bulldozed the Sanctity of the Bishop of Kabwe Diocese office to prevent the Former President , Edgar Lungu from paying a courtesy call on the Bishop.
Talk of the Insults on Social Media and from the UPND rogue Media Koswe, Zambia WatchDog directed on the Clergy and the Church. All these have played out in public space.
Just two weeks ago a Bishop of some Pentecostal Church was insulting the Catholic Church Clergy in the presence of the President, at State house. Todate no statement has been made to disassociate the Convener of the meeting from the derogatory remarks made by the so called Bishop.
We have eyes and can see.
A War is being waged against the Church, to divide the Clergy, the Congregation and the ZCCB.
ArchBishop Dr Alick Banda, is a Catholic Church Bishop. You can’t remove that from him.
The DEC has summoned the Archbishop of Lusaka Diocese Dr Alick Banda to appear before them on Monday 5th January, 2005. Period.
As a Catholic who has followed the treatment of not just the Lusaka Diocese Arch Bishop , but the Catholic church as a whole by this government, I feel this has now gone too far.
There were 22 Motor Vehicles which were disposed of by ZRA. Some were bought by Employees, Institutions , Hospitals and Councils.
For us who worked in the Mines and even in other institutions, employees used to buy obsolete vehicles, Drums , scrap metal etc which they could then sell or give to others. Sometimes we didn’t have money to buy the Assets being disposed off , the third party who was interested in the Asset could Avail the money, and once the asset had been bought, the ownership change was done. Nothing Illegal Mwebantu.
There were 22 reciepients of the ZRA vehicles. Why is it only Archbishop Dr Alick Banda being summoned ? Where are the others who were also mentioned in Court?
And the vehicle was voluntarily surrendered in 2023.
No one is above the LAW you are saying, and being parroted by the UPND, and it’s Rogue Media. Yes no one is above the LAW.
If Archbishop Dr Alick Banda has committed an offence, stop playing around with the Man.. Stop Harassing him. Stop Tormenting him.
Arrest him , Charge him and arraign him before the Courts of Law.
If the Bishop has not committed an Offence, Publicly Clear him, and close the case. Period.
The Investigations have been going on for four years. This can’t go on forever, like the Gassing case..where you keep accusing people of being behind the gassing, but you can’t arrest them.
Stop Persecuting and Tormenting the Man, through useless Imingalato..The Bishop shouldn’t be used as a Propaganda Toy for Hakainde’s Amusement.
If someone thinks the Pope will remove Dr Alick Banda as Archbishop of Lusaka, due to flimsy and political charges , so that he remains with Praise Singers as we head to the August Elections , Aleibepa fye.
Dr Alick Banda is with us , today, tomorrow, till God calls him to rest , as per the priestly calling of Melchizedek.
Let us see Substance on 5th January, 2026 at the DEC offices.
If all the country gets from DEC is bla bla bla, and ” we will continue our investigations” as a Catholic faithful I will encourage like minded people to Sue DEC for Harassment of Archbishop Dr Alick Banda.
1Tim. 3:1 Now the overseer is to be above reproach.
Mathew 27:6, The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “it is against the law to put this into the treasury since it is blood money”.
This was after Judas Iscariot attempted to return the thirty pieces of silver he had been paid to betray Jesus.
Personally, I am against the church and church leaders receiving “donations” from politicians or allowing politicians access to the pulpit to spread their poison. It cheapens the name of God.
This applies equally to donations by PF and UPND. Those churches and church organisations which have accepted such donations are a shame to the christian faith.
The article has hit the nail on the head. Imagine if this PF cadre had killed someone was he still.going to be immune from investigation just because he is wearing church robes? Let us separate the church from the individual members of that church.