I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, I WAS A BIT CARELESS WITH THE ‘SEED ’ REMARKS – BISHOP KALESHA
BISHOP Victor Kalesha of Lufwanyama has taken responsibility for the words he uttered at State House during a courtesy call meeting on President Hakainde Hichilema by the pro-Bill 7 group.
Bishop Kalesha, in now viral sentiments, said his Lufwanyama community was appalled by the Catholic Church and the Oasis Forum’s “blatant attempt to hold the nation hostage” over Bill 7, adding that someone could not claim to be representing Zambians when there was no “seed” coming from his house.
In an interview, Tuesday, Bishop Kalesha, who is also a UPND Lufwanyama aspiring MP, took responsibility for his sentiments which he said came out of “excitement”.
He, however, said his words were taken out of context as he never meant to injure anyone
“Obviously, I will take responsibility for being a bit careless. I was a bit careless in using some words. But also the context in which I used it was not to injure anyone. I was talking in line with the protest. Sometimes when you are speaking, you forget to put in or to align your statement the way it’s supposed to be. And initially, I was talking about protest instead of dialogue. If we go to the streets and the violence erupts, some of us have children to protect,” he said.
“And when somebody stands and says, ‘I am speaking on behalf of Zambians,’ they should think of who is following them. Because when this erupts, we have to run around with all these people, so obviously when talking, sometimes people get excited and you say things that [make it] blow off like that. So I have a nephew who is a son to my immediate young sister who is a priest, and my wife has a brother who is a priest. So I think you understand the position I am at now. So I’m trying to find means of trying to put this in the actual context, so the only people I need now are people that would help me in that area”.
And in a circulating audio, Bishop Kalesha added that he didn’t mean that only Catholics don’t have children.
“To put it in actual context, what I was actually referring to [was] when somebody rises up and says, ‘I am representing Zambians,’ they should have people that they should think of in case of an eruption of violence out of the protests that were being incited. One thing that I know in Africa and in Zambia is people get excited. You could say we are doing a peaceful demonstration and there are all these kinds of junkies joining in, and at an opportune time, they would just blow off and go crazy and start breaking people’s things. We saw in Chingola where the junkies or the Jerabos just went and started breaking people’s shops and looting shops. And I was saying when that happens, some of us have got children to protect, and if people that are standing up to say, ‘we need to protest, we need to do that and we are speaking on behalf of Zambians,’ then they are not speaking for me,” he said.
“Because if you are speaking for me, you should be able to understand that or you should have a seed that came from you that you should care for, that you should be mindful of. I did not say that just Catholics have no children, there are many people that have no children which is a normal thing. And what it meant was that if you have something that is following you or something that you know is [your] responsibility, you can’t be careless to tell people to go into the streets. And I think the dialogue thing is what we thought should have happened and we just [saw] that the Oasis Forum has pulled off the dialogue thing, what they’re demanding is to withdraw the bill”.
He revealed that since the viral sentiments, he had been receiving threats and insults.
“So I take responsibility, and of course, my nephew hasn’t even called me, he should be very mad with me. And the Catholic brothers and sisters and family that I have, they should be mad at me, but they need to understand that the person that did that, wanted to put in some context of blowing the thing out of proportion, and that’s the way it is. Sometimes people want to do that and you don’t fight them for doing what they think is right in their own minds, but otherwise, that’s the way it was,” said Bishop Kalesha.
“I did not insult, I received massive insults, somebody just [calls] and insults and insults and insults and I’m laughing, I’ve been insulted. And here is a person now insulting my mother saying, ‘we will come and burn your house down.’ And I’m like, ‘oh, wow,’ and they used a South African number to hide themselves. So this thing is something that as Zambians, we need to be careful about. ‘Let’s damage Kalesha, you need to damage him,’ but you’re not damaging me, we are looking at a bigger picture that is happening in the nation”.
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