OCiDA told HH what we did to PF govt, we’re going to do to you as well – Mpundu
By Fanny Kalonda
EMERITUS Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu has wondered if it is a game that officers in the Ministry of Finance are being transferred instead of being fired for corruption.
“They are transferring people who are guilty, kick them out. Sack them not to transfer. What is going on there, is it a game? Investigations are done, culprits are found, they are prosecuted and found guilty and sacked, is it being done?” he wondered.
He said during mass at State House, OCiDA told President Hakainde Hichilema, “what we did to the PF government, we are going to do to you as well. We are not going to sit and see things going out of hand and the government seemingly not doing anything, no.”
Featuring on Diamond TV’s Costa programme on Sunday, Archbishop Mpundu also said there has not been radical change in the country.
“…Mumbi Phiri, what happened to her? She was incarcerated, she was never charged….never charged, prosecuted, found guilty and then sentenced, no. So that is not a very big change from the old. It is exactly that was happening, what happened to HH (Hakainde Hichilema), arrested not charged but put in prison,” Archbishop Mpundu noted. “So I think it would be naïve that we say that ‘oh yeah, that is wonderful thing’. That is not good enough. There is a little bit of change. They should change radically so that people see that they have changed, not like nibbling a little bit like a rat. No, no, no! Let them take big chunks. We are not afraid of our people, we love them.”
He added that there was a good deal of expectation from people but disappointments started very fast.
“People were saying, ‘look we were thinking that such and such things would be dealt with because they are like this and they are not good for us so’, but things don’t seem to have changed. On the contrary, it has become worse, what is going on,” he said. “There was a good deal of expectation. Part of it is the order of the day when political parties are in opposition they offer you, they promise you the moon but when they are in State House they can’t even deliver. So it started very very fast in terms of disappointment.”
He explained that after being sworn in, OCiDA told President Hichilema “frankly that what we did to the PF government, we are going to do to you as well” if the UPND did not listen to the people.
Archbishop Mpundu said the church would keep on reminding the UPND “as leaders are supposed to listen to the people”.
“We told him that Mr President, as OCIDA, you are supposed to be acquainted with our objectives, and we would like to remind you that we are not an opposition political party, and we shall never be an opposition political party. We want to be your partners in ruling and in governing people. What we did to the PF government, we are going to do to you as well. We are not going to sit and see things going out of hand and the government seemingly not doing anything, no. We will remind you, we will be coming and coming,” he explained. “That was not our intention. Our intention was just as we had indicated even the day we were celebrating Mass in State House, we are going to do the same to you as we did with PF so don’t be surprised. So it is up to them, why they were concerned I don’t know. They said Mpundu does not need OCiDA, OCiDA needs Mpundu so meaning, OCiDA is a competitor…”
When asked if he felt that the new dawn administration was gaging freedom of expression, he responded, “precisely and I am not apologising to anybody because this is what we used to tell the leaders of political parties who led us in front there. Don’t gag people, let people speak. Don’t tell people what they should tell you.”
“Even simple things like no, we don’t have mealie meal or roller meal or whatever, then don’t talk about that, talk about something cheaper, you don’t tell people that way. You listen to them and you act accordingly. So if that was the intention and I think it was the intention, then it is gaging people. And we have refused to be gaged,” he said. “Attempts have been made times and again to gain access to the President, that was not forthcoming. If we had that there wouldn’t have been that statement. That is exactly what happened and I am not winking….It is the desire to gag the people. And we always said, we keep saying, we are there to speak on behalf of the people who can’t speak. So when we speak do take it from that point of view. So many people are not able to speak because they are afraid, so then please listen to us. Listening to us or to people’s voices but people’s voice is God’s voice.”
Archbishop Mpundu said he has a problem when “we are going back to the old times when you couldn’t say anything against the government.
“No, the new dawn government must be a lot more broad, to listen to the people. It is surely gaging people. Only that it was difficult now to simply take away those documents which we had distributed and burn them, it was too late,” he said.
He stressed that it is extremely difficult to get access to President Hichilema.
And Archbishop Mpundu said if President Hichilema has competent people working with him, he needs not travel so much out of the country but just supervise.
“On Friday we had a meeting of OCiDA and we are as strong as ever, we are not divided whatsoever. Take it from me that’s it. If he (President Hichilema) has competent people in all these areas, he needn’t travel so much and he needn’t worry so much because he has them to explain and to perform and this is not happening,” he said. “….and some of them don’t know that they are precisely there to work, to shield the President. This is not happening. I feel sorry for him. If we are not seeing the results, they are failing him. I don’t think they are beneficial, there are other people that can be doing that while he supervises.”
He also said there must be zero tolerance to corruption.
“I think people are not just talking for the sake of talking. They want to see progress but they have not seen it. Meaning you are not doing enough to do the right thing. The corruption crusade is that we are just talking and talking and talking, corruption still continues. There is no zero tolerance to corruption. This must be done otherwise people will continue as it was in the beginning so now and ever shall be world without end,” Archbishop Mpundu warned.
He urged people in the religious leadership to be in the forefront of speaking for the voiceless.
“Probably there is this kind of fear, it is the fear that the UNPD has now that the Church is a competitor. And so they are afraid that Mpundu will lead something like that. He has a political ambition. The church is not a competitor, it is a partner and a partner that is principled because it is based on God’s word. Now if our leaders, the church are timid…The people that are in leadership, in the religious leadership, must be in the forefront to speak for the voiceless and there are no two ways about it. We haven’t done enough,” he noted.
Asked what advice he would give President, he responded, “You listen to God’s people. You don’t listen to people, you are not listening to God. Don’t tell people what they should be telling you to do, no.”
“Don’t dismiss people’s suggestions. Some of them are wild, but listen to them together with your technocrats. Sometimes you over say it…” said Archbishop Mpundu.OCiDA told HH what we did to PF govt,
we’re going to do to you as well – Mpundu