THE PF has threatened to petition the Catholic Church over what they term as insults directed at President Edgar Lungu from Archbishop Emeritus Telesphore Mpundu.
On Tuesday, News Diggers published a lead story in which the former archbishop of Lusaka Diocese was quoted as saying the ruling party is trying to use frivolous allegations to eliminate UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema from the 2021 race so that one crook, President Lungu remains in front.
“This country is not a concentration camp where people are forbidden even to move in support of someone, not even to demonstrate. No, this is wrong! Some people must tell them that this is very wrong. It is just harassment of someone who is in opposition. Why harass him?” asked Archbishop Mpundu. “That piece of land was purchased in 2004, today it is 2020, where were they all this time? Where were they? Now it has become an issue? It is just a way of just trying to find a fault against him so as to disqualify him from the presidency and to leave only a crook in front and that crook is the present President. There are no two ways about it. So it is wrong, it is totally wrong. You don’t claim victory when you have eliminated all opponents. It’s like a soccer team playing itself and declaring they have won. This is how primitive we are; we are very primitive in this country. Politically we are in the Stone Age.”
Reacting to the comment, Lusaka Province PF secretary Kennedy Kamba demanded an apology from the Archbishop.
“We refuse to be dragged in politics of hate! Archbishop Mpundu cannot stand on a podium and call President Lungu a crook! This is very annoying and we demand that the respected Catholic Church intervenes and reprimands the retired Archbishop,” he said. “President Lungu is a leader who has massive support in this country. We will not allow Archbishop Mpundu to subject President Lungu to unnecessary ridicule. We are expecting an apology from Archbishop Mpundu and failure to do that we will petition the Catholic Church.”
Kamba accused the Archbishop of insulting President Lungu.
“Archbishop Mpundu claims that the PF government wants to disqualify the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to leave a crook in President Edgar Lungu to contest the 2021 elections. How and why should a man of God say such a thing?” Kamba asked. “This kind of unpalatable language and insults coming from the Archbishop is unacceptable and we will not take this kindly as the PF. President Lungu’s integrity cannot be insulted or dragged in the mud like that.”
Kamba appealed to the Catholic Church to “bring the retired Archbishop to order”.
He accused Archbishop Mpundu of being an active politician.
“We immediately demand that Archbishop Mpundu withdraws his statement and must apologise to President Lungu. The Catholic Church must also play its part and bring the retired Archbishop to order,” said Kamba. “We know that Archbishop Mpundu is now an active politician who has taken partisan lines and he is now supporting the UPND. This is unfortunate and unacceptable. But what is more disheartening and provoking, is the extreme kind of politics coming from the man of God who is supposed to be a shepherd of all of us, regardless of [our] political affiliation.”