President Lungu; Be Brave And Come Out of Hiding
I first bumped into ArchbishopTelesphore Mpundu at Northmeads in Lusaka around March 2022…….in a liquor store to be precise. I had hoped there to get a few “brownies” after a long day at Mulungushi where we were attending a National Indaba on Street Kids. I’ve no clue what took the good Bishop there, but I know it wasn’t ma jiggies or toffee sweets for sure!
When I spotted him again in the corridors as we were preparing to leave, I asked my colleague to stop the car and accosted him. Since he always seemed to have an opinion on several issues, I thought I should pick his brains, particularly on politics.
He vented and gesticulated boisterously as he ran me through the litany of misdeeds of Lungu’s corrupt and kleptomaniac government. Furthermore, he disclosed how Lungu wanted to divide the Catholics in the nation by driving a wage amongst them and pitying the priests against each other. He didn’t have kind words for his predecessor at Lusaka Diocese, Bishop Alick Banda.
“One day, we were invited to State House as Catholic bishops. By that time Banda was still at Ndola Diocese,” the Bishop was literally fuming. “When the meeting ended, Banda and another bishop from the northern regions were nowhere to be seen.”
Tired of waiting, one of them suggested that they should just leave without them as the duo were adults who would easily find their way to Kapingila House in Kabulonga.
“We all knew what they were doing in there!” he exclaimed. “Even that so called fundraising walk they had in Ndola for the carpark was laced with corruption…..”
What I learnt about Bishop Banda that day was earth shattering…….it could actually perforate someone’s ears! Yes, as Christians we mustn’t hold grudges for a long time and should endeavour to forgive one another as much as possible. However, I was rather shocked yesterday see photos of the trio – Edgar Lungu, Bishops Mpundu and Banda all smiles as they posed for photos.
Bishop Mpundu knows in his heart of hearts that God is a witness to what he said about Lungu and Banda. What has changed now? Did he accuse his brothers falsely and therefore sinned in the eyes of our Lord?
What has necessitated this “reconciliation” as observed by the Newsdiggers Newspapers?
When some of us saw PF dilly-dalling to go for a party convention to ‘select’ new leaders and indeed Lungu launching his foundation, our sixth sense warned us that there was something definitely cooking in the air and we didn’t like the smell of it. I followed this up with an article, “Will Lungu Pull A Quick One?”
I postulated that there seemed to be well calculated machinations to dribble individuals deemed to be real owners of the party such as Miles Sampa, Chishimba Kambwili and Godfrey Bwalya Mwamba out of the presidential race and instead impose a weak candidate to warm up the seat for Lungu – someone with roots strongly hankered in MMD such as one Brian Mundibile so as to use it as a weapon to pull the rag off his feet at a later stage. Is the PF convention happening any time soon? No! Haven’t we seen Kambwili and GBM crawling back to Lungu? Of course, we have!
Chase pieces are now beginning to move fast and furious as Lungu’s plans fall into place. As we approach 2026, we should expect to see more individuals that had previously differed with Lungu making pilgrimages to his place to make amends, his outreach to churches around the nation will be heightened while the ‘noise’ from people clamouring about his return to power will reach a crescendo.
Ignore communique being made available to the public after such interactions that they are about academic work on the 2021 elections or exchange of notes about national and spiritual matters. It’s all a charade meant to hoodwink the public that Lungu isn’t scheming a comeback. It’s a well calculated move by a cunning and shrewd hardcore politician whose looks easily betray him.
While Lungu may be entitled to still harbour ambitions of bouncing back, he should be doing so within the confines of the law. The law is very clear, a former president shall be stripped of their retirement benefits should they continue involving themselves in active politics!
We are encouraging Lungu to be courageous and come out of hiding so that he should stop chewing our money.
Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst