PULPIT POLITICS WON’T FLY, BISHOP ALICK BANDA SHOULD KNOW BETTER
By Chilufya Kasonde
In what can only be described as a desperate political gamble, opposition Patriotic Front (PF) figures Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu, who have now come together for political convenience through a political alliance, have struck an agreement with Catholic Bishop Alick Banda to turn the Catholic Church into a campaign platform for the Tonse Alliance and PF ahead of the 2026 General Election.
The move is as brazen as it is misguided.
One must ask: Have Mundubile, Zulu, and Bishop Banda so thoroughly misread the Zambian people? Do they truly believe that voters, who have endured economic hardships and political turbulence, will embrace a holy pulpit hijacked for partisan gain?
Zambians are not fools. The Catholic Church in this nation has long stood as a moral compass, a voice for the voiceless, a mediator in times of crisis, and a sanctuary for spiritual refuge, not a campaign billboard for struggling political brands. To reduce the altar to a staging ground for Tonse Alliance slogans and PF nostalgia is to insult every Catholic who walks through those doors seeking God, not a manifesto.
Let us be clear: Mundubile and Zulu are entitled to campaign. That is their democratic right. But to drag a revered institution into the mud of partisan warfare reeks of political bankruptcy. If the PF and Tonse Alliance have nothing to offer voters beyond a captured cathedral, perhaps they have no business seeking office in 2026.
As for Bishop Banda, this is a profound disappointment. A man of his cloth should know that the pulpit is not a property to lease out for votes. The moment a church aligns itself with a political party, it loses its moral authority to critique anyone. It becomes a faction, not a faith. Zambians need shepherds, not campaign managers.
The history of this continent is littered with examples of churches that traded their spiritual integrity for political favour. They always lose. The congregation drifts away. The moral voice falls silent. And the politicians who promised eternal gratitude vanish the morning after the election.
To Mundubile, Zulu, and Bishop Banda: You have grossly miscalculated. Zambians are not children to be herded by religious authority figures waving party colours. We have buried one-partyism. We have rejected political thuggery. And we will reject the politicisation of our sanctuaries.
The 2026 election will be decided on issues—jobs, hunger, healthcare, education, corruption. Not on which opposition leader can commandeer a Catholic mass.
Step back from this unholy alliance. Let the Church remain what it has always been: a house of prayer for all Zambians, not a campaign pit stop for the politically desperate.
Zambians are above this. Far above it.