IMENDA WON’T BE PUNISHED – HARRY KALABA

… He has HH’s protection.

Nothing will happen to United Party for National Development (UPND) secretary general Batuke Imenda for his hate speech against Archbishop of Lusaka Alick Banda and Catholic priests because he is enjoying the support and protection of President Hakainde Hichilema, Citizens First (CF) president Harry Kalaba has said.

Mr Kalaba said if President Hichilema did not agree with what Mr Imenda had said about the clergymen he would have either replaced him immediately to show remorse to the Catholic church or allowed police to arrest him following a complaint lodged by members of the public.
He was speaking when he featured on a live interview on Millennium Radio station today.

Mr Imenda recently called Archbishop Banda the “Lucifer of Zambia” and Catholic priests “Satans” in a strongly worded statement for criticising Mr Hichilema’s style of communicating with citizens.

Lately, there has been a bitter exchange of words between the Catholic Church in Zambia and the UPND government over remarks made by Fr Anthony Salangeta, a Catholic priest based in Chawama township, Lusaka.

Fr Salangeta said the graphs presented by President Hichilema at the last press conference were meaningless to poor Zambians because what mattered to them was whether they were able to afford the staple food, nshima.

The President angrily responded by calling the priest “a joker” who should take advantage of the free education his government had introduced and go back to school to learn the importance of numbers and graphs.

However, Archbishop Banda defended Fr Salangeta and vowed to protect all priests in his archdiocese.
More priests have now come out to defend Archbishop Banda and Fr Salangeta, and have vowed to continue speaking out on matters affecting citizens.
Citizens First Media