WE WILL STAND STRONG AND DEFEND THE CHURCH IN ZAMBIA – PF
…as Lubinda stresses that the party cannot afford to destroy the nation by being silent on salient matters
Lusaka, Saturday, June 10, 2023 – ( Smart Eagles)
THE OPPOSITION Patriotic Front has vowed to continue defending the church in Zambia amid the alleged bullying from both senior government and UPND party officials.
PF Vice-president Given Lubinda says the former ruling party shall stand with the church from all forms of harassment regardless of religious denomination because they are all churches of God.
Hon Lubinda says whoever attacks the church of God indirectly attacks the PF and threats against the party will not stop its members from exposing the evil that the party in government is introducing in Zambia.
“We shall protect the church be it SDA, UCZ, RCZ, Catholic, Apostolic Church or Pentecostal churches. Some of our members are leaders in these churches,” Hon Lubinda said.
And Hon Lubinda has vowed that the threats being issued against the PF by government officials like Director of Media and Spokesperson in the Ministry of Information and Media Thabo Kawana and the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Hon Jack Mwiimbu will not deter the party from defending the church.
He says it is ridiculous for the two senior government officials to accuse the PF of being an entity circulating seditious material in form of forged letters purported to have originated and signed by senior government officials to contain the Catholic church and it’s leadership particularly, the Archbishop of Lusaka Alick Banda.
Hon Lubinda explained that such antics have been heard about many times in history and failed governments always find someone to blame.
He says no one in the PF leadership has anything to do with the issuance of the said documents but the party believes that the contents of that letter are not different from what the PF and Zambians have heard being made by the UPND government.
“As a matter of fact, they have verbally said more than what is written in that letter. How can we doubt what the letter is saying about containing the Catholic church and the Archbishop of Lusaka?
How can we doubt it to have come from them who have called Archibishop Alick Banda as Lucifer?” Hon Lubinda wondered.
He was speaking when he officiated at the PF Central Committee Meeting aimed at continuing with the process of reviewing the party constitution to prepare the party and its members to go for the Elective Extraordinary Conference.
The PF Vice-president says there no one in the party structures who is not desirous of having the Extraordinary Conference as all members are eager to have it.
He says the party cannot afford to destroy the country by being quiet because the devil is at work and he is attacking the PF hence they are being condemned for leaking a letter as if they are the ones in government.
“We know the forces that worked against us before the 2021 elections when President Edgar Chagwa Lungu refused to allow homo$£xuality and when he said we were going to Zambianise the mines and take power away from foreigners and give giving it to citizens. We provoked the powers that run this world,” he said.
Hon Lubinda says the party still stands on that fi statement even when the current Government seems undecided on its position on the said matters of whilst Zambianising the mines.
And Hon Lubinda has directed that until US Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzalez honors his courtesy call to the PF, no party member shall meet with the diplomat in their capacity as a PF member.
He has also condemned the humiliating and frustrating manner in which opposition Members of Parliament are being treated including unnecessary prolonged detentions.
Meanwhile, Hon Lubinda wished former PF Media Director Antonio Mourinho Mwanza and Director Administration Alick Tembo well in their future endeavors following their decisions to resign from the party.