UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema says his party has never supported gay rights.

On Wednesday, News Diggers published an editorial in which the newspaper challenged the UPND to set the record straight on their alleged support for gay rights by virtue of their membership to the Africa Liberal Network (ALN), an organisation that supports such rights.

And in a response published on his Facebook page, Thursday, Hichilema said he believed in Christian beliefs and values.

“Thank you News Diggers for this editorial, you are doing a great job and we know you mean well when you raise these issues that we are being accused of. But can we for once focus on issues that really matter to our people. As a matter of clarifications on such issues, though we know peddlers of falsehoods won’t stop. We know no satanism of any kind at all and have never participated in any of it’s activities. We do not and have never supported gay rights at any time,” Hichilema said.

“In our immediate household, all the five of us (wife, daughter, two sons and myself) are baptized members of the SDA church and are obedient followers of Christ and yet we still respect Christians from other denominations because we know that the body of Christ is one. We believe in Christian tenets and values which by His grace we strive to abide in our daily lives as a family.”

And Hichilema said his culture was derived from a deep respect of hard work and profound sense of duty.

“I am not and have never been a free mason as alleged by the PF hate (and)propaganda machine. I did not sell the Lower Zambezi National Park in any way. I am Hakainde Hichilema plain and simple and lead an honest and straightforward life and have nothing to hide. My personal culture is derived from a deep respect of hard work and profound sense of duty. That is the training I received from early childhood and from the free education I received from Zambians for which I will forever be grateful to our nation,” said Hichilema.

“May God abundantly bless our Nation and may He unify our land and it’s people. If anyone is not sure about something concerning HH all they need to do is ask me and I will answer in the most honest and prudent manner as guided by the Word of God in Matthew 5:37, “Let a no be a no and yes be a yes.”