UPND Deputy Secretary General Patrick Mucheleka says President Edgar Lungu was not a Christian when he was residing in Chawama compound, adding that there is no church from where the Head of State’s religious background can be traced.

And Mucheleka says it would be a mistake to block Kambwili from taking part in the January 18 Dialogue process.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s Lusaka Star program, Tuesday, Mucheleka said all past Presidents had traceable Churches where they congregated except for President Lungu.

“President Lungu was recently in Kitwe where he was quoted that those who want to take over from him must be Christians like him. Come on! Who tells president Lungu that the others are not Christians and he is the only Christian? First of all, we know where we are coming from, we know who president Lungu was. Even today if you ask him to tell you which Church he belongs to, he won’t tell you. He came from Chawama, people who live in Chawama know that he never used to go to any of the Christian Churches, if he became a Christian, perhaps he became a Christian after becoming President. But even with that, he has no right to judge, he believes that no one else is a Christian but himself,” Mucheleka said.

“When you are a Christian there are certain Biblical and Christian values that you are expected to push for, such as promotion of peace, justice, reconciliation and equity. I am Catholic myself and I know that president HH is SDA, I know that late president Sata was Catholic, I am not sure about former president Rupiah Banda, but I know that President Mwanawasa was a Jehovah’s Witness and later converted to being a Baptist, late President Chiluba was a member of UCZ, founding President, Kenneth Kaunda, son of a Church minister from the United Church of Scotland, and later on UCZ. But for President Lungu, you can’t say which Church he belongs to, who is his pastor?”

Meanwhile, Mucheleka said the alliance of ten opposition political parties was giving the PF sleepless nights.

“The alliance of ten political parties is the greatest 2018 year end gift to the people of Zambia and a 2019 New Year’s gift. When we are talking about the abuse of public order act, the victim is not only UPND, the victim is also NDC, the victim is PeP, PAC is also a victim, ADD and all well-meaning political parties, except those that are aligned to the PF such as the MMD Mutati faction who are allowed to hold meetings with or without police notification. That is not the case with other political parties, we are ever followed and harassed wherever we go,” Mucheleka said.

And Mucheleka noted that the PF were trying to frustrate the dialogue process by shunning meetings called by the three Church mother bodies

“There are people who have tried to distabilise the dialogue process, on the 28th of December, the three Church mother bodies were able to convene a successful dialogue consultative meeting with political parties, 25 serious political parties turned up. Of course our friends from PF boycotted that meeting. We are hoping that on 18th January, all political party leaders will turn up. It is in the interest of all stakeholders and the country to have this dialogue. When we have tension in the country we should dialogue. Of course in PF, there are those hotbeds that would want the situation to continue being the same that the tension should continue, no! We should be able to fix this,” Mucheleka said.

Mucheleka also warned the PF that an attempt to prevent NDC consultant Chishimba Kambwili from attending the dialogue process was a big mistake.

“Concerning my brother Kambwili, if you are called to a meeting and other people have also been called, how would you start complaining about other people who have been invited? If NDC themselves have decided that they send their consultant Honourable Chishimba Kambwili to represent them, how should that worry anyone? Why should PF or someone in ZCID be worried if NDC decide to send Hon. Kambwili to represent them? Hon. Kambwili is a major stakeholder in this country, we all know that. And if you think you can use this process to get at him, you are making a very big mistake, let NDC decide who should represent them. You cannot start prescribing to others how they should attend the dialogue meeting, we cannot not go to PF and say since President Lungu is a republican President he cannot attend the dialogue meeting, no, he is the president of PF as well, leave that to PF to decide,” said Mucheleka.