ARCHBISHOP Telesphore Mpundu has charged that President Edgar Lungu is dangerous, and by the time Zambians realise, it will be too late to challenge him.
In an interview, Archbishop Mpundu said President Edgar Lungu only had his own vision instead of the country’s.
He charged that the President wanted to rule like an emperor until 2032.
“When Edgar Lungu took office, he presented himself to be a humble President who did not even have a vision for this country. He had a vision for himself. In Edgar Lungu, this country has spawned a dragon in the authoritarian he has become so that he does not care whether this country goes up in flames or not, provided he remains in power. I do not know which religion he patronises, all I know is that he cannot be a Christian because if he were one, he would know that the third and greatest temptation the devil offered Jesus was worldly grandeur and power,” he said.
“If people do not realise how dangerous this man is, it will be too late when the fire erupts. Where the Constitution says only two terms of five years, ten maximum, he wants to reign like an emperor from the time he jumped on to the Zambian throne till 2032. At that time, he will just be too powerful to be challenged by anyone even in his own party which by the way has just failed to depose him thanks to the criminals inside the echelons of the PF party. Vote for PF for money in the pockets of the criminals and the top echelons of the PF administration.”
And Archbishop Mpundu said PF cadres were a threat to the peace of the country.
“PF cadres are a threat to the peace of this country. PF cadres are an illegal militia, armed and uniformed and under the protection of the President himself. They are a law unto themselves. They are also inherited from UNIP via MMD. UNIP called them the youth wing, then vigilantes but MMD preferred the name cadres. Cadres are criminals and crooks who should be criminalised and put behind bars for a lengthy period of time. I call upon President Lungu to act decisively and now otherwise it will be too late. Our government is captured by the criminals then with the government this concubinage has terrorised and looted the nation thereby holding it to ransom. When the law stops protecting you from criminals but rather protects the criminals from you, then you know that your country is in deep trouble. This is where Zambia is,” he said.
Archbishop Mpundu also refuted the statement attributed to him in a daily newspaper as having said that the opposition political parties were disorganised and could not unseat the current regime.
“I wish to refute categorically the statement attributed to me by the public daily newspaper, the Daily Mail that the opposition political parties are disorganised so they cannot unseat the current Edgar Chagwa Lungu regime. I reminded them that to begin with, there is never a level political ground for political mobilisation between the opposition and the party in power in terms of availability of resources such as money, facilities like transport. There is no level ground in the use of public communication facilities such as radio, TV and newspapers. There is no level ground when it comes to campaigning for opposition political parties due to the Public Order Act. POA was enacted in 1955 by the British Colonial Administration to prevent mass mobilisation of the Northern Rhodesia people in demand for political independence,” he said.
“To date, 65 years after enactment of the POA, successive Zambian governments have used it against their own people. It is very shameful because the police suppress only the meetings of the opposition but not of the ruling party. How can opposition political parties mobilise people, sell their vision and mission to the public only when they are attacked, beaten up, injured and their property destroyed in the exercise of their liberties and freedoms?”