Maravi

There's no holiness in stealing, says Chiluba

There's no holiness in stealing, says Chiluba
By Noel Sichalwe and Laura Mushaukwa
Monday May 05, 2008 [04:00]

THERE is no holiness in stealing, fornication and adultery, former president Frederick Chiluba has said. And Chiluba has said people that are promoting condoms are fed up of the growth of Zambia's population. Chiluba made the remarks when he addressed a group of children known as Mandevu Holy Childhood from Mandevu Catholic Parish, who delivered solidarity messages at his Kabulonga home on Saturday.
Chiluba said many things were happening in the country and that only God was the answer.

He said people should genuinely repent and become committed to God's work. Chiluba said hardly a day passed without hearing of people dying from road traffic accidents.

He said the police needed to do a lot of work to ensure that people using public transport were safe.
He said even passengers should remind bus drivers that they were human beings and not cargo.

"Above all, nothing can bring change without prayer," he said. "We must be very focused and pray from the heart to fight the spirit of death. You know, there are two types of people who repent. The first one repents genuinely saying 'aponatampila ukwiba pafula' I have been stealing for a long time, and repents before he is caught. That person then turns from old ways to new ones.

That kind of repentance is helpful to a person. The other one steals until he is caught and that is when he says 'nalapila nshakabwekeshepo' I repent, I will never do it again. That kind of repentance is not genuine." Chiluba said people that were promoting condoms did not want the population of the country to grow.

"When people are saying it is safe to use a condom, they are saying it is not wrong to do that except that you should do it with a condom," he said. "Condoms have not come to fulfil God's desire. God wants us to be holy. He says be holy as I am holy. Therefore, there is no holiness in stealing, fornication and adultery."

Chiluba, who said a condom was not safe and that one could not manage to escape its consequences all the time, added that those who advertise their use were tired of the growth in the population.

"All they do is to give you false hope that all is well," he said. "It is not a good thing to do. Look at young people who have lost one or both parents? Those who advertise condoms come to spread the disease because safety lies only in abstinence."

Chiluba also pledged to work with Mandevu Holy Childhood and that he would support them in any way possible.

He encouraged the children to have hope.
He said the best moment for God to act was the time when the situation looked hopeless.

"I can imagine when the children of Israel were coming from Egypt, they came to a huge river bigger than the Zambezi River and they started telling Moses that he is a fool.

When Moses prayed to God, God said ‘what do you have in your hands?’ Moses said ‘I have a rod.’ That is how Moses used his rod to separate the waters and the children of Israel passed through the waters and escaped from their enemies," he said.

Chiluba encouraged the children that even if they had lost their parents, they did not lose everything because they were children of the Most High.

He said some of the children would be great leaders as long as they believed in the Bible that says, "those who walk in the valley of shadow of death shall fear no evil." He described the visit as very inspiring and that he had a wonderful afternoon.

After addressing the children, Chiluba shook hands with all 50 of them.
Chiluba's wife, Regina expressed displeasure at the high rate of cases of child sexual abuse.

Regina said it was sad that fathers, uncles, brothers and other relatives were sexually abusing children. She urged children to report any sexual abuse by adults even if they were threatened with death.

"If they say 'come to the bedroom, I want to tell you something', tell your mother, your neighbour or your priest. The children are being defiled because they are told that they will die. No, the devil is a liar," Regina said.

The children earlier sung solidarity songs, read the Bible scriptures, preached the word of God, lit candles and wished Chiluba God's blessings, recited poems and also read a speech.

Fridah Madeni read from Romans 4:18-22 in which the Bible encourages believers to have hope. After the Bible reading, Moses Banda preached saying they have been praying that God should increase Chiluba's faith and that he should continue hoping in Him as the only one who could solve the problems he was facing.

"Our prayer is that God should double the amount of hope and trust in you," Banda said. "Abraham didn't have reason to hope in God but still believed that God will do great things. You are the inspiration of all of us here and that is why we decided to come and visit you. As we have seen you, we are going back with the enthusiasm of being like you in future."

And in a speech to Chiluba, Mwaka Nampambe said the children decided to visit him to encourage him over what he had been going through. She said most of the children in the group did not go to school and were fending for themselves due to consequences of HIV/AIDS.

Nampambe said some of the children were double orphans who were surviving through piecework like fetching water for people and laundry.
She said most of the children lacked school requirements like pencils and books because they had limited resources. Nampambe hoped that somebody would assist them change their status quo.

Group coordinator Reginald Ngoma then invited Chiluba to worship with them at Mandevu Parish, to which he responded in the affirmative.
The children whose ages range from three to 14 years were later served with food before they left.

Meanwhile, Chiluba is today expected to open his defence in the criminal case where he is charged with theft of about US $500,000.
This is in a case before Ndola High Court Deputy Registrar Jones Chinyama who sits as a magistrate in Lusaka where Chiluba and former Access Financial Services directors Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu are charged with six counts of theft by public servant. The trio is alleged to have stolen the money between 1998 and 1999.

On May 31, 2007, Magistrate Chinyama ordered that Chiluba's trial should proceed after it was established that he was ready to stand trial but in private.

He made the order following a medical report by the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) ad hoc committee that was presented before court.

According to the report, Chiluba's condition though unpredictable had improved but he could only stand trial in private where the length of the proceedings could be monitored.

After ordering that the trial should proceed, Magistrate Chinyama asked Chiluba's lawyers to decide whether their client was going to stand trial in person or via video link. But Chiluba on August 14, 2007 opted to stand trial in person rather than via video link, saying he did not want to promote illegality.

When time came for ruling on whether he had a case to answer, Magistrate Chinyama found Chiluba with a case to answer after establishing a prima facie case against him.
Chiluba was then put on his defence.

Labels: CHILUBA, ETHICS

posted by MrK @ 3:32 AM