Maravi

Rupiah has no moral authority to continue ruling Zambia - Fr Bwalya

Rupiah has no moral authority to continue ruling Zambia - Fr Bwalya

Written by Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe and Abigail Chaponda in Ndola
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has no moral authority to continue ruling Zambia because he has failed to protect the Constitution after swearing to do so, dismissed Radio Icengelo station manager Fr Frank Bwalya has charged.

And Fr Bwalya said he is proud to have been fired for telling the truth.

Meanwhile, Catholic Diocese of Ndola treasurer general Father Augustine Mwewa has said it is disappointing that Bishop Noel O'Regan had succumbed to the pressures of the MMD government to remove Fr Bwalya from Radio Icengelo.

Speaking live on Radio Icengelo yesterday, Fr Bwalya said President Banda's administration, which had refused to suspend transport minister Dora Siliya while she was being probed by the Dennis Chirwa Tribunal for alleged abuse of office, had prevailed over his appointing authority to remove him.

Catholic Diocese of Ndola Bishop O’Regan wrote to Fr Bwalya last week, asking him to step down as Radio Icengelo station manager at the end of April and also removed him from Ipusukilo Parish.

He said President Banda's go-ahead for him to hold a public function had come a little too late when police had already infringed on his right to hold the public function.

Fr Bwalya said he was happy to be rejected for telling the truth and speaking on behalf of the poor.

“The MMD has been calling for my removal and it has paid off,” Fr Bwalya said. “It is a great day for them.”

He said he was going to remain a priest as he had not committed any wrong against the church and the people.

Fr Bwalya urged his flock not to engage in any violence and asked them to start celebrating because a new spirit of Zambia was born. He said his removal from Radio Icengelo was the analogy of Jesus Christ's crucifixion as indicated by Zachariah that he would be struck and rise after three days.

“I have been struck and my flock has been scattered but I will rise after three days,” Fr Bwalya said. “I wish to state that I will stay in the tomb of suppression for three days. Thereafter, I will continue with the struggle. I don't intend to go anywhere. A shepherd does not go anywhere; I am not going to go out there to die and come back in a coffin. I will continue to serve Radio Icengelo as a volunteer; a general worker digging rubbish pits and slashing. I am your Easter; E standing for evangelising. I have evangelised to you on the radio and in evangelising to you, I was arrested. I have continued suffering for you and I have been thrown into a tomb; after three days, the tomb will be empty and I will resurrect in the hearts of the people.”

Fr Bwalya declared that the struggle for a new spirit of Zambia had started.

“The struggle has started and no one will quench the fire of change in the hearts of people,” he said. “That's why I set the fire in the hearts of people, not some external fire place. The struggle will reach its climax in 2011 when the people of Zambia will put in power a man or woman who loves us the way Super Ken (Dr Kenneth Kaunda) loved us before power got to his head; the way (Frederick) Chiluba loved us before he became a thief; the way Levy Mwanawasa loved us, may his soul rest in peace, before he got entangled with the corrupt regime that put him in power.”

He said the struggle that had started would remove the new colonisers who wanted to dictate what Zambians thought.

Fr Bwalya also dismissed assertions that he wanted to form new political party. He said the New Liberation Struggle for Zambia through ‘Change or Die Zambia’ had been handed over to the people and that new T-shirts that did not bear his image would be printed for sale.

Fr Bwalya also said he had instructed his lawyers to seek legal redress on whether it was constitutional for the police to infringe his right to hold a public function. He said his right to address a press briefing and hold a public rally as guaranteed by the Constitution had been infringed upon by the police when they denied him a permit to do so.

Fr Bwalya said there was nowhere in the Constitution where a priest is barred from holding a rally, although it would have been the first time.

He also announced that he would go to complain before a magistrate in Kitwe this Friday at 09:00 hours against the threats issued by the MMD in Ndola because he did not agree with the response that police spokesperson Bonny Kapeso gave him.

He said Kapeso told him that threats of violence against him as published by The Post did not constitute an offence.

Recently, sources told The Post that MMD and government officials were plotting to pay women clad in Catholic Women Organisation chitenge materials to demand the removal of Fr Bwalya at the press briefing that he was supposed to have held yesterday at Buchi Hall.

The sources further disclosed that Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde and Copperbelt minister Mwansa Mbulakulima met Bishop O'Regan to, among other issues, draw to his attention the security fears that they felt Fr Bwalya's activities were fuelling on the Copperbelt.

Thereafter, the MMD called for Fr Bwalya's removal from Radio Icengelo and claimed that his messages were dividing the Catholic faith.

The MMD had also threatened to disrupt the public meeting that Fr Bwalya was supposed to have held yesterday before the police asked him to cancel the function.

Fr Bwalya has been an ardent critic of the Rupiah Banda administration, branding it as corrupt. He was in November last year arrested and detained overnight for suggesting that the 2008 by-election was not free and fair.

And Fr Mwewa said he missed the late Bishop Dennis de Jong's services because he was a man who never feared the government.

“If he was alive, he would never have allowed government to intimidate Fr Bwalya,” he said.

Fr Mwewa said he was frustrated and hurt by the decision Bishop O'Regan took in handling Fr Bwalya's issue.

“I am very disappointed with the Bishop. The truth is I am ready to face him and if he wants, he can suspend me. What he did by removing Fr Bwalya was wrong; he would have first called him and talked to him, not just giving in to the pressures of the government,” Fr Mwewa said.

Fr Mwewa vowed to support Fr Bwalya regardless of what people thought of him because he would never give in to the pressures of the government.

“Why have we allowed government to play on our minds? This now clearly shows that we are giving a loophole for these cadres to rule us. Why has our Bishop allowed politicians to infringe on the rights of Fr Bwalya; this is wrong,” said Fr Mwewa.

Labels: FRANK BWALYA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:05 AM