POLITICALLY-INCLINED BISHOP BLASTED

…Church should stop him from dividing the nation – Rev. Lungu  By GIDEON NYENDWA THE Catholic Church should censure UPND politically-inclined former Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu who wants to divide the nation with impunity, Evangelical Youth Alliance (EYA) executive director reverend Moses Lungu has said. Rev Lungu sais Bishop Mpundu should take heed of the advice from Catholic Bishops for church leaders to be the voice of reason and not cause division. The Catholic Bishop had warned that the nation had never witnessed such things as abductions and shedding of blood  as was currently happening. In an interview, Rev Lungu said the former Archbishop as a clergyman was supposed to be praying for the peace of the nation rather than propagating hate speeches against President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front (PF). He said the former Archbishop was misrepresenting the values and principles of the Catholic Church by trying to destroy the nation with his hidden agenda. His remarks follows remarks by former Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu in an opposition tabloid urgning  Zambians not to vote PF back into power because “the Angel we do not know is better than the devil we know” in reference to the opposition and ruling party. Rev Lungu said it was unacceptable for the former Catholic Bishop to be divisive and preaching hate speech with impunity without the church censuring him. “He is not supposed to do that more especially that he is a clergy man. God entrusted in him to pray for peace of the land but the man is busy preaching hatred for his personal benefits. Let the Catholic church censure this UPND-inclined former Archbishop,” Rev. Lungu said. Rev Lungu further said that it was shocking for the former Archbishop who was once a respected man in the religious circles to be in the forefront of preaching hatred.  “The question we should be asking is what has gone wrong with the Archbishop? Is it because he has been promised something by the opposition?” Rev Lungu asked. Rev Lungu added that “the former Archbishop knows very well that the opposition leader, Hakainde Hichilema does not mean well for this country, he wants to take what the PF has built back into the hands of the foreigners.” Recently, the Catholic Church bishops issued a pastoral letter advising  church leaders to be neutral. [4:00 PM, 7/28/2021] Madam Kombe: More JJ vaccines acquired BY ADRIAN MWANZA THE ministry of Health has acquired an additional 151,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccines with the consignment expected in the country today. According to   Permanent secretary for Technical Services Dr Kennedy Malama the new doses are expected in the country this afternoon aboard an Emirates flight around 12:30 hours. Dr Malama said that the new dose would be an addition to the first consignment and that it was from the United States of America through the Covax project. He said that government had purchased a total of 4.4 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and was just waiting for the delivery before the end of the third quarter. Dr Malama said that the ministry was waiting for another dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine which would be in the country by the end of the month. ‘’The ministry is very cautious and cannot administer vaccines that have not been approved worldwide by established organisations,’’ he said. He said a total of 100000 individuals had been fully vaccinated which included the two doses of the AstraZeneca and the single dose of the Johnson and Johnson. And Dr Malama also  said that they had recorded a total of 21 Covid-19 related deaths in the country in the last 24 hours. He said he was happy with the rate of cases but said they had still not met their target of the five percent positivity rate. Dr Malama said the ministry had noted that certain individuals were taking Azithromycin to cure Covid-19 which was wrong because it was an antibiotic.