‘Archbishop Mpundu’s integrity is politically soiled’

ARCHBISHOP Telesphore Mpundu’s integrity is now politically soiled and it stinks of dirty politics, an aggrieved Zambian, Joze Manda has said.

Dr Manda said for those that have followed the Archbishop, it was clear that he was now pursuing a political agenda other than a religious one.

“Of late he has been consistent in showering negative criticism at President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front government and it is high time the PF treated him as such, a politician hungry for political power,” he said in a statement.

Dr Manda said Archbishop Mpundu was also a founder member of OCIDA, whose main agenda was to discredit the PF government and help UPND usurp political power.

He said Archbishop Mpundu had broken the code of conduct expected of an Archbishop, serving or retired and now there was no doubt as to whether he was politically tinted or not.

“The question is can he be redeemed from his fall from grace?” Dr Manda said.

Dr Manda said it was shocking and at the same time difficult to fathom what demon had possessed Archbishop Mpundu for him to go out ballistic in public and literally start uttering unpalatables against the Head of State.

“Since his retirement, the archbishop has gone out of his way attacking the PF government without offering any solutions. His political stance and statements have been those that sound like they come from a disgruntled politician and not a man of God whose responsibility is to unite and not to divide people,” he said.

Dr Manda said it was regrettable that Archbishop Mpundu had allowed himself to be used by people who do not mean well for the country.

He observed that the same people wanted to use the archbishop to deliberately create enmity between President Lungu and the Catholic Church.