Lusaka’s Chawama Catholic Church Parish Priest Fr. Anthony Kapambwe Salangeta has said sometimes politicians can be deceitful and detached from reality.
Fr. Salangeta said people on the ground are interested in issues that directly affect them as opposed to rhetoric by politicians.
In his homily during Mass attended by former President Edgar Lungu and several Patriotic Front (PF) officials, Fr. Salangeta said people should tell politicians to be realistic.
He said politicians should not behave like Men of Galilee, who stood looking into heaven when Jesus had ascended into heaven.
In his sermon, Fr. Salangeta preached on many issues that include preparing a succession plan, delegation of responsibilities and the need to move on after disappointments in life.
Before he started preaching, Fr. Salangeta had recognised and welcomed Mr. Lungu and his entourage to Chawama Catholic Church.
The Priest told Mr. Lungu that he was welcome to Chawama Catholic Church at any time.
“I would like to recognise the presence of the former President, His Excellence Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu, abanensu ba lyonse aiini? Mwaiseni mukwai ne bumba lyenu lyonse. Twamipokelela kuno ku Chawama, kuti mwaisafye epo mulefwaila. Ifya kumfwa umfwa kulabakofye ifyo.Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Jesus goes back to his Father. This is day number 40 after we celebrated the Feast of Easter. We celebrate events that happened in one day as we commemorate Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. These feasts are separated to help us understand very well. It is like a lesson in a classroom. The Church want us to learn what happened on Easter until 40 days that is when we celebrated Ascension and the coming week we will be celebrating Pentecost the descending of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus Christ. This is another event that occurred on Easter. We are saying these events occurred on the same day,” Fr. Salangeta.
“We need move in life. We need to move bamunyinane. If we are not progressing in life it means we are not doing anything. Sometimes these politicians are full of lies. Sometimes ababene ba politician babufi ilingi aba. Baliba mu mulu aii? Mukasanga ifwe tatwaishiba nafilya balanda ati GDP (Gross Domestic Product), balelemba na ba graph. Millennium Development Goals, Zambia will reach SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) shani…Zambia ya reaching’a ama SAP yanga. Nanomba ma graph, kwa Misisi graph? Kwa Misisi lutoshi lwa bwali aii. Kwa Misisi kuti afyumfwa, kwa Jack lutoshi lwa bwali luli pa table alelya umuntu. E kwisa panshi not iyoo graph. No no. Ngataukwete ubwali, ubunga mu Zambia ninshi tapali efyo uli aii? So mulebeba ababene,” he said.
Fr. Salangeta indirectly made reference to President Hakainde Hichilema’s use of digital graphs to explain Zambia’s economy.
During last week’s press conference in Lusaka, President Hichilema used a graph to show growth trends in real Gross Domestic Product from 1973 to 2023.
Meanwhile, Fr. Salangeta at the end of Mass told Mr. Lungu that losing elections was not the end of life.
He said there was a lot Mr. Lungu could do after losing elections.
Fr. Salangeta said the Sixth Republican President should continue interacting with others.
“Once again we want to thank our visitors, continue with the same spirit. Losing (elections) is not dying. There is more to life in the World. People are not supposed to just stay home like in cage. We are human beings, we are social beings, we have to associate with others. They have come to worship, to interact with others. Thank you Mr. President, today I won’t call you to deliver some remarks. I am avoiding to hear Edgar this. Thank you so much. God bless you,” he said.
More and more Zambians are waking up to the reality that they were lied to by the failure hh. Most ignorant Zambians voted for upnd because the disaporans sold them a lie. How does a sane person vote for a party funded by gays ? The upnd disaporans are there abroad living freely while you here are suffering under hh.
Kaizer Zulu
A lot people may not like your comments and your style, but do speak the truth. HH has turned out to be d**k h**d. He is too possessed standing shoulder to shoulder with these white western who have are just using him to scratch china.
I speak nothing but the truth. I have no reason to lie to my people. I am and will die a patriot unlike hh
We are known for taking action at the ballot box. We are very civilised.
I’m dismayed by the insults that the sermon has attracted from UPND circles. Instead of getting the Father’s message they’ve elected to insult him. Even UNIP did the same at one time to the extent of KK vowing to ensure that Catholics walked on the rosary but he was defeated hands down. KK surrendered even before the ballot was counted. The Fathers interact with the grassroots daily while HH is deceived by his praise singers. The Father’s message is the reality on the ground. UPND will be gone and forgotten but the Catholic Church shall be there till the day of resurrection
I would like to find out why a catholic priest has the guts to claim people in the Komboni dont eat graphs. This naive priest should be told that a president is responsible to secure economic well-being for the whole country. The graphs shows key factors affecting people in Zambia including why some face hardships. This priest should be helping the Komboni people to prioritise using their money for food instead of using money for drinking Kachasu! The priest looked like he just had taken some Kachasu the previous night. How can this priest understand graphs representing what is happening at national level??? It is increasingly clear that people who believe in religious spiritual powers also easily believe in witchcraft. Only fools calls one evil spirit and another holy spirit
I have been attending numerous press conferences in the world. I have never seen presidents hiding their messages in graphs. Put another way there are usually no graphs at a Presidential press conference because Presidents would want to avoid talking to themselves in their ivory towers. They should talk to the whole nation from Soweto marketeers to soldiers in the Armies, to kaponyas at Lusaka City Bus stop. For graphs, they have technocrats who do that for them in workshops. A press conference isnt a lecture theatre.
What the priest said is the flip side of “Bushe tukalya imisebo?”
Yes losing is not the end. The end is only when you die. Edgar should find a hobby that will keep him busy and off HH’s radar.
Move on my friend…the homily was an advise to both HH and Edgar.
@ Kaizer Zulu,you are very wise because everything you have been saying has turned out to be true.
I thank you so much. I just wish the others could open their eyes and brains
This Catholic Priest is a true Servant of the most high God,he is very right,may God bless him,so apapene the dull praise singers will start insulting,because that`s all the know
BA PAPA, BA PRIEST, BA PASTOR , PLEASE DONT BEHAVE LIKE BA KAPONYA IN HOLY PLACES . LOOKING AT DRAMA DISLAYED BY AN ORDAINED AND COMMISSIONED MAN OF GOD, AWE, FIMBIFIMI FYE. BU KAPONYA IS NOW TOO MUCH IN CHURCHES . ANYWAY , PANSAKA TAPABULALA CHIPUBA
BA PAPA, BA PRIEST, BA PASTOR , PLEASE DONT BEHAVE LIKE BA KAPONYA IN HOLY PLACES . LOOKING AT DRAMA DISLAYED BY AN ORDAINED AND COMMISSIONED MAN OF GOD, AWE, FIMBIFIMI FYE. BU KAPONYA IS NOW TOO MUCH IN CHURCHES .
INDICATORS OF BEHAVIOR BY THE PRIEST MADE MANY VIEWERS TO THINK THAT THE PRIEST HAD PROBABLY TAKEN SOME KACHASU , STRONG TBACCO, OR WAS JUST OVER ZEALOUS TO IMPRESS ECL AND OTHER PF SENIOR OFFICIALS WHO WERE IN ATTENDANCE
The priest should also ask if komboni people will eat schooling or sending their kids to schools………
It’s not right to insult president in that manner, the chief Commander , it’s too early to find bad things in him, let’s give him time and space to work for Us and respect
Fr. Salangeta preaching last Sunday was not coming from God. Whatever comes from God is identical with His Word – the Bible. Coming to the defence of the people who created a debt mountain for us and even defaulted in paying back by a Priest is indeed weakening the President’s bargaining power on debt restructuring before our Creditors. The Presser last Thursday brought out the question whether it is worth it to consult the former President on how to handle the corruption cases and/or whether we should continue treating the fight against corruption with very kind gloves?
Alaaaa stu.pid upnd praise singers.
The priest has a responsibility to speak on behalf of the poor. Get that into your heads.
Luke 4:18-19
If you think that the church will keep quiet while this useless puppet government mess up. Sorry you are wrong. From the time the graph was represented has the cost of living gone down! Upnd is a party for liars trained to lie to be lying.
Instead of discussing how people living in Kombonis can find sustainable ways of having decent meals each day, we have people here wasting time discussing the best way to tell people what causes their hunger!! Graphs presented by the president which depicts what caused their hunger has now annoyed a naive catholic priest and people spend time on this!! We are damned indeed.
I dont see the reason why His Excellence and the Spokesperson of the party had to respond to this. This is constructive opinion not even criticism .. Which the UPND said they welcomed. I think the UPND need time to reflect about this action…
This should have been an issue of taking note and said to themselves yes graphs were used the educated people got the message and this Priest is onto something now how can we make the ordinary poor Zambian understand the message, how can they believe the message, how will the resolutions be executed.