ANGLICAN priest Fr Richard Luonde has described the Post closure as evil.
In an interview, Fr Luonde called on the church to condemn President Edgar Lungu and his government’s decision to liquidate a company that employed over 2,000 people.
“The Post has gone through a lot of tribulation. For it to reach the levels that it had reached, it was a struggle by one person, who could have even been told by his family to say ‘what you are doing will not bring you anything’. Now after The Post grows through the able leadership of Dr Fred M’membe, the devil from within comes to destroy something that was earned after so much struggle. God does not allow that,” Fr Luonde said.
“That is why for me, The Post, I still pray, will never go under. That is why the people persecuting the proprietor of The Post Newspaper will fail lamentably because the route they have taken is an evil route. It was not lawful and it will never be lawful. Therefore, you begin to ask: where is the church to defend those who have struggled to raise their money? Is it because they have not given to the church so that the money could be misused? Is it that the church, because of the envelopes that [they] receive from the powers that be, have been blinded? I am sure these things I have mentioned have happened in our nation and God is watching.”
He said Zambians were now slowly seeing that what had happened to The Post was unjust.
He said it was unfortunate that the government wanted to liquidate a newspaper that was giving truthful information to Zambians.
“They want to bring the proprietor of The Post Dr M’membe to the ground but by God’s grace, Fred will not be grounded because what was being revealed in the paper was the truth. The PF have easily forgotten that it was The Post that made them win the elections in 2011. Dr Fred has been helping Zambians by giving them proper information in the nation. It is the first time I am seeing such kind of liquidation not just in Zambia, but the whole world where tax becomes an issue and involves all arms of government to make sure that The Post is destroyed,” Fr Luonde said.
“God is watching and appreciates servants…those who do good are always protected by Him. Churches in Zambia should not just be there to see how to benefit from the poor. They should always be on the side of the poor, the oppressed because when you are on the side of the poor…even those who are rich are poor at heart. That is why they work not just for themselves but also for the poor. This is what The Post was doing. If they wanted, The Post would have been there to support anything simply for their pockets. But The Post stood for the truth. They did not care about making money, they were not praise singers…all they wanted was to give correct information.”
He said The Post had been closed because it had exposed those that made wealth through corruption.
The clergyman appealed to church leaders to condemn the oppression of The Post and its workers.
“In Zambia today, pastors, priests, reverends and ministers of the word of God have not seen anything wrong in our government today. They have not seen anything wrong because they are blinded by the envelopes that they get from this government. To them, money is better than a destroyed life. To them, money is everything. But they forget that money finishes quickly and money earned through dubious ways also disappears through dubious ways,” Fr Luonde said. “In Zambia today, the church has turned a blind eye at the calamities and oppression obtaining in the nation today. Pastors, priests, let me say the clergy, don’t care about anything because each and every Sunday, they are receiving gifts through offerings, tithes, which only go to enrich their livelihoods, forgetting about the poor in church.”
He said it was sad that church leaders were only concentrating on making money through the churches they presided over and not helping their communities.
“Church leaders, how are you making your money? You drive expensive cars but your members are suffering. What is happening in the churches is that pastors are making money at the expense of their congregation. God has always been watching. I can assure my fellow church leaders that time will come when we are going to account for our sins and it will be very sad,” said Fr Luonde.