ALICK BANDA SHUNS STATE HOUSE MEETING
…as mingalato goes to the Vatican

ALICK BANDA SHUNS STATE HOUSE MEETING
…as mingalato goes to the Vatican

By Mast Reporter

The Mast has established that the much-publicised end-of-the-year meeting that President Hakainde Hichilema held with the Apostolic Nuncio to Zambia on Tuesday this week was supposed to be attended by the Archbishop of Lusaka Archdiocese Alick Banda, but the outspoken prelate refused to honour the request to do so.

Meanwhile, State House sources have revealed that following the exclusion of former president Edgar Lungu from the 2026 election, President Hichilema’s next priority is the ousting of Archbishop Banda from his position using the current Nuncio.

According to well-placed sources at both foreign affairs and State House, the Tuesday meeting was organised by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mulambo Haimbe.

“What happened is that sometime back, the Apostolic Nuncio to Zambia, Archbishop Gian Luca Perici, wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Hon. Haimbe requesting for a meeting over the possible establishment of the Order of Malte. As you know, the Nuncio is the Holy See’s diplomatic representative in Zambia and diplomats must go through the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations whenever they want to address an issue. Instead of providing a written response, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations went to meet the Nuncio at the Nunciature on two separate occasions, the 18th of December and on Monday this week, the 30th of December, when the two had lunch together. Now this is unusual in diplomatic circles because it should be the other way round where the Nuncio goes to see the Minister at the Ministry,” the sources observed. “When they met, Hon Haimbe, who is a practising Catholic, stated that the government has no problems with the establishment of the Order of Malta, but it had a problem with the Archbishop of Lusaka Dr Alick Banda. The Nuncio promised the Minister to do something about it. The Minister also informed the Nuncio that President Hichilema had specifically requested that Archbishop Perici should come to State House with Archbishop Banda so that the Nuncio could reconcile the two.”

The source stated that Archbishop Banda refused to accompany the Nuncio to State House for a variety of reasons.

“When they met for the second time on 30 December this week, the Apostolic Nuncio told Hon. Haimbe that he had tried his best to persuade Dr Banda to accompany him to deliver the letter to President Hichilema, but the Archbishop of Lusaka refused for a number of reasons. One was that the government was yet to apologise for calling him the Lucifer of Zambia. Two was that the government is yet to apologise for the recent cordoning of the Cathedral of the Child Jesus by the Zambia Police Service during the 10th memorial service of late president Michael Satac,” the sources said. “If you remember, both concerns have been raised by the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops, but the government has to date not addressed them. Because of these and other outstanding or unresolved issues, Archbishop Banda shunned the meeting at State House.”

The sources added that the desire to have Archbishop Banda present at the State House meeting was to create an impression that relations between the Catholic Church and the government were excellent.

“President Hichilema was very disappointed that Archbishop Banda snubbed the meeting. The Nuncio told the government that ‘I really tried my best to bring him along, but he refused’. The whole event had been planned on the premise that Archbishop Banda would attend the meeting. That is why you guys from the media were invited because the event was meant to create an impression of excellent relations between the State and the Catholic Church in Zambia. And what better way to show this than a meeting featuring President Hichilema and Archbishop Banda,” the sources said.

“In the morning, my colleague Clayson [Hamasaka] even phoned some journalists at private media houses asking them to not only send reporters to cover the very important event but also preserve the front-page headline for the President. So, when Archbishop Banda did not show up, everyone here [at State House] was disappointed because it affected the script we had planned. You could even tell from the body language of the President when he addressed the press before you guys were excused from the meeting that he was downcast”, the source said.

Meanwhile, sources who attended the closed-door meeting disclosed that President Hichilema bitterly complained to the Nuncio that Archbishop Banda does not like him.

“In the closed-door meeting, Archbishop Banda was the main subject. First, the President complained that Archbishop Banda had in May 2024 refused him to speak at a funeral mass for the late cabinet minister Aaron Milner.  Although he acknowledged that the archbishop was away at the time, the President felt that Dr Banda must have instructed the priest in charge to refuse the president to speak during the funeral mass of Mr Milner,” the sources said.

The sources said the Nuncio promised to see what he could do about Archbishop Banda.

“After ECL [former president Edgar Lungu] was disqualified from the 2026 election, President Hichilema was so happy. He even mentioned that his next priority is to lobby the Holy See to remove or transfer Archbishop Banda and then we will be home and dry. I don’t know if you are aware that he had even sent some cabinet ministers to go and lobby the Catholic Bishop of Mongu and two other dioceses to confidentially petition the current Nuncio to ask the Holy See to remove Archbishop Banda or have him transferred to Rome,” said the sources. “During the meeting on Tuesday, the new Nuncio, who drank more wine and listened more than he spoke, promised to see what he can do to help ensure that Archbishop Banda is removed. He said he is going back to Rome in January for an operation but will submit a report to Rome covering the misgivings the President has expressed against Archbishop Banda. He also pledged to seek audience with the Pope once he is back in Italy so that he can brief him in person.”