Zambia has expelled a Catholic Rwandan cleric for allegedly inciting violence after a sermon where he said the poor were getting poorer while the rich got richer, a minister said yesterday.

“A Rwandese priest based at Lundazi parish identified as Father Viateur Banyangandora, aged 40, has been deported to his country of origin for violating the laws of this country,” Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu said in a statement.

A parishioner from Lundazi, an eastern town near the border with Malawi, told AFP on the phone that Fr Banyangandora during last Sunday’s Mass said that poor people were becoming poorer while the rich were getting richer, a move he said was tantamount to injustice which the Catholic Church detests.

Mr Lungu said the clergy had violated the country’s immigration laws as his “conduct was found to be a danger to peace and good order in Zambia”.

Fr Banyangandora was picked from Lundazi, about 850 kilometres from Lusaka, and brought to the capital for questioning.

“The priest who was picked and brought to Lusaka on Monday by a team of immigration officers for interviews, was deported yesterday (Wednesday) to Rwanda.

He had been preaching in Zambia since November 2006.