Pius Ncube says farewell

raw bales and pews in the garden of St Mary’s Cathedral in the dinghy Makokoba suburb for Ncube’s farewell service. He handed over the reins to Father Martin Schupp, but said he would remain a Catholic Bishop and would move into an office just next door to Fr Schupp.
Ncube, who has been accused of having an extra-marital affair with a married woman, has been head of the Bulawayo Catholic Archdiocese for years. Members of the congregation sang for Baba Ncube – mostly in Shona. Teenagers danced for him, white and sky blue-scarved members of the Sodality gave him gifts and church officers promised to carry on his work.
Ncube, whose active stand against the government of President Mugabe has been welcomed by many Zimbabweans, resigned after the eruption of an alleged sex scandal saying he wanted to shield the church from further attacks by the Mugabe regime.
“There are some of you who are terribly hurt, who could not eat or sleep because of my persecution. But God knows why this happened,” Ncube said, calling the alleged sex scandal a propaganda campaign by the State press. While Ncube has over the past year spoken out fearlessly against the government – he said that the international community had to do “anything that makes it hard for the regime to survive, anything that takes away its credibility” – his words on Sunday bore little trace of bitterness. He made only one reference to the “disgraceful things happening in our nation.”
“Some people are not eating at all because there is no food and nothing to buy in the shops,” he said. “There is so much suffering in this country. Let us pray for rain, food for our country.”
He said he had been offered professorships by several universities, but would not abandon the poor.
“I will not go home and rest,” he said. “Instead, I will continue working and suffering with the people. My passion is to preach the good news. Human rights are part of the good news of Jesus Christ,” said Ncube.