Mugabe savages clergy

Several of Zimbabwe’s influential Catholic bishops crossed paths with the 87-year-old president over escalating crackdowns in January after they penned a stinging rebuke to the Zanu (PF) leader in pastoral letters. At the official opening of the Zimbabwe Christian Churchs (ZCC) 18,000-seat multiple purpose conference centre at Mbungo estates in Masvingo last weekend, Mugabe accused catholic bishops having an obsession with criticising him.

I was born in the Roman Catholic, grew up in that church and still celebrate mass there, Mugabe said. But look at it in that very church year-in-year-out the bishops are criticising me. Why are they obsessed with me? Even our government is under scrutiny and thats all they focus on. They conveniently ignore all the good we are doing empowering the people, they don’t want to praise that. It’s as if our illustrious effort to liberate the country was nothing.

The January letter was signed by 10 high-ranking clergy, including the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference president and Bishop of Gokwe, Angel Floro, as well as the archbishops of Harare and Bulawayo. The liberation of Zimbabwe was achieved through the efforts of those who were inside the country, both armed and unarmed, outside the country and by the international community, the bishops letter said.

The claim to have monopoly in the liberation struggle by any single sector or party is therefore, false and may be the misconception solely responsible for the abuse of human rights and the erosion of the sovereignty of the citizens in Zimbabwe. About 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s population is Catholic and in their open letter the bishops called for an end to the active and tacit collusion of those undermining the fight against corruption.

We urge our political leaders to prioritize poverty eradication by proceeds from natural resources like diamonds, land, for the development of the whole nation and all its citizens, the bishops said. Corruption is a cancer destroying our nation. Prosecute wrong-doers and widely publicize any disciplinary action so that no one is seen to commit crime with impunity.

Desist from intimidating and mistreating members of the public, the media and civic communities. Uphold human rights.

The bishops urged uniformed forces to maintain peace and security for all citizens especially before, during and after elections.

The opposition says Mugabe has reduced the country’s police into an extension of his ruling Zanu (PF) party a charge denied by the government and the police. Despite his attacks Mugabe said the local churches had backed his empowerment programmes and singled out praise for ZCC leader, Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi, who had earlier supported the ageing leader.

Bishop Mutendi, who was given a farm by Mugabe to build an Agricultural University in Chinhoyi, said the president was anointed by God to rule Zimbabwe. We now realise we have church leaders who are blacks and lead their people in a holy way like ZCC and certain apostolic sects that were formed in the 1930s but were banned by the former colonialist, Mugabe said.

Black people should lead churches in the country because we own this country. We cannot continue to be led by Bishops with old ideologies like those of the Smiths and Rhodes who suppressed our people.