I am not sure how a renegade bishop, ex-communicated from the Anglican Communion who sets up his own church and makes himself a bishop, can actually have an order of nuns at his disposal but presumably that is a mere technicality for someone like Kunonga. After all, he has Zanu PF and the police on his side and was physically assisted by the ZRP when his thuggish followers raided Daramombe Mission in the south of the country and evicted teachers, nuns and priests.
It was the attack on St Johns Mission just outside Murehwa that really caught my attention. That area of the country was my home for over ten years and I still have friends there. Like most Zimbabweans they are church goers and they must be appalled to see their churches being taken over by this renegade priest/turned land-grabber. The fact that Kunonga had a High Court judgement that gave him authority over all Anglican properties means little when one remembers that it was the Chief Justice who made the order.
A fellow judge this week confirmed something that many of us have long suspected when he described the Chief Justice as a ‘rabid party man’. Of course, the Chief Justice was going to find in Kunonga’s favour and this week the ‘Bishop’ followed through and evicted the nuns who care for 100 children at the Shearly Cripps Orphanage. While Kunonga may not have physically hurt the children, his action in depriving them of their carers must have left the youngsters traumatised.
Almost as shocking as this attack on the nuns and their charges was the fact that it was received in total silence by other Christian denominations. No church as far as I know has publicly spoken out to condemn Kunonga’s actions against the Anglican Church. The Christian spirit seems sadly lacking in Zimbabwe but then, as I understand it, Mugabe himself has condemned his own Catholic church because it is ‘run by white men’
There is no doubt that Mugabe has become more anti-white as the election draws closer. Perhaps he thinks that’s what ‘his’ people want to hear. When he launched his party’s manifesto this week he referred to whites as ‘mabhunu’, a term of racial abuse he once used about non-Zimbabwean African residents of Mbare. It is no wonder white business people are worried about their future in the country when Cabinet Ministers appear to be following Kasukuwere’s lead on the takeover of foreign owned companies.
Like the farm invasions, this is clearly a politically inspired move on Zanu PF’s part but unlike the land invasions it is doubtful whether indigenisation of mines will actually happen. Speaking at a mining conference, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines described the 51% of shares required from foreign-owned mining companies as ‘an aspiration not a target.’ At the same event Obert Mpofu said the government would not cancel the licences of mining companies that have not complied. Confusion reigns supreme and we can only expect more of the same in the run-up to the elections
Mugabe’s reported fury about Wikileaks and the threat to prosecute the ‘leakers’ would leave him short of praise-singers – and that could seriously damage his ego! Chief among his praise singers is Webster Shamu, the Minister of Media Information, who says he will cancel the licences of any newspaper or radio station that vilifies Mugabe. “We are not against criticism,” Shamu says, “but no vilification.”
He goes on to accuse private radio stations of “vitriolic attacks and the use of hate language against the person of His Excellency the President. The problem is that Zanu PF regard anything less than fulsome praise and fawning flattery as criticism. This cult of the personality that has dominated Zimbabwean politics for so long is profoundly damaging to democracy, not least because it seriously affects one’s judgement and mental powers!
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH. aka. Pauline Henson author of the Dube books, detective stories with a political slant set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu.com
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