Reverend Clifford Dzavo, the Secretary for the Diocese of Harare, said in an interview the church had lost 90 churches countrywide valued at $4 million each and also 70 houses valued at $100 000 each.
Apart from churches and houses Kunonga has also taken over schools, which were at one point the church’s major cash cow.
Last week the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Rowan Williams, met President Robert Mugabe and handed him a dossier detailing the abuses that the church has suffered in the hands of Kunonga, who is now armed with a court order in his favour. But Dzavo says that the church does not hope for much from Mugabe who has a soft spot for the ex-communicated bishop.
“We do not hope that much will come from Mugabe, as he indicated that the matter is currently in the courts. But he did promise to look at the issues to do with lawlessness being perpetrated by Kunonga.
A recent High Court ruling gave Mugabe’s bishop control of the church. But on Wednesday the High Court ordered him to stop harassing workers at churches he has seized.
Thousands of people across the country, who have in the past benefited from the CPCA charity work, are falling through the cracks because of the church standoff and the consequent flight of donors who are scared of Kananga’s heavy handed methods.
Meeting in Harare on Wednesday the MDC-T National Executive bemoaned the chaos that has engulfed one of the oldest churches in Zimbabwe because of political patronage.
“Churches have ceased to be a place of worship and spiritual solitude but have become havens of political patronage and violence. The Anglican Church community has, since 2007, been traumatized as the police and Zanu (PF) continue to side with a group loyal to renegade Bishop Nolbert Kunonga to destabilise parishes and ordinary people,” said Douglas Mwonzora, the party’s spokesperson.
Post published in: News