Critics charge that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is sitting on a dossier of human rights abuses in the Anglican Church while Bishop Nolbert Kunonga continues to strip the church, as the police watch.
In an interview with RelZim, Precious Shumba, spokesperson of Bishop Chad Gandiya, said, that Mugabe hasn’t yet acted on the dossier that Archbishop Rowan Williams presented the president with last year.
“As the Anglican Church in the Church of the Province of Central Africa, we are saddened by the continued failure of the police to protect us from abuse. In fact, the police have been at the forefront of denying us a right to use our churches, and the ex-communicated Dr Nolbert Kunonga has remained an untouchable,” said Precious Shumba.
“The President has details of the abuses and we were hoping that he would at least protect us, however that has not been forthcoming. It is really sad that Kunonga continues to deny people to churches that they built with their own money,” added the Anglican spokesperson.
Contrary to widespread belief that the church has been split along political lines and also due to differences on views regarding homosexuality, Gandiya said that Kunonga is fabricating the issues in
order to gain mileage with Mugabe. “We are not for any political party but for God. We have said it
before, that we are against homosexuality and that remains our position,” said Gandiya at a meeting dedicated to a development of theology dialogue series recently.
Gandiya’s spokesperson, Shumba, claims that Kunonga is being protected by the police. “The police keep protecting him, despite him violating the law. Zimbabwe recognises the right to worship, as provided in the Constitution, but Anglicans have been grossly abused,” said Shumba. “We have been treated like criminals. All the court rulings that supported the CPCA were defied by either Kunonga or the police. And the only judgement that supported Kunonga is being challenged in the Supreme Court.”
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