A Prominent Critic of President Robert Mugabe Resigns
Economist
September 13, 2007
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9804339
The Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, has joined the crowded ranks of those felled for speaking out against Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. In July, the state-run media aired photographs that they said showed the archbishop in a compromising position with a married secretary of his parish.
His supporters said it was a conspiracy to discredit him; Zimbabwe's Catholic church also stood by him. For many years he has criticised Mr Mugabe's regime in the strongest possible terms. But this week, facing adultery charges in court, he stepped down as archbishop of Zimbabwe's second largest city, denouncing the "crude machinations of a wicked regime".
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| Will his voice still be heard? |
The 60-year-old explained his decision as a move to protect his fellow bishops and the Catholic church. The government said his resignation was an admission of guilt. Some people believe he was, indeed, the victim of a cleverly-sprung government honey-trap.
Earlier this year, after opposition leaders had been arrested and beaten up, he called for street protests and, later, for foreign intervention to oust Mr Mugabe. He also said he was praying for the president's death. Mr Mugabe, himself brought up as a Catholic, told clergy who spoke out against him that they were on a "dangerous path".
Archbishop Ncube, who took up his post in Bulawayo in 1997, is an Ndebele whose homeland, in western Zimbabwe, was subject to the government's brutal repression in the 1980s, leaving many thousands of people dead. He said he would remain a Catholic bishop and would not be silenced. But it is unclear whether he will retain his moral authority.
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