Rogue Bishop Kunonga in plea to Mugabe

Rogue former Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga wrote a letter to President Robert Mugabe claiming that Co-Home Affairs Ministers Giles Mutsekwa was harassing him.

Speaking to London based SW Radio Africa on the Behind the Headlines programme Minister Mutsekwa said he convened a meeting with police commanders last week to find out why police were siding with Kunonga’s faction in the dispute over property.

The Anglican Church is locked in a bitter dispute over its property with Kunonga who was excommunicated in 2007 after attempting to unilaterally withdraw the Diocese of Harare from the Central African Province.

Despite a High Court order that the two factions share church property until the matter is resolved, Kunonga’s small but violent group have been locking church buildings and harassing their rivals with tacit support from the police.

Mutsekwa told SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma that police commanders actually complained that the dispute was tarnishing their name. He later held a meeting with the Attorney General Johannes Tomana in which the AG seemed to back Kunonga’s claim to the property.

According to Tomana, Kunonga appealed the judgment in the High Court made by Justice Rita Makarau and on the basis of the appeal the judgment should be set aside. Mutsekwa however said he had a different view and did not agree with the Attorney General.

Minister Mutsekwa told the programme he is working hard to resolve the crisis bedevilling the Anglican Church but conceded the dispute had become politicised with Kunonga enjoying support from the Mugabe regime and police.

Last week Wednesday thugs loyal to the excommunicated Bishop Nolbert Kunonga raided the home of an Anglican priest in Harare’s Hatfield suburb and attempted to evict him and his pregnant wife.

Kunonga recently ordained 32 ‘priests and assigned them churches while telling them to use whatever means to sustain them. Most of the churches forcibly taken are being leased out to businesses and other churches.

Around 4000 Anglican parishioners thronged Africa Unity Square in Harare the weekend before to hold an open air protest prayer against harassment from the police and Kunonga’s faction.

Click Here: To listen to Co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa on Behind the Headlines