Zimbabwe Council of Churches boots out Mugabe Bishop

By Lance Guma
11 July 2006

Bishop Peter Nemapare lost his position as president of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) last week Wednesday amidst accusations he was conniving with Mugabe’s regime to help them win supporters in the church. More than 55 bishops and denominational heads made sure of Bishop Nemapare’s exit at the ZCC bi-annual assembly held in Harare. A report by the weekly Standard newspaper says Nemapare, a Bishop of the African Methodist Church in Bulawayo, had not served his full term. Nemapare however maintains his term of office had expired and all that happened was that he contested for another term and lost. War veteran and retired soldier Wilson Sitshebo, the Anglican Bishop for Matabeleland is the new president.

Newsreel reported a few weeks ago how Bishop Nemapare and a few other church leaders laughed out loud as Mugabe hurled insults at Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube. Nemapare has been captured several times on state television declaring his support for Mugabe. Lionel Saungweme reporting from Bulawayo says Nemapare’s history is littered with scandal. In the early eighties the Bishop, alongside the late minister Herbert Ushewokunze, were implicated in a National Railways of Zimbabwe housing scandal. They were accused of abusing a
house-buying scheme run by the railways to secure several properties for their own personal gain.

In October 1998 when the NCA organized a protest march against the military intervention in the DRC, Bishop Nemapare who was the moderator of the NCA at the time and also Vice-President of the ZCC, issued a press statement stating that the ZCC would not participate in the march. As a result police were able to claim that the march had been cancelled by its organizers and used tear gas to disperse those gathered. Activists within the civic movement alleged he did so under pressure from Mugabe.

Mugabe appointed Bishop Nemapare to the discredited government sponsored Constitutional Commission of 1999. Zimbabweans rejected the resultant constitutional proposals in a 2000 landmark referendum. Saungweme also revealed to us that the Bishop is related to Florence Chitauro, the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Australia and that his links to Zanu PF are very strong. He says most of the church leaders in Zimbabwe were traditional backers of Zanu PF during the liberation war and that this loyalty is the main problem that stops them condemning rights abuses in the country.