South African clerics attack SADC inaction over Mugabe crackdown

By Lance Guma
13 April 2007

Senior Catholic clerics from South Africa visiting Zimbabwe have condemned SADC leaders for failing to speak out on Mugabe’s crackdown against the opposition. Archbishop Buti Tlagale from Johannesburg and Bishop Kevin Dowling from Rustenburg said regional leaders were in fact giving tacit approval to Mugabe’s tactics by not speaking out. ‘The church is challenging SADC leaders because they are silent and letting this oppression go on," Bishop Dowling said during a prayer service in Bulawayo. ‘Our political leaders by their silence are cooperating in the oppression of Zimbabweans and we are going to tell this," he said.

Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube is hosting Bishops Dowling and Tlagale. The clerics compared Zimbabwe’s situation to that under apartheid South Africa. ‘Apartheid did what the current regime is doing to Zimbabweans. Listening to your stories has helped us remember and realise that the oppression here and the oppression we endured is very similar," Dowling said. Archbishop Tlagale urged churches in Zimbabwe and the region to work for social change through sustained campaigns ‘until evil dissipates.’ Reports say the service was dominated by police interference with some of the pastors who were expected to address the congregation being prevented from doing so.