Kunonga uses youth militia to take over Cathedral

By Lance Guma
15 February 2008

The ousted Anglican Bishop of Harare Nolbert Kunonga has reportedly set up residence at the Cathedral, along with 40 members of the notorious Zanu PF youth militia. The church had dismissed the controversial Mugabe supporter after he attempted to take the diocese away from the Church of the Province of Central Africa. Kunonga however is leading a defiance campaign and using hired thugs to block new bishop Sebastian Bakare and his parishioners from holding their services. The High Court had ruled that there should be a 90-minute separation between Kunonga and Bakare’s services, with those led by Kunonga starting at 7am and Bakare’s at 12:30pm. But Kunonga’s people have been locking up the cathedral immediately after their service and Bakare’s parishioners have been forced to meet outside.

We have now learned that on Sunday Kunonga, his wife and the 40 youth militia members actually moved into the cathedral and have been using this as a base to assault these parishioners attending church services in the grounds outside. A fuming Kunonga also sent some of his thugs to grab a camera from a member of the congregation who was filming. This created a commotion as fellow parishioners sought to protect the cameraman by battling the thugs. Everything happened in the full view of watching policemen who stood by and did nothing. Church officials are furious that Kunonga has been allowed to violate a total of 3 High Court judgements and that the police have done nothing to enforce them.

Earlier in the week Bishop Bakare told our Behind the Headlines programme that Kunonga’s behaviour was exposing the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. He blamed the problems in the church on Kunonga’s attempt to deliver the entire diocese into the hands of Zanu PF, for political benefit. Accusations by Kunonga that he is fighting a powerful pro-homosexuality lobby in the church have been dismissed by Bakare as a convenient excuse. Bakare says Kunonga was given lots of money by the regime but the problem is that since the church has ousted him, he no longer has any relevance. Bishop Bakare believes the courts in the country will ultimately resolve the matter.