Mugabe spokesman attacks Catholic Church in Zimbabwe

Sep 13, 2007, 17:17 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg - President Robert Mugabe's spokesman Thursday lashed out at the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, which has rallied behind a tough-talking archbishop forced to resign over adultery allegations.

George Charamba said the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC) had no business to defend and protect Pius Ncube, the archbishop of Bulawayo who resigned on Tuesday.

'The good work being done by the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe in the provision of health and educational institutions could not be attributed to Bishop Ncube but to the church alone,' the official Herald quoted Charamba as saying.

The authorities have been angered by the support shown towards Ncube, who was well known both in and outside Zimbabwe for his fearless criticism of Mugabe over alleged rights abuses.

Analysts say the resignation of the 60-year-old prelate has robbed Zimbabwe of a key opposition figure.

Ncube openly admitted to praying for the 83-year-old president's death as a way of ending Zimbabwe's political and economic crises.

Early this year the cleric's meeting with Prime Minister John Howard appeared to have influenced the Australian premier's decision to ban his country's cricket team from touring Zimbabwe.

And in comments that infuriated the Harare government, Ncube later said that Western powers would be morally justified in intervening militarily to end the crisis in Zimbabwe.

But the outspoken cleric's public image took a huge battering in July when state newspapers and television claimed they had evidence the prelate had sexual relations with a married woman.

A Bulawayo-based soldier announced he was suing Ncube for the vast sum of 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (about 67,000 US dollars) for an alleged affair with his wife.

Mugabe's critics immediately suspected a sting. It later emerged that state journalists had been flown to the second city of Bulawayo before the story broke. The reporters were allowed to accompany a court official to Ncube's residence to serve court papers on him.

For several days the official Herald newspaper and state ZBC television station carried pictures allegedly of Ncube in bed with a woman. Eventually the archbishop's lawyer threatened the state broadcaster with legal action.

For many Zimbabweans, the Ncube affair brought back memories of 2002 when the state broadcaster aired similarly grainy images of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai with a Canada-based consultant allegedly discussing a plot to assassinate Mugabe.

That film resulted in Tsvangirai being charged with treason and subjected to a marathon trial during which his activities as the leader of the country's strongest opposition party was seriously curtailed.

Tsvangirai was acquitted, but his reputation was seriously tarnished by the episode.

Ncube has not formally entered a guilty or not guilty plea, but he has said he will not be silenced.

In a statement issued this week after the Vatican said it had accepted his resignation Ncube wrote: 'I have not been silenced by the crude machinations of a wicked regime. I am committed to promoting the social teachings of the church, and to working among the poorest and most needy in Zimbabwe.'

But the state-controlled Herald maintained Thursday that the archbishop had been insensitive to his own vow of celibacy while continuing to maintain a holier-than-thou attitude.

Tafataona Mahoso, the head of the state-run Media and Information Commission (MIC), told the newspaper that the Roman Catholic Church should have sacked the archbishop.

The Ncube case is reminiscent of that of Allan Boesak, the anti- apartheid cleric in South Africa who had to resign from the Dutch Reformed Church after details emerged of an extra-marital affair he had with a television producer.