Catholic Bishops’ Statement on Recent Events Relating to Archbishop Pius Ncube
The recent attacks by some politicians and the state media on the person of Archbishop Pius Ncube are outrageous and utterly deplorable. They constitute an assault on the Catholic Church, to which we take strong exception. The Catholic Church has never been and is not an enemy of Zimbabwe. We are serving the people of our Country pastorally and in many other ways, through over 60 Mission hospitals, many orphanages and 174 primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions. Our record during the years of the liberation struggle speaks for itself.
The matter of Archbishop Ncube is now before the High Court of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. It is therefore sub judice and should not be discussed in public until a verdict has been delivered by the Courts. Moreover, the Constitution of Zimbabwe clearly defends the presumption of innocence of an accused person as a legal safeguard for a fair hearing before an impartial tribunal.
Acting in complete disregard of these universally respected conventions, the state media obtained and publicised, for days on end, in print and on television, video and photographic material, which violated the most fundamental personal rights of Archbishop Ncube and were utterly offensive to the public.
We repeat what we said in our recent Pastoral Letter: The people of Zimbabwe are suffering. Their freedom and fundamental human rights are violated daily with impunity, the shelves of the shops and supermarkets are empty, our currency has become worthless, the public health service has collapsed, the country’s main roads are lined with tens of thousands of citizens waiting for public transport, corruption is rampant and young people are risking their lives daily and in growing numbers to escape the catastrophe that our country has become.
The crude attempts at diverting attention from these facts by intensifying the hate propaganda and character assassination against those Zimbabweans who, like Archbishop Ncube, have spoken out in defence of the oppressed, has not deceived ordinary Zimbabweans. Quite the contrary.
Archbishop Ncube has fearlessly exposed the evils of the Gukurahundi massacres and of Operation Murambatsvina. For years, he has courageously and with moral authority advocated social justice and political action to overcome the grievous crisis facing our Country. We support him fully in his present painful personal situation and ask all our faithful to remember him in their prayers. (via SW Radio Africa)
Related links:
September 5th, 2007 20:25
i think there should be a consensus, the good people of Zimbabwe lave all right to come together to build a better Zimbabwe for a better a better Africa for the world to know. I do not believe it is the best thing for Archbishop Pius to keep condemning the President of the Land, i think he should be aware of the situation and not encourage the western media to exploit African Ingenuity. The Zimbabwe crises is African shame when our Zimbabweans condemn the President to the west, when they watch and laugh at us. it is them that pollute the people on Zimbabwe
September 6th, 2007 18:28
david, blame the victim hey - that is the mentality of the Mugabe regime and of dictators all over the world. But have you not heard of a saying in most language ‘You can never hide something that has got horns in a bag.’ Well some of us, applaud and respect what my brother Pius Ncube has done for us. A sacrife that he did not have to do. He took a risk that that is only taken by decent human beings - he disclosed the crimes of Mugabe. If that is a crime-I will eat my shoes. Murder is the crime, lying is a crime, greed is a crime. You cannot say this is what Pius Ncube has done, or can you?.
As for not telling the world about the Zimbabwean’s shambles - what a joke. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are languishing all over the world as refugees or economic migrants doing slave jobs. It is not Pius Ncube who has forced these people to leave their motherland.
You need a reality - the genie is out and you cannot put it back.
September 7th, 2007 16:34
@david,
I think you have it all backwards. I am “from the west” and I DO NOT laugh at the people of Zimbabwe - quite the contrary, I cry for them. I cry for the mothers who cannot feed their children, I cry for the fathers who can no longer find work in order to buy food, pay school fees, etc.., I cry for the small time shop owners who are being forced to sell their goods below cost and then being arrested for NO good cause, I cry for the young people who are fleeing their country in desperate attempts to find jobs, food, a little dignity, I cry for the people who would like to register to vote in order to express their wishes to their government, but are not allowed to, I cry for the poorest of the poor who are denied food aid only because they are not card carrying members of ZANU-PF - do you want me to go on?
Do you want to know what I DO laugh at? The absolute refusal of a government to take responsibility for their own actions, the manipulation of food stores and food aid by a government to reward supporters & punish non-supporters - on & on the list goes. Truth be known - I really do not laugh at those things - those things make me cry for Zimbabwe as well.
@ david - you made one 1/2 truth statement: “The Zimbabwe crisis is African shame” - you should have ended your sentence right there.
You said “there should be a consensus” - a consensus implies a majority decision - kinda tough to do when elections are rigged and a free press is stifled and/or eliminated and dissenting voices (such as the Bishop’s) are silenced through arrest, intimidation or even outright killing.
LET THE VOICES OF (ALL) ZIMBABWEANS BE HEARD
September 7th, 2007 19:59
I need to make a correction / adjustment to my last comment. When I said that David should have ended his sentence with “The Zimbabwe crisis is African shame” - I need to correct that. It is NOT African shame - it is the shame of self serving, tight fisted, closed eyed African leadership, it is shame for SADC, it is shame for ZANU-PF - but is is NOT shame for Africans.
Sorry if there were/are any mis-interpretations