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"His
Disgrace, the Bishop" - Zimbabwe
Sokwanele
September 21, 2004
What is the correct
title by which to address a Bishop of the Church ? In some traditions
the customary title is "His grace the Bishop …" To many parishioners
in the Anglican Diocese of Harare however a more appropriate designation
for the present incumbent might be "His disgrace Bishop Kunonga".
Not only has Bishop
Kunonga shown himself to be a servile supporter of ZANU PF and an obsequious
fan of Robert Mugabe; he has also demonstrated a real greed for the material
rewards bestowed on those who sacrifice principle for personal advantage.
His patron, who now treats the whole of Zimbabwe as his personal fiefdom
to parcel out to supporters as he pleases, bestowed St Marnocks Farm in
Nyabira on the errant bishop some time ago. The legal owners of the farm
are the Hale family of that district, but under the current state of lawlessness,
before being "given" to the Bishop the farm was occupied in
turn by Attwell Seremani of the Boka Tobacco Floors, Mike Moyo of the
War Veterans’ Association and Chris Pasipamiri.
What the irreverent
gentleman has been given by way of political patronage, he has no intention
of sharing with others either. Accordingly on Friday (17th
September) he arranged to send in the ZANU PF militia, the Black Boots,
to evict all the farm workers and their families from the village on St
Marnock’s Farm. About 40 families were illegally evicted in this manner.
"These people do not work for me", said the Bishop in apparent
self-justification for this brutal action. The Black Boots then proceeded
to torch the humble dwellings of the farm workers, presumably to ensure
that they would not try to return to the village.
St Marnocks was once
a dream farm. Its 600 hectares is mostly arable land and at one time 240
hectares was under wheat and another 240 hectares under soya beans. A
full centre pivot irrigation scheme once operated, yielding a crop of
1500 tons wheat and the same quantity of soya beans, twice yearly. The
value of these crops grown today would be in the region of 4,8 billion
Zim dollars annually. Under Bishop Kunonga’s neglectful stewardship however
this once-thriving farm has been converted into a sea of weeds and grass.
The boreholes no longer function.
Electricity has been
disconnected. The centre pivot stands idle in the middle of a derelict
field. In fact not one square meter of the 600 hectare farm is productive.
Which adds more than a touch of irony to Kunonga’s statement that those
unfortunates ejected from the village did not "work" for him.
"Work" is not a word that comes to mind readily in describing
Kunonga’s period of "ownership" of the farm.
Our reporter discovered
that the evicted families were all employed by local agricultural businesses,
including the Windmill, SeedCo, Freska and 600 Seeds’ factories. Some
of the former farm workers are still employed by Marcus Hale, and he has
been doing his best to find them alternative accommodation elsewhere.
But even with outside help the evicted families face an uncertain and
difficult future.
One can only wonder
if the disgraceful Bishop feels more comfortable in his St Marnock’s home
now that he has turned 40 other families out of their homes.
Nor it must be said
is this Bishop the only one to bring disgrace on his church by abusing
his position of authority and accepting the patronage of the ruling elite.
There are strong and persistent rumours that the retiring Bishop of the
Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, Cephas Mukandi, was offered and accepted
from the ZANU PF hierarchy to which he is closely aligned, a sugar estate
near Triangle (name and details supplied). This was no doubt considered
no more than the Bishop’s due for his conspicuous silence on matters of
politics and morality during the years of national crisis. Unfortunately
for this would-be country squire though the owners of the farm refused
to move and strenuously resisted the attempted unlawful eviction. But
Mukandi may still be offered another uncontested property elsewhere. Undercover
sources which report on the ruling party’s monitoring of church leaders
and systematic attempts to neutralize the Church either by fear or favour,
advise that Mukandi remains in good standing with the party. He is considered
to be a safe cleric who deserves to be rewarded for his long-standing
docility.
And how many others
besides Kunonga and Mukandi …?
Which surely raises
the question of how much longer the Church in Zimbabwe will continue to
ignore the public scandal caused by those of their leaders who, for personal
gain, collude with an evil and godless regime.
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