Pius Ncube resurface at Gukurahundi prayers

FORMER Roman Catholic Archbishop for Bulawayo, Pius Alick Mvundla Ncube, who disappeared from the public eye after a widely publicised adulterous relationship with a church member, resurfaced Saturday in Bulawayo at a prayer meeting dubbed the Gukurahundi Memorial Prayers.

The meeting which was held at the Baptist Church in Bulawayo was stopped by the police as Archbishop Ncube was leading a departing prayer outside the church.

Prior to the prayer, Archbishop Ncube had been involved in an argument with police officers who had ordered the meeting to be stopped.

Archbishop Ncube wanted the meeting to go ahead despite it being illegal.

When journalists tried to speak to the cleric, he refused to comment.

"I cannot talk to you right now," he said briefly.

In 2007, Archbishop Ncube, who was the head of the Roman Catholic Church archdiocese in Bulawayo, made headlines when he was allegedly filmed having sex with a married woman. Following the unearthing of the sex scandal, he resigned from the diocese.

Yesterday's prayer meeting had been organised by a number of pressure groups that included Ibhetshu Likazulu.

Present at the aborted meeting was former Minister of National Healing and Reconciliation Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu and some members of the Professor Welshman Ncube-led Movement for Democratic Change.