Zimbabwe churches and politics meet

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has blasted the Bishop Chad Gandiya-led faction of the Anglican Church for seeking political intervention in the long-drawn property ownership wrangle still pending before the courts. This, the Chief Justice said, was tantamount to interference with the independence of the judiciary. The Gandiya faction is aligned to the Church of the Province of Central Africa. Chief Justice Chidyausiku recently threw out an appeal by the Gandiya faction in which they were challenging the High Court's judgment granting the Diocese of Harare to a faction led by Bishop Nolbert Kunonga. CPCA has filed a Constitutional application challenging the recent decision of the Supreme Court as well as several applications to stop the execution of the judgment. After the dismissal of the appeal, the Kunonga faction took control of some of the church property on the strength of the High Court order. Now the Gandiya-faction faction is alleged to have written to the Supreme Court seeking to meet Chief Justice Chidyausiku for the sake of pushing for the hearing of other pending court cases related to the issue. One of the retired bishops of the Gandiya faction got to an extent of writing to Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa after the dismissal of the Supreme Court appeal.

Excommunicated Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga says those who are against his leadership have "donated" the church's properties to God. Thousands of Anglican followers across the country have over the last few years complained that Kunonga was ruthlessly evicting them from church properties. This has in some cases resulted in violent clashes. Kunonga told journalists on Friday that as long as he was alive, all the 3 800 Anglican properties in the country would remain in his custody. He said whoever wants to use the property should rejoin his group, because it was impossible to have him and Chad Gandiya as bishops. "There is always one diocese, one bishop and one throne, not two," Kunonga said. "People simply walked out in thousands, they simply walked out on their own after being misled by nonentities. If they want to come back, they are free to do so and we are not going to ask them anything. Those who ran away from the church and do not want to come back just have to rest their case, because they donated the properties to the church, they donated to God," He claimed a lot of people had begun retracing their steps back to his faction. He called himself "life bishop". On Friday Kunonga evicted 2 families from St Luke's church in Rhodesville.

Two (2) Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Church nuns are locked in a bitter battle for control of an orphanage they reportedly grabbed following the death of its founder early this year. The orphanage currently has over 41 children, most of them living with HIV. The enraging fight however, has left the children exposed after the "new owners" summarily dismissed all employees including care givers. It is alleged that Sr Louisa Marchetti and Sr Magadalene seized ownership of Marilee Children's Home in Mhondoro Ngezi from its trustees following the death of Dr Maria Buggiani in May this year. However, the Trust questioned their legitimacy in running the orphanage resulting in a protracted fight which has since spilled into the courts. After their unholy takeover, the two sisters are alleged to have summarily dismissed all workers for refusing to sign new employment contracts recognising them as the new employers. This has however, left the children without any care givers. The home has 36 minors and 17 children, all of whom are on anti-retroviral therapy.

Meanwhile government is investigating circumstances surrounding evictions of headmasters and teaching staff at Anglican Church-run schools as it suspects the actions were disturbing learning activities. Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart, said while he did not want to involve himself in the Anglican Church saga, it was imperative to establish whether the evictions being carried out by the deputy sheriff had no effect on pupils.