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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: In Zimbabwe, scandal fells Mugabe critic JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- -- A camera planted in the bedroom of Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube has felled President Robert Mugabe's most prominent and outspoken critic in Zimbabwe. The Vatican announced Tuesday that it had accepted Ncube's resignation from his leadership post, which came after the Zimbabwean state media in July splashed lurid photographs and video footage of a naked man resembling Ncube in what they called his "love nest." The stories, and a civil lawsuit filed at the same time, accused him of having sex with a married woman, Rosemary Sibanda. They also claimed that Sibanda, a secretary for the Catholic Church, was not the only woman with whom he had broken his vows of celibacy. Ncube's resignation shocked and disappointed Zimbabwean Catholics, human rights organizations and regime opponents. Though Ncube will remain a bishop, the results are being viewed as a boost to Mugabe's government and a deep blow to civil and religious groups that have long opposed human rights abuses, torture and killings of activists under Mugabe's authoritarian regime. A broad-based movement had sprung up to defend the archbishop. The resignation follows debilitating attacks by Zimbabwean security forces on opposition forces that began in March. The attacks, which have forced many to flee into exile, mirror a pattern seen before elections. Mugabe plans to run in presidential and parliamentary elections due in March. Ncube on Tuesday released a statement in which he did not address the photos but described the scandal as "a state-driven, vicious attack" and vowed to continue fighting to defend human rights. "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," the statement said. "I know that there will be many of you who will be bitterly disappointed at my leaving my post as archbishop of Bulawayo and a few who will be delighted, seeing their mission has been accomplished." As archbishop of Bulawayo, Ncube dressed as humbly as the lowliest priest, sometimes fought back tears during sermons, and admitted he had prayed for the death of Mugabe, whom he saw as evil and corrupt. In March, Ncube told a religious group that it was time for street protests. "It's time for a radical stance," he told the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance. "Not soft speeches and cowardice. . . . I am willing to stand in front." Many saw Ncube as a courageous and inspirational archbishop, who spoke out fearlessly about rights abuses while others remained silent or kowtowed. Shari Eppel, a human rights activist who has worked closely with Ncube for 12 years, said the archbishop was tormented by the pain release of the photos has caused others. "And the pain for people around here has been immense. I haven't seen such emotion around an issue in Zimbabwe for a very long time," she said. Eppel said Ncube was not surprised by the Vatican's decision. "I think one of the most ironic things about this resignation is that he has done the honorable thing. We have a government which has tortured and murdered people with impunity for decades and we have never had a resignation." Selven Csetty, a spokesman in South Africa for the Solidarity Peace Trust, a human rights group jointly led by Ncube, said the resignation would free Ncube to concentrate on rights advocacy. He said the truth or falsity of the allegations was irrelevant. The scandal broke just over a week after Mugabe, who is Catholic, had remarked that some priests "claim to be sworn to celibacy yet they sleep around with countless women," a comment that Ncube's supporters took as evidence of the regime's hand in exposing Ncube. In the past, Mugabe has called Ncube "satanic," while other officials and the state media have called him a rapist and alleged that he is HIV-positive. The scandal stories were published at the same time a $170,000 civil suit was filed by railway worker Onesimus Sibanda, Rosemary's husband. Skeptics questioned how such a low-salaried worker could afford to hire a private detective, Ernest Tekere, who claimed to have planted the camera and collected the evidence. "That man is a terrible womanizer," Tekere was quoted as saying in the state-run Herald. "During the operation we saw several ladies coming to his room, women of all ages. There were old ladies, nuns and some young ones." Opposition newspapers and online sites published reports that Tekere was a former member of Zimbabwe's secret police, the CIO. David Coltart, a Bulawayo attorney and member of a splinter faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the regime's role in the affair was clear because only state telephone workers had access to the archbishop's bedroom. He also found it odd that several members of the state media were present when civil summonses were served on Ncube. "I have never experienced, in 25 years as a practicing lawyer in this country, the media being aware of a civil summons that was just about to be served on an individual," he said. Father Oskar Wermter, a Jesuit priest in Mbare, one of the poor, crowded neighborhoods of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, seemed surprised that Ncube was stepping down. "It's a great shock," he said. "We didn't expect this. The Zimbabwe bishops have recently showed their support for him in a statement, and ordinary Catholics have shown their solidarity. "But the ruling party will be jubilant, and the state media will be jubilant. It will be a painful time for the church," he said. Poster Comment: Robert Mugabe was and is the first and only President Of Zimbabwe after the fall of white run Rhodesia. Like "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti and Idi Amin "King of Scotland"(?) Dada of Uganda used to do, Mugabe uses machete wielding goons to murder all who don't love him. He also allows food donated through international aid to rot on the docks as his own people starve because he can no longer find a buyer for it. Mugabe is clearly a sociopath of the first order, and yet Hollywood has to manufacture them for their slashers films because they dare not use real, evil black Africans. (we still see movies about the evil white regimes and colonial armies in Africa, though.) After allowing the white farmers to be raped, murdered and dispossessed, Zimbabwe is now a nation of starving blacks. They used to export food when white farmers ran the farms, and now the satellite photos show the stark desertification of the once lush, green, Eastern African nation. One of Mugabe's henchmen recently announced that things are so bad that they may "allow white farmers to return for a few years!" Now, I ask you, how goofy is goofy? Would you return to Zimbabwe and grow food for Mugabe knowing that as soon as the crisis is mitigated you'll be booted from the land and probably murdered? The fact that you accepted the invitation to return would be the evidence of your "greed" and "willingness to exploit the people", and the choice farm land and new equipment would be "redistributed" only to be destroyed or stolen because "blacks can't farm." When the "agrarian reform" was first implemented black farmers claimed that they were failing because whites had all of the choice farmland. Now that the best farms have gone to seed and the pumps, pipes, cattle and equipment has been stolen or destroyed the country is starving and the natives are stripping the trees bare as inflation approaches 5000%. Mugabe's answer? To outlaw the price increases. The businesses quite understandably responded by closing their doors, since it makes no sense to buy high and sell low, a principle that the murdering psycho cutthroats who always see to find their way into power in black states fail to appreciate. Of course it would be damned poor taste for me to suggest that Africans have a genetic predisposition to violence. (and because the whites are gone and sleeping late is not conducive to good farming) So, the only other solution I can come up with for the plight of these people is, it must be that ol' white racism rearing its ugly head again.... Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: HOUNDDAWG (#0)
Blacks are the equals of whites. Oh yes they are. Yes they are indeed. Everyone just keep repeating that.
#2. To: YertleTurtle (#1)
Every time you post you expose your vile racism, and your efforts to hold our African-American bruthas & sistas down. And, you and others like you should be ashamed of yourselves. (NOTE TO MY BRUTHAS AND SISTAS-I believe that Associate Supreme Court Justice and university founder Louis D. Brandeis was correct when he said "Sunlight is the best disinfectant". Or, to put it another way, "Sunlight be da shit, dawg!" ;)
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