Zimbabwe’s church property battle heated up last week as police evicted Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa from their church.
However, the Zimbabwe Standard reports the latest eviction by police on behalf of breakaway Bishop Nolbert Kunonga was from a church built by a congregation in Chitungwiza after they had been evicted from their original church home.
The background is that Kunonga has been a long-time supporter of Mugabe and if I remember correctly in reward he was given two farms seized from white farmers. He is on the list of Mugabe sympathizers who are refused admission to the EU and the US. This news report shows, I think, how illusory it is for reforming, democratic prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai to believe that he is in charge. It is still Mugabe who calls the shots, even to the extent of allowing now and again Tsvangirai and the reformers to have modest victories. As always, it is the struggling, hard-working people who suffer, bumping along at the bottom, and now even having the churches they scrimped and saved and laboured to build seized and taken from them. Of course, as I have said many times before, South Africa could bring down Mugabe tomorrow if they wished. They do not so wish, and it is one more sign of the collapse of the ANC government into amorality. Another sign is the new legislation proposed in South Africa which would bring in draconian media laws.
And the South African government is actively considering nationalizing the country’s mining industry. It’ll be another Zimbabwe in another 2O years, if it takes that long.