Several churches seized by excommunicated Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s Anglican Province of Zimbabwe had been desecrated, turned into bedrooms and brothels, an official said yesterday.
Report by Tangai Chipangura
Reverend Clifford Dzavo, Harare Diocese secretary for the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA), which has won the battle for the ownership of the church properties, said in an interview investigations revealed that many churches had been defiled during the period they had been occupied by Kunonga’s supporters.
“Our investigations found that many churches had been turned into homes where procreation was taking place and in some instances, even brothels. We will, beginning with the Cathedral in Harare, hold cleansing ceremonies to rededicate the churches to the Lord,” Dzavo said.
“We will use Holy water and incense to cleanse the churches before we can worship there. We will also pray to ask God to forgive these people who defiled the churches and we will reconsecrate them for worship.”
After the cleansing of the Harare Cathedral on December 16, he said, similar exercises would be carried out on a large scale throughout the diocese on Sundays.
Kunonga’s lawyer Charles Nyika said he was unable to comment on the allegations because he was not aware of what was happening at the churches. Nyika said he had also not received any new instructions from his client since the Monday Supreme Court ruling.
“The difficulty I have is that I have not physically visited any of the churches in dispute,” he said. “So I do not know what is going on there. I have also not received any new instructions from my client following yesterday’s ruling and unless I receive instructions, I will not be able to comment on the allegations.”
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Efforts to contact Kunonga were unsuccessful and attempts to get his adviser Reverend Admire Chisango were equally futile as his mobile phone was being answered by someone who switched the phone off when a request to speak to the reverend was made.
Meanwhile, Dzavo said investigations had also established that Kunonga had not personally occupied the two official residences for the church Bishop located in Chisipite and Greendale. The houses, he said, were occupied by people whom they suspected to be the expelled bishop’s relatives.
“We are expecting them to move out of there quickly to give way for Bishop Gandiya.”
Dzavo said since the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the Bishop Chad Gandiya-led CPCA on Monday, several priests from the Kunonga faction were frantically seeking audience with Gandiya. “They want to come back,” he said.
Kunonga’s faction had, on the strength of earlier court judgments, taken over at least 80 Anglican Church buildings, nine secondary schools, 10 primary schools, an early learning centre and an orphanage in Harare Diocese alone, Dzavo said. Harare Diocese covers Mashonaland East, West, Central and Greater Harare.
More properties had also been seized “by Kunonga’s fellow renegade Bishop” Elson Jakazi in Manicaland Diocese where schools including St. Augustines and Bonda Mission were on the verge of collapse because of mismanagement, Dzavo said.
“They were collecting school fees to fund their diocesan operations,” he said.
The CPCA will not forcibly evict Kunonga’s supporters from its properties, but expected them to act reasonably and move out voluntarily, the reverend said. The church’s lawyers were, however, in the process of obtaining eviction orders from the court to serve to those that would choose to be “stubborn and defy the Supreme Court ruling”.
“We expect them to use their common sense and move out of our properties as soon as possible,” Dzavo said. “We expect them to contact us so that there is smooth handover-takeover of the properties. If they have any conscience, they should do so without waiting for us to resort to using legal force. We did the same when the earlier courts ruled in their favour. We moved out voluntarily.”
He said the church expected full cooperation from the police in case they faced resistance from the illegal occupants.
Asked if the police would assist in enforcing the Supreme Court order for Kunonga’s followers to vacate the Anglican Church properties, Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri who was officiating at a senior police officers conference in Vumba yesterday said: “I do not belong to that church.”
The several new church buildings that the church was constructing after being evicted by the Kunonga faction would be completed and used to serve the growing congregation, Dzavo said.
