Zimbabwe: The shaming of Pius Ncube

State sponsored sex stings

If there was more to do to see the end of suffering and deprivation brought on the people of Zimbabwe by the Grand Despot of Africa in the gerontocratic evil hands of Robert Mugabe, 83 the time is now.

Reading Wande’s blog that explores the realities of events with the topic “Re - Zimbabwe bishop 'victim of state'” illustrates how the state apparatus works to completely discredit and suppress any opposition to the rotten regime of Mugabe.

I left a comment on that blog which I flesh out the more in this write up, because this is not the first time the Mugabe regime has used the state agencies to bring down and disgrace “men of the cloth” who pose a threat to his kind of government.

Before the case of Bishop Pius Ncube who resigned his post as the Archbishop of Bulawayo on the 11^th of September 2007, there was the case of the Reverend Canaan Banana, the first president of Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe as his Prime Minister who after Mugabe usurped all power was accused and convicted of 11 counts of sodomy and eventually served two years in prison as well as getting defrocked, he died in 2003.

A similar sodomy charge was brought against Anwar Ibrahim the Prime Minister and challenger to the regime of Dr. Mahatir bin Muhammed of Malaysia in 2000 which lead to a conviction until an appeals court overturned it in 2004.

Making the most embarrassing charges

I am sure there are many other examples of political machinations using the state apparatus to besmirch, tarnish and blackball people who pose a challenge to the ruling class and their figure heads, usually, it is almost impossible to successfully find justice if all the scales are tilted against you.

So, back to Pius Ncube, there would have been too many precedents for him not to think that he would be targeted, not by bullets for martyrdom in the cause for humanity in Zimbabwe as he had expected but through undermining his credibility, authority, respect and integrity.

The reporting of the matter surrounding the shaming of Pius Ncube is a bit sketchy since the foreign press are refused the opportunity to report the real events happening in what is becoming a recluse of tyranny – if we cannot report we can assume.

As a Roman Catholic Bishop, one would think the bishop is a subject of clerical celibacy and since sodomy is taken as par for the course for such persons of devotion (the last clause is a wild generalisation which probably has no basis I fact but is very well an urban myth – See A Very Short History Of Clergy Sexual Abuse In The Catholic Church), adultery would create a greater embarrassment.

The woman the bishop is said to have been caught with in his bedroom was the estranged wife of someone who subsequently lodged a 20 billion Zimbabwean dollar adultery suit for redress, though now the adultery charge has been dropped.

The dead-hand of the government must have been involved in this quest to embarrass a strident opponent of Robert Mugabe who by reason of his religious position was an untouchable; however, if an affair did take place amidst the protestations of the bishop, my comments on the reference blog have gone thus.

My Comments

Whilst I feel some sympathy for the bishop in that he was one of the few living in Zimbabwe who could speak up and not get beaten up by the police, his error of judgment and lax moral values have compromised his integrity.

He has an uphill battle to maintain his rights struggle without being heckled down as an adulterer whenever he speaks.

The fact is, when you set yourself aside to fight for a humanitarian cause, you must also separate yourself from the wiles and excesses of life - as a man of the cloth, he surely must have been well aware of that.

Finally, he has let both his cause the people of Zimbabwe down, I hope I have not judged him too harshly, but his cause should have been a lot greater than sexual fulfilment with another man's wife, he did not consider the consequences of his actions.

I really do hope all the people involved in this would be discredited and the bishop would be vindicated, the plot, meanwhile thickens.

PS: It would appear the comment I placed has been lost probably due to some gremlin activity - That is beside the point, the originating blog is still part of my inspiration for this write-up and it remains acknowledged as such. 

Other references

My Zimbabwe Blogs

tags: pius ncube  sodomy  adultery  celibacy  zimbabwe  robert mugabe  canaan banana  roman catholic  despot  

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