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Archbishop Pius Alick Mvundla Ncube: The peasant and the president


by Judi McLeod
October 21, 2002

The Filabusi peasant family of little Alick Mvundla Ncube may not have known it back in the 1940s, but it was their sturdy stock that produced what was to someday become the piercing thorn in the side of one Robert Mugabe.

The peasant son, now Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Alick Mvundla Ncube, had a simple bread-and-butter upbringing in southern Zimbabwe, so typical of the colonial days in most rural area at the time.

Who could ever tell back then that the little boy who trod barefoot to the village school, carrying a brown paper wrapped lunch by its string, would one day step forward as enemy numero uno to the likes of the increasingly bizarre Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe?

Sticking his unhelmeted head into the jaws of the lion has been a courageous habit of the Archbishop of Bulawayo since long ago 1983.

According to AfricaNews, "When Archbishop Ncube condemned the state terrorism that killed, maimed and displaced thousands of Ndebele people in Matabeland in 1983, Mugabe labelled him a hypocrite and a "Jeremiah" prophesizing for the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, a revered nationalist and leader of the Ndebele people."

The peasant archbishop is a man of epic heroic stature. Even the Central Intelligence Organization–Zimbabwe’s dreaded spy police–has been to his doorstep. In fact, there are some who worry that the cleric is living on borrowed time as they have it on good authority that the outspoken archbishop is at the top of the Organization’s hit list.

Mugabe’s deadly weapons have been citizen death, maiming, and the brutal takeover of generation-owned farm land, all of it conducted by thugs of his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), translated by western writers as "men wearing mirror sunglasses and shiny suits".

Archbishop Ncube’s deadlier weapons have been aplomb in the face of tyranny, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary and the parishioners he fights to protect.

States AfricanNews, "Mugabe accuses Archbishop Ncube of using the pulpit to de-campaign the ruling party and of being a support of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country’s youngest party, which shocked Zanu-PF by seizing 120 contested parliamentary seats. But traditionally, Matabeland is a stronghold of the Opposition, an issue cultivated into its residents by Nkomo, who was known as "Father Zimbabwe.

"The archbishop was the first black to take charge of Matabeland following the retirement of Bishop Henry Karlen in late 1997. He has invited the wrath of Mugabe, who, although a Catholic, has had an uneasy relationship with the church.

"In the landmark 2000 election, Zanu-PF suffered an embarrassing defeat in the region when its heavyweights lost to MDC political novices in 21 of the 23 constituencies contested in Matabeland. "I am unfazed by the whole thing," says Archbishop Ncube to Mugabe’s tirade that he is a tribalist who is using his influence in Matabeland to sway the ballot in favour of the MDC. "I am not going to give up the fight to keep checks and balances on how people are governed in this country. Instead the attacks on me by Zanu-PF have given me more impetus to continue standing for the truth and justice."

"Mugabe threatened to boycott the memorial service of Vice President Nkomo if the archbishop led or attended the Mass. The government had to find a replacement.

" `It is untrue that I am a tribalist, as politicians want the people to believe," Archbishop Ncobe said. "It is un-Christian. I respect all ethnic groups as equal. There is room for all of them in the Church, which belongs to God. I also back and promote the unity of the people,’ he said in response to accusations in a government daily newspaper that he was using his Sunday sermons to preach disunity among the more than 120,000 Catholics in Matabeland.

Mugabe once described Archbishop Ncobe as "our son of the soil who has distinguished himself". Retorts the plucky archbishop: "Politicians seem to have small memories. The church is encouraged to guide them, but check what’s happening now."

Meanwhile, the words of Archbishop Pius Ncobe and the South Africa Catholic Bishops, who support him, are destined to prove far more indelible than the words sputtered in the tirades of Robert Mugabe…"Let our common enemy be poverty, disease and ignorance not fellow citizens," said the bishops in their message of tolerance and hope at their July 3 conference.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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