CIO called in to help Kunonga's men take over

HARARE  - The Nolbert Kunonga tsunami descended on many Anglican churches here yesterday as officers of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and uniformed police were deployed to ensure the President’s allies had swift access to churches for their Sunday services.

CIO officers mixed with believers but were easily noticed by the way they dressed and also because their faces were virtually unknown. Following disturbances in Glen View where the axed Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, an ally of President Robert Mugabe who has formed a splinter church after his ousting, wanted his henchmen to take over the church, spies were deployed in huge numbers to make sure Kunonga’s chosen clergy did not lose ground.

Reports in Harare yesterday revealed armed police were disrupting church services in Harare, arresting at least three priests and a number of parishioners opposed to Kunonga who fell for the police bait and openly challenged the decision to allow the disgraced Bishop to take over against the will of the people.

Priests who were conducting services without Kunonga or police authorisation were dragged out of church and assaulted.

Harare diocese has been torn apart since Kunonga pulled the church out of the Church Province of Central Africa ostensibly because he opposed the province's stance on homosexuality.

As a result Kunonga was replaced with Bishop Sebastian Bakare and said Kunonga was no longer a member of the Anglican Church. But Kunonga and his followers have refused to recognise the new bishop's appointment, going on to form their own church.

Police this week sent a circular to all parishes ordering that only priests loyal to Kunonga were allowed to conduct services, resulting in the heavy deployment of security agents at a very high cost to the public purse.

In Glen View Kunonga has won the battle with the help of state security resulting in the hundreds of believers and their priest who is aligned to the new Bishop Bakare having to hire the nearby Methodist church to conduct their service.

Kunonga’s priest was forced to conduct a service with less that 10 people after having successfully dislodged the whole congregation.

Police paramilitaries in riot gear and carrying batons disrupted a service at St Elizabeth church in Harare's middle-income suburb of Belvedere, said church spokesperson Christopher Tapera.

"They disrupted the service and asked everyone to leave. One woman who was taking a video was arrested," he said.

In nearby Glen Norah, CIO operatives were heavily present together with the police resulting in the whole congregation of about 500 people opting to have their normal Sunday service outside.

“The whole congregation, like all the others here in Harare has said it is not going with Kunonga so when a Priest, Musopero, who is aligned to Kunonga came to lead us in the service with his wife and sister, the police and the CIO, the people decided it was better to leave them to it,” said one parish member who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The parish’s priest was involved in a road accident last week soon after refusing to align himself with Kunonga after the congregation had told him to choose which way he was going.

In the end two services were held at the St Francis Anglican Church in Glen Norah with the 500 attending their service which was led by a lay leader in threatening weather outside as Musopero ministered to three people inside the vast church and gave his sister and wife holy communion.

After the church the CIO operatives convened a meeting with the church leaders after witnessing the embarrassing situation affecting the group they came to protect.

One believer said: “We were very much aware of the scenes that took place in Glen View and avoided making any noise because obviously that is what they were looking for so we did not castigate them or cause any violence. We were very peaceful in our own service as the rain threatened to drench us.”

“In the meeting the operatives were told in no uncertain terms that next week their people will not be able to use the church because we are in the majority and they are only three so they should instead at least use the smaller facilities at the church like the Sunday School classrooms. The police had to go because they saw that we were not going to be violent at all.”

Another parishioner said: “It has really become an embarrassment to be an Anglican, coming to service with police and security details watching over you as you pray simply because someone is powerful enough to deploy these people at the expense of the ordinary person. People are losing their lives because of crime, property etc but they see it fit to deploy at different Anglican churches. I’m embarrassed.”

She continued: “This is not about politics, we are not for Zanu PF or the MDC, all we want is to be able to do what we know best our own way without Kunonga. Many Zimbabwean families have taken to prayer to deal with the crisis we are facing in the country so please, they should leave us alone.”

At St James Church in the suburb of Warren Park, 16 parishioners loyal to Bishop Bakare were arrested, said Tapera. He did not know if charges had been brought against the arrested.

One of the priests, who was arrested at the Anglican Church in Harare's upmarket Marlborough suburb was later released, said Tapera.

Police at St Luke's Church in Greendale eventually allowed Bishop Bakare to hold a service in the church hall, while Kunonga held a service inside the church, he said.

"The hall was packed. Kunonga only had three people with him in the church," claimed Tapera.

It was also reported that CIO operatives were at almost all parishes as they sought to protect Kunonga’s men and to see to it that they take over church property without any hindrance.

Kunonga says he left the church in a dispute over homosexuality and has formed his own church. "History has been made," The Sunday Mail quoted Kunonga as telling his supporters in the capital but in most churches around Harare, the bigger congregations did not belong to him but to the original Anglican church that is being led by Bishop Bakare.

"We have formed our own province. It has been painful and sorrowful but out of that came the joy of our province." He said the new entity would be known as the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe, with five dioceses in and around Harare.

Kunonga, a vocal backer of Mugabe's controversial land reforms, attempted to pull his Harare diocese out of the Anglican Church's Province of Central Africa over its stance on homosexuality.  His licence has since been revoked.

Tapera described the move as a "mockery", insisting that the Harare diocese was still part of the central African church province, which groups Anglican churches in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.