CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS): The lawyer for Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said his client will deny in court allegations of adultery that are part of a “well-orchestrated campaign” to discredit him.
The lawyer, Nicholas Mathonsi, said the fact that at least 12 people – including state newspaper reporters and television crews from the capital, Harare – accompanied court officials to serve the charges against the archbishop on July 16 indicates “a big operation that involves the state”.
Charges in Zimbabwe “are never served like this, in the presence of the media”, Mr Mathonsi told Catholic News Service in a July 18 telephone interview from Bulawayo.
Archbishop Ncube, an outspoken opponent of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, told CNS by telephone that the allegations of a two-year adulterous relationship with a parish secretary have caused “a lot of sensation”.
He said he has been advised not to comment on the allegations.
According to Zimbabwe’s state media, Onesimus Sibanda is claiming $160,000 in damages from Archbishop Ncube for the alleged affair with his wife, Rosemary Sibanda.
For years Mr Mugabe, 83, has singled out Archbishop Ncube for condemnation, but the president extended his antagonism toward the nation’s Catholic Church after an Easter pastoral letter in which Zimbabwe’s bishops said the country was in “deep crisis” and “extreme danger” because of its “overtly corrupt” leadership.
In early July, Mr Mugabe accused Archbishop Ncube and other Church leaders of “peddling falsehoods about Zimbabwe’s governance”.
(Copyright Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.)
