Fight to reclaim churches in Harare: CEN 4.03.09 p 8.

Gun fire erupted at a Harare parish last Sunday, with police firing upon parishioners seeking to reclaim their churches from the former Bishop of Harare, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga.

According to the official government daily, The Harare Herald, confrontations between Anglicans loyal to the Bishop of Harare and a small faction loyal to Dr. Kunonga, but backed by the police, took place at eight suburban congregations. In Glen Norah, a township southwest of the city, police fired upon protesters and arrested seven, including two priests and the church warden.

The Herald said the police responded with violence only after having been attacked. Inspector James Sabau told the Herald the police were engaged in their duties, “patrolling different places to maintain law and order as usual targeting mostly the crime prone zones [when] some parishioners turned hostile towards them.”

At St Francis Church in Glen Norah, “some members of the church started throwing stones at the officers leading to the arrest of seven parishioners who were charged and paid deposit fines for criminal nuances. Police only used teargas when the rivals turned violent,” he said.

Last month Dr. Kunonga’s grip on the church in Harare began to slip, when Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Commissioner Augustine Chihuri publicly withdrew his support for the controversial bishop. Commissioner Chihuri signed an affidavit, stating he had never ordered the ZRP to defy a court order calling for Dr. Kunonga’s faction and the majority group loyal to Bishop Sebastian Bakare to share church properties.

Since 2007, the ZRP have locked out supporters of Bishop Bakare—estimated to be approximately 95 percent of the diocese—from parish churches, and have used violence to keep Dr. Kunonga in power.

However, following the publication of the Chihuri letter, Bishop Bakare asked Anglicans to return to their churches. On the first Sunday for Anglicans back in their churches for over a year, police interrupted a service led by Bishop Bakare at a parish in Mabvuku on March 15, demanding he withdraw. Bishop Bakare declined, and the police pulled back and let him continue the service.

The return of Anglicans to their churches has so far seen mixed results, with some police units backing Dr. Kunonga, while others have stood down—-a state of affairs that matches the ambiguous political atmosphere within Zimbabwe today, analysts note.

According to an interview given to independent journalist John Fernandes by the rector of Glen Norah, the Rev. Vincent Fenga, the congregation decided that “since our colleagues elsewhere had gone back, we should also do the same and start to use the church.”

However, “the police were not having any of that so problems erupted as church members started to tussle with the police,” Fr. Fenga said.

The ZRP’s attempts to clear the area with force were met with a shower of stones. The ZRP retaliated with teargas and gunfire, wounding one man and arresting seven, including Fr. Fenga and his curate.

After the arrest, members of the parish’s Mother’s Union marched to the police station where Fr. Fenga was held and spent the day singing hymns outside the building in protest to the arrest, Fernandes reported.

The ZRP’s continued support for Dr. Kunonga in defiance of a court order and last month’s statement by Commissioner Chijuri, has prompted a lawsuit by the Church of the Province of Central Africa calling for the law to be enforced.

Diocesan Registrar Michael Chingore told the Standard the church had “launched a contempt of court appeal against the police at the High Court,” he said. “The police have only been trying to stop our services instead of maintaining order.”