Zimbabwe police back Kunonga over the courts: The Church of England Newspaper, March 13, 2010

The Rt. Rev. Nolbert Kunonga

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have ignored a High Court decision allowing Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa to return to their churches.

The Church of England Newspaper has learned that last Sunday, the ZRP blocked Dr. Gandiya and his supporters from using diocese’s churches, as senior officials in the ZRP and security services failed to enforce the March 3 ruling issued by High Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that dismissed with costs the application of Dr. Kunonga to declare him to be the rightful owner of the diocese’s properties.

The dispute between Dr. Kunonga and Dr. Gandiya extends beyond the Anglican Church, and reflects the breakdown of Zimbabwe’s coalition government.  In January, co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutseyekwa of the opposition MDC party announced that he was planning to meet Harare police commanders to discuss the Anglican issue, and would press them to obey the judiciary.

The ZRP’s decision to ignore the courts and the Home Affairs Minister, in favour of ZANU-PF loyalist Dr. Kunonga, analysts note, speaks to the breakdown of the rule of law and government in Zimbabwe.

Last year lawyers for Dr. Kunonga asked the courts to enforce an order issued on July 24, 2009 by Justice Ben Hlatshwayo, declaring the former bishop to be the rightful owner of the diocesan properties.

Lawyers for the Province countered the July 2009 order should be invalidated as the matter was already before the Supreme Court when Justice Hlatshawayo made his ruling, depriving him of jurisdiction to hear the case.

The court held that in the “final analysis I find that the [Dr. Kunonga] has failed to prove on a balance of probabilities that the appeal was noted before Hlatshwayo J. had delivered his judgment. The same issue is pending in the Supreme Court and this court has no jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter. It is accordingly ordered that the application be and is hereby dismissed with costs,” Justice Bhunu ruled.

The effect of the decision was to return the parties to the state of affairs as of January 2008 when High Court Judge Rita Makarau ordered Dr. Kunonga to share the use of the diocesan properties until a final decision was reached.

However, Dr. Kunonga with the connivance of the ZRP and the security services, refused to comply with the 2008 order, and last Sunday refused to comply with the latest order directing him to share the properties.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have been harshly critical of Dr. Kunonga and his allies in the Mugabe regime. Speaking at a fundraiser at Southwark Cathedral for the church in Zimbabwe last month, Dr Williams praised the courage and faithfulness of Harare Anglicans in the face of government-backed violence that had closed down their churches and prevented them from worshipping.

“It would be difficult enough to deliver all this significant help and support if there were not other problems, a country suffering grave deprivation and political and economic crisis, but to deliver this also in the face of relentless brutality and harassment is a further extra mark of the courage and the stature of our Anglican friends in Zimbabwe,” he said.