Illegitimate Kunonga
From The Zimbabwean (letters page)
Kunonga not Anglican Wednesday, 04 March 2009
EDITOR –
At the swearing in ceremony, Dr. Kunonga was referred to as bishop Kunonga of the Anglican Church. This is incorrect and we have since received some complaints about the above statement. The purpose of this letter is to set the record straight and assure our Anglican members and the public at large that Dr. Kunonga is no longer an Anglican. After he himself withdrew from the Church of the province of Central Africa in September 2007 and formed his own church, he cut all the ties with the Anglican Diocese of Harare and therefore with the Church of the province of Central Africa and he is no longer a bishop in the Anglican Church. Subsequently, in May 2008 Dr. Kunonga was excommunicated from the Anglican Church. We trust that this clarification will assist ZBC in the future.
– THE RIGHT REV. DR. S. BAKARE, Harare
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Reported on Religious Intelligence
The British Treasury has ordered British banks to freeze any funds or assets held by the former Bishop of Harare, Dr Nolbert Kunonga.
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Number 13 on the [UK] list is Dr Kunonga, whom the Treasury describes as a “self-appointed Anglican Bishop” whose “followers have been backed by the police in committing acts of violence.”
In 2002 the US State Department and the EU ordered a ban on Dr Kunonga’s movements, forbidding his entry into Europe or the US. The 2009 Treasury circular stated that “no funds or economic resources are to be made available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit” of Dr Kunonga or the list of banned regime supporters.
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A long-time ally of the regime, Dr Kunonga is the only clergyman sanctioned by the EU or the US for his complicity with the crimes of the Mugabe regime. In a 2004 report the US State Department said that the Mugabe regime had “bypassed canonical law to install” Dr Kunonga as Bishop of Harare and had rewarded him for his loyalty to the regime. “In October 2003, Kunonga seized a formerly white-owned farm 10 miles from Harare and evicted 50 black workers to make way for his own staff.”
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Now, if former Archbishop of the Central African Province had written that letter to the Zimbabwean it would have been real news. Bernard Malango formerly of Upper Shire diocese, Malawi, now retired but still a great influence on the current Dean of the Province.... is, was and ever will be a close friend of Kunonga's.
ReplyDeleteBakare, of course, has been booted out of his caretaker position in Harare, despite having made a good job of rescuing the diocese from the clutches of Kunonga.
It's a tangled web in Central Africa and as the suspicious 'road accident' which has just killed Susan Tsvangirai reminds us, the Zimbabwean poison has the potential to be anywhere and everywhere in that part of the world... even in the Anglican Church leadership.