Support for Bishop Gandiya

The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba,
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
and Metropolitan of the Anglican
Church of Southern  Africa

Archbishop Makgoba has issued a public call for the police in Zimbabwe to stop persecuting Anglicans.

His press release says,

"I deplore the shocking action of the Zimbabwean police on Tuesday in preventing the clergy of the Diocese of Harare from holding their annual prayer retreat at Peterhouse School.

"I call on President Mugabe to ensure that the religious freedom of all Zimbabweans, and especially persecuted Anglicans, is respected, and to instruct the police to allow the churches freedom of assembly and worship.

"We affirm Bishop Chad Gandiya, his clergy and people at this time. As they share in the sufferings of Christ, may they gain strength from the experience and never give in to a cynical and sinister government. ...

"I also call on our ecumenical friends and our partners in the Anglican Communion to ask their governments to put pressure on Zimbabwe to end this persecution."

The police, of course, reject this interpretation of events,

Police spokesman, Oliver Mandipaka said the meeting had to be broken following concerns members of a splinter Anglican group led by Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, could have tried to meet in the same private school. 

“Judging from past experiences, these meetings have turned violent. It was on that basis that we advised them to disperse,” Oliver Mandipaka told the German news agency dpa.

“People must correctly interpret police actions. We were just being proactive.

Report here.

The Nigerian Sunday Tribune says,

Bishop Gandiya told VOA's Ntungamili Nkomo that he is encouraged by the support from the regional primate, adding the police should stop harassing his followers.

"We were told that we were supposed to seek permission for out retreat, and yet under POSA (Public Order and Security Act) that's not the case," Gandiya said.

Political commentator Brilliant Mhlanga of the University of Westminster in London said Mr. Mugabe can not stop Kunonga from harassing his rivals because ZANU-PF sees him as an asset.