Sinister turn as lay leader is tortured and killed
The church property dispute in Harare took a sinister turn last week after an Anglican lay leader was tortured and murdered allegedly as a warning to opponents of breakaway bishop, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga. “My people are going to be killed for the simple reason that they belong to a certain denomination,” Harare Bishop Chad Gandiya told a Feb 19 press conference.
On the night of Feb 17/18 unknown assailants attacked 89-year old Jessica Mandeya in her home in Fusire village in Murewa. “They raped her, cut her mouth and pierced her thighs with an iron rod then latter killed her,” a source in Zimbabwe said in an email to The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of York condemned the murder telling CEN he remained “concerned at the apparent intimidation and persecution of those attending churches in Zimbabwe.”
“Whilst the details of Mrs Mandeya’s death remain unclear, I continue to pray for peace, justice and freedom for the people of Zimbabwe. The suffering being faced by many on a daily basis is totally unjust and should not be allowed to persist,” Dr. John Sentamu said.”
Bishop Gandiya denied the killing was related the on-going political dispute between the ruling ZANU-PF party and its junior coalition partner the MDC. He confirmed to CEN that Mrs. Mandeya, a sub-deacon in her local Anglican church, had been tortured and murdered, allegedly in connection with the dispute between the Diocese of Harare and breakaway Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.
“One of our church members was murdered last week in Murewa for reasons believed to be infighting in the church,” Bishop Gandiya told the Harare press conference, adding that “our church members should know we are now endangered species.”
In an interview broadcast on Feb 21, Bishop Gandiya told SW Radio Africa that Anglican leaders in Zimbabwe were in danger. “One of my fellow bishops was approached by two people who told him that they had come to kill him and that the mission is to kill all the Anglican bishops; and that is why I said we are an endangered species because from that conversation with my colleagues we are all to be killed.”
“All he was told was this had something to do with the church and that we were stumbling blocks to Dr. Kunonga’s ambition of running the whole Anglican church in Zimbabwe,” Bishop Gandiya said.
A staunch ally of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, Bishop Kunonga has flouted court orders, with police support, that called upon the rival parties to share church properties until final adjudication was reached over their ownership by the country’s Supreme Court.
“We are witnessing the police taking sides with the Kunonga camp and preventing our church members to use church properties and facilities despite having some High Court judgments that we should be co-existing,” Bishop Gandiya said.
On Jan 30 the archbishops attending the Dublin primates meeting released a statement condemning the violence in Harare. “We believe that the appalling situation experienced by members of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe seriously infringes their right to justice, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and personal security under the law guaranteed by the constitution of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.”
They called upon President Mugabe to “use all the power and authority of your office to put an end to these abuses forthwith,” adding that this “unmerited, unjust, and unlawful persecution” served only to damage “further the good name and reputation of the Republic of Zimbabwe and results in untold and unnecessary additional suffering for many thousands of people.”
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.