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Kunonga’s men try to evict priest, pregnant wife Print
Written by SW Radio Africa   
Monday, 08 February 2010 16:44
nolbert_kunongaHARARE - A group of men loyal to the excommunicated Bishop Nolbert Kunonga last Wednesday raided the home of an Anglican priest in Harare’s Hatfield suburb and attempted to evict him and his pregnant wife. (Pictured: Bishop Nolbert Kunonga)
The resident priest Rev Matyatya was not home on the night when the invasion began, after earlier being admitted to Chitungwiza General Hospital following an attack by dogs during an early morning jog. A concerned parishioner told Newsreel that a Mr. Dhlomo, thought to be a priest loyal to Kunonga, was accompanied by four men to the St. Martins Rectory in Hatfield ‘under the cover of darkness’ during a power cut. Rev Matyatya’s wife was also initially not home after having gone to see her husband in hospital. It was when the Matyatya family came back that Kunonga’s mob refused them entry claiming to have taken over the rectory.
Furious parishioners said Dhlomo knew very well that the person he wanted to evict had been hospitalised and that he had a pregnant wife. Police are said to have intervened in the matter and asked “Dhlomo to return the following morning with his documents, and also wait for Rev. Matyatya to recover.” The Anglican Church is locked in a bitter dispute over its property with pro-Mugabe Bishop Kunonga who was excommunicated in 2007 after attempting to unilaterally withdraw the Diocese of Harare from the Central African Province.
Despite a High Court order that the two factions share church property until the matter is resolved, Kunonga’s small but violent group have been locking church buildings and harassing their rivals with tacit support from the police. More shockingly Kunonga recently ordained 32 ‘priests and assigned them churches while telling them to use whatever means to sustain them. “At St. Martins, Dhlomo has invaded the hall and is now leasing it to One on One Academy which is also housed at the St. Mary’s Cathedral,” the concerned parishioner told us. “To the owners of the Academy, we CPCA Harare Diocese now view you as being accomplices in the harassment of Anglican members by the Kunonga Church,” he added.
Around 4000 Anglican parishioners thronged Africa Unity Square in Harare over the weekend to hold an open air protest prayer against police harassment.  At the  service last Sunday the new Bishop Chad Gandiya said the police who were supposed to be “the custodians of the law are the ones denying us access, threatening to arrest us or use teargas to force us out. There are church wardens who have been arrested and some who bear marks of beatings,” he said.
 
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