Archbishop Ncube, don't be ashamed of yourself

TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE* | Friday November 9, 2007 00:00

I must say right away that I was pleased silly when you denied any ambitions to run for the Zimbabwean presidency using a regional party to achieve such a goal. It was a wise move.

You see, Sir, you should be above such tomfoolery. 'You are not only a national figure but one with international influence. Aligning yourself with a party based on tribal allegiances would have been the death of you.

We have never met but you were quite an inspiration to millions of people, including me.
Your Excellency, I was most pleased to discover that you, like all of us, are human; that, like the rest of us, you are also free to be foolish.

I am not in any way prejudging that the things that have been said are true but, allow me, Sir, to say that if they are true, you owe nobody an apology. Only God, your maker, would need to hear from you. What I find interesting is that hypocrites accuse you of things they have themselves done and continue to do using public funds. They are taking other men's wives using taxpayers' money. And that, I dare say, is the most repulsive, rotten and low-down thing anyone, let alone a president, could do. And they are doing it while the national anthem is being played, while we stand at attention.

Your Excellency, life makes no sense and people make less.
Anyway, this letter is not to sing accolades to you, Sir. This letter is not to give you support where you do not deserve it. This letter is not to hype your very well-known efforts to bring a little justice to our nation. For that, you don't need me, or anyone else for that matter. Your honest efforts are a matter of public record.

This letter is from a believer and is directed to you, Sir, just in case you feel weighed down by the evil pervading our country and especially a rabid president our country has been cursed with. This letter is to you, Pius, to remind you to fight on. Your fighting spirit and the battles you have waged are not related to the 'crimes' that Robert Mugabe so shamefully broadcasts to the people. How does a president find the time to talk about a particular person's perceived adulterous affair?

Is this what Mugabe is all about? No wonder the country is in such a mess. Mugabe finds the time to address the nation about rumours of romance allegedly perpetrated by a citizen and pays no regard to law. Mugabe, a bored murderer who is under siege from all angles, stops 'running' the country to indulge in gossip and talks about an alleged affair that is officially scheduled to be heard in a court of law.

You once announced that you were praying for his demise. I hope you are still on your knees, sir.

You have been fighting alone, dangerous battle against an old spent and homicidal dictator. You have spiritual, psychological and physical scars to show for it. Mugabe, always a coward and pretender from the early days, still hides behind other people's sons. He is a manipulator; he is not original unless we talk about killing innocent people.

Your Grace, this letter is an appeal to you. The work you have done and the allegations levelled against you by Mugabe, himself a cruel adulterer, are not related. One does not cancel out the other. I, therefore, urge you to fight on, please.

Regardless of what the seemingly pornography-minded Mugabe does to you, please continue with the struggle. Heaven is about to happen. You, like so many other sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, have an obligation to free Zimbabwe.

I would feel very sad were you to coil up and roll into a shell and deny Zimbabweans that exceptional courage of yours that they had become accustomed to.

It is Mugabe who should feel ashamed of himself, not you. Fight on, dear brother. Your accusing president is the fiend which the country must get rid of. You got to fight on, Pius; you have got a job to do. You have to help to free this country and the people.

When that shameless pretender Supa Mandiwanzira showed you 'footage' of your 'escapades', I was touched by your reaction. You displayed an unrushed and edifying dignity; it was a classic display of self-control and belief in self. The last time when I saw such courageous demeanour was when Saddam Hussein faced the hangman.

After that encounter, you were silent for quite a period of time and I believe you were in retreat, communicating with your Lord, talking, listening and seeking guidance. God sometimes doesn't deliver us out of our hardships but through them. A Luta Continua, Pius! And welcome back to the spotlight.

I became a Catholic in 1964. Over the years, I became aware that my church had a problem, especially when I was at school in Boston. Your Excellency, allow me to suppose, just to suppose that the adultery allegations against you that Mugabe is so pathetically proud of were true, history shows that it's not Pius Ncube but the church that has a problem. Our church, like all other churches, is weak when it comes to such matters. Others are actually solemnising marriages between men; they allow women to marry each other.

The church is made up of individuals and individuals are fallible. Individuals are human and that is why we all need God. Except Mugabe who blasphemously calls himself the Son Of God.

Your Grace, you will be surprised to find that your alleged transgressions are just minute and meaningless when compared to the work you have done for the Lord and for the people. God takes note; he does.

Forget those who are drunk with power and who have signed contracts with the devil. I am amazed at a leader who works so tirelessly to trumpet negatives and who cheers when bad things happen. Mugabe believes in destroying the country in order to keep it.

While other leaders weep when misfortune befalls their citizens, ours feels inadequate if there is no political killing carried out in his name.

Pigs love mud, Pius, and when you wrestle with one, you ought to be prepared to get dirty. Mugabe is a man who deserves no reward in either this world or the next.

I read somewhere that psychiatrists say the child within us never dies and the ethics and standards pounded into us in our very early years, no matter how stern or inappropriate, are never completely forgotten, but 'exist like reproachful ghosts in the dark recesses of our minds.' You are human, Your Excellency, and you have a job to do so get on with it!

Even the still wind has a voice, my dear brother Pius, for even in shabbiness, there is room for pride.
*Tanonoka Joseph Whande is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean writer.