Posted on 07/13/2004 2:02:21 PM PDT by Clive
Durban - South Africa's top Catholic bishop said on Monday he could not understand why the South African government was not considering sanctions against neighbouring Zimbabwe, given the success that sanctions brought for South Africa.
However, the Catholic church believed that if sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe, they should be applied "intelligently" and it should be up to the people of Zimbabwe to decide when they should be lifted, Cardinal Wilfred Napier told Sapa.
Napier said that while he was not calling directly for sanctions against Zimbabwe, he did not understand why sanctions were not being considered.
He said that during apartheid no progress was made with the second-last white President, PW Botha, so most churches supported the African National Congress' call for sanctions, through the United Democratic Front.
"Sanctions in South Africa brought us a quicker end to the oppression. But I think you have got to do it intelligently," said Napier, who is the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference.
He said Zimbabwe's Catholic Bishop Pius Ncube told a gathering of church leaders in KwaZulu-Natal last week that nobody was pressuring the Zimbabwe government to find a solution to its problems.
Ncube is reported to have said: "All they do is back each other up and drink tea together."
Napier said: "It's difficult on the outside of the situation to comment, but for my part our government has the means to find out what needs to be done."
Commenting on whether the church should get involved in politics, Napier said: "When people are dying it is not politics, it is a matter of life and death and about the promise of a better life and making that fulfillable. Life and death is not about politics."
He said it was usually people who had a lot to lose who opposed sanctions, and disputed that it would have a negative impact on ordinary Zimbabweans.
"What further suffering will sanctions bring to the people of Zimbabwe?" Napier asked.
Zimbabwe is currently reeling under the combined effects of food shortages, spiralling inflation and unemployment.
Last week civil rights groups expressed their concern at a decision by the African Union not to make public a report said to be critical about the country's human rights record.
The report, compiled by the AU Commission on Human and People's Rights two years ago, contains allegations of government complicity in a wide range of rights abuses, the United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) said.
Brian Kagoro, chief executive of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said: "There was a glimmer of hope that African leaders would finally publicly condemn the ongoing human rights violations, but that opportunity has once again been lost," IRIN reported.
Edited by Duane Heath
Johannesburg - A Zanu-PF spokesperson in Johannesburg has launched a scathing attack on Archbishop Pius Ncube's activities in South Africa in the past few days.
The Zimbabwean archbishop was on a "misguided mission", said Gadzira Chirumanzu, Zanu-PF's SA secretary for information on Monday.
"Instead of building bridges, he seems to be agitating for chaos and insurrection. Surely, a bishop should have some modicum of decency."
Chirumanzu asked why Ncube was campaigning in South Africa for a free and fair election.
"In case the bishop is not aware, the elections will take place in Zimbabwe and not in South Africa."
He said the bishop was obviously on a fund-raising mission for next year's elections, and had abandoned his flock to become a full-time politician.
Outspoken critic of Zimbabwe government
Ncube had been openly invited to meet Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to discuss what he was telling the outside world about Zimbabwe, said Chirumanzu.
"Up to now the archbishop has not embraced the invitation".
However, he admitted that Mugabe had not actually contacted Ncube, relying on the media to advertise his "invitation".
Ncube, an outspoken critic of the Zimbabwean government, has been the subject of much media attention in the past weeks.
He spoke out strongly against African Union members last week, saying they did nothing, but "back each other up and drink tea".
Ncube also claimed the Zimbabwean government had lied about the amount of food available in the country, and warned of large-scale starvation.
Ncube has been in South Africa for the last week, where he has continued his public attack on the Zanu-PF.
"This habit by the archbishop to globetrot and, in the process, smear other presidents with unkind remarks on the Zimbabwe situation is unchristian and mischievous," said Chirumanzu.
Edited by Iaine Harper
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Not sure how sanctions will help. Mugabe has millions stashed away, it will only affect the people who it is supposed to help.
It bars them from travel to the US or the EU.
It means, for example, that Zanu PF can no longer send their children to universities in the UK and the US.
The sanctions include businessmen who support and profit from Zanu PF and also the Anglican Bishop of Harare who has not only supported Zanu PF and Mugabe, but has also grabbed a farm that was forcibly confiscated from a white commercial farmer.
The sanctions would have more effect if countries such as South Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia were to join them. As it is, Grace Mugabe now does her grandiose shopping trips in those countries now instead of in Paris and London.
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