By Lebo Nkatazo
New Zimbabwe
August 16, 2007
http://newzimbabwe.com/pages/roma40.16813.html
ONESIMUS SIBANDA, the man suing Archbishop Pius Ncube over an alleged adulterous affair with his wife, is set to initiate another legal storm on the cleric.
This time, Sibanda will claim that his wife infected him with the deadly HIV virus which she acquired from the archbishop, we can reveal.
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| ARCHBISHOP Pius Ncube |
Sibanda is claiming $20 billion from the Catholic cleric who is an arch critic of President Robert Mugabe's government.
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) sources said the latest expose, set to be "broken" by the state-owned Chronicle newspaper sometime this month, was "Plan B" of the smear offensive against the outspoken archbishop.
The Chronicle recently gloated that it would "break" another story in which Ncube would face more legal troubles emanating from the alleged adulterous affair with Rosemary Sibanda and other women.
After the initial expose of Archbishop Ncube's alleged sexual escapades boomeranged last month, the CIO and the state media are determined to unleash a more damaging smear sometime this month, sources told The New Zimbabwe.
They said "Plan C" involves the disclosure that Archbishop Ncube "fathered two children with a married woman" from the Esigodini area, some 40km south of Bulawayo.
The Chronicle will further print sick claims that Archbishop Ncube is HIV positive, final confirmation -- the CIO hopes -- that he was a "serial womaniser" as alleged by Ernest Tekere, the man who claims to have secretly filmed the cleric having sex with up to ten different women.
However, there is a growing public feeling that Tekere "just volunteered" to claim that he did the job to shield the CIO.
Tekere is a spy-cum-businessman who allegedly actively participated in the genocide in Matabeland in the 1980s. Enos Nkala, a former cabinet minister, and Welshman Mabhena, a former governor of Matabeleland North, have both claimed to have had encounters with Tekere when he was a CIO operative immediately after independence in 1980.
CIO sources said his role in the Archbishop Ncube saga was to use security guards from his company, Homeguard Security Services, stationed at the Cathedral as informers about movements of women in and out of Archbishop Ncube's home.
The CIO managed to take blood samples of Ncube at an unknown date and used the samples to perform a DNA test which they say proved that the two children were indeed Archbishop Ncube's offspring.
The sources added that the CIO "paid some people" at the Catholic Church-run Mater Dei Hospital to obtain Ncube's blood samples, ostensibly for medical check ups, but handed over the samples to CIO agents.
The CIO also managed to get blood samples of the two kids.
CIO sources say the father of the children is "not aware that the kids are not his". They said they were "working on a plan to tip off the father that the kids belong to the Archbishop", and get the man to agree to go public about the matter.
"The idea is that he will also sue and create a media frenzy that will drown the Archbishop this time around," said the source who is familiar with the plot.
He revealed: "The CIO and their bosses were shocked by the public sympathy for Archbishop Ncube after the sex scandal broke.
"That is why the government later ordered the state media to stop using nude pictures depicting the bishop in bed with women. They hope Plan B and C will finish him off."
Implacable sources said the state media was "already armed with the facts" and were "waiting for a signal" from the CIO to unleash the story. Just as in the first allegations, they will wait for Sibanda to file his lawsuit in court before running the story.
"The only snag for now is that the CIO does not know how the father of the children alleged to be Ncube's is going to react when they break the news to him. He may choose not to believe them. Even if he does, he may elect to talk to Ncube man-to-man if for sure that is true. That would leave the CIO with egg in their faces and unable to carry through with the latest project," said a source.
Archbishop Ncube's lawyer, Nicolas Mathonsi, said nothing now surprised him with the state media and the Zimbabwe government.
"These people are capable of anything, you can't put anything past them. But we will fight those allegations if indeed there is such a plot," he said.
Archbishop Ncube's supporters have accused President Mugabe's intelligence services of executing a plot to discredit him and silence his criticism of the government.
Ncube controversially said he was praying for Mugabe's death, and has said he would back a military intervention in Zimbabwe by British troops to "put down Mugabe".
In his first public comments after the sex allegations, Mugabe said he was praying for Ncube. Mugabe, who describes himself as an "ordinary Catholic" and several years ago drew criticism by fathering children with his secretary while still married, said he would call for prayers for the archbishop "so that he can repent and return to morality".
"Since you are my archbishop, Pius, and you swore to celibacy, keep your vows," he said. "Snatching other people's wives is not fair play."
Ncube has gone to ground while the Catholic hierarchy decides what to do as the fires are stoked by repeated broadcasts of the video on Zimbabwe television. The archbishop has done nothing to quell the furore.
He refused to deny the accusations, saying instead that he is feeling "stressed" and praying a great deal.
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