Response+re+Jhb+Central+Methodist+Church,+Rev+N+Mkaronda

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a time to act, 8 June 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa
711 Khotso House 62 Marshall Street / Sauer Street Marshalltown Tel: 011 838 3732 / Tel(fax): 011 838 9642 Email: **info@crisiszimbabwe.org**
 * Johannesburg 2001**

=Responses to the media blitz on the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg=


 * By The Reverend Nicholas Mkaronda, Coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition South Africa Office**

//The Zimbabwean// of 8-14 June 2006 published a story entitled ‘//Sex slavery row at church’//. In summary, this story sought to highlight what is considered sexual immorality being practiced by Zimbabweans refugees staying at the church, the indiscipline of Zimbabwean refugees, the reluctance of church authorities to enforce discipline among the inmates and to alert the world of potential bloodshed at the church. At the end, the unnamed author points out that there has been an influx of young girls from Zimbabwe who have fled due to economic meltdown and refusal to join the Green Bomber militias where they are raped.

On Thursday June 8, //The Star// published 2 stories about the immigrants at the Central Methodist Church. The first one, written by one Solly Maphumulo was headed //‘Place of worship now a den of iniquity’//. The writer described how the once fashionable church had deteriorated into a filthy place of fights, rape, drunkenness, theft and overcrowding. Congregates have become so angry, a point Bishop Veryn is quoted as acknowledging, because the church has become a dirty place not fit to worship God from. Solly Maphumulo dedicated the bulk of his story exposing the Shona and Ndebele conflict which he argues is not only characteristic of Shona/Ndebele relations in the church but also in Zimbabwe. He extensively writes about the killing of one Zimbabwean by another over clothes and attributes this to ethical tensions and quotes a refugee there who complains that they are not treated well as happens to refugees elsewhere. The story ends with the graphic description of the Lord’s house been turned into a den of thieves and robbers.

The second story in that newspaper was written by one Dumisani Sibeko who claims that he was taken hostage and almost lost his life because he was taking pictures of the refugees.

I want to first of all thank the newspapers for bringing these stories to light, and must say that I do not doubt in any way their observations about the issues of Zimbabwean refugees at the church. I think one of the roles of the media is to inform society of the burning issues in a community. Thank you very much.

However, I also think that there is need to explain and analyze events and issues that obtain in our society so that together we can evolve a society that we are all proud of. Certainly, what is going on at the Methodist Church is not something we would like to model our society on. To this end, some of us feel compelled to respond to the issues raised in the newspapers by way of offering one way of understanding the issues raised and the critical questions obtaining there from.

It is clear that we have a huge influx of Zimbabweans who are coming into South Africa. Maphumulo says there are ‘700 refugees and illegals who have been given shelter there by Bishop Paul Veryn’. The Zimbabwean states that ‘recently, there has been an influx of young Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa’. Other reports elsewhere estimate that there are between 2 to 4 million Zimbabweans who have come to South Africa. The reason why Zimbabweans have fled their country is that Zimbabwe has failed to provide for its people and to guarantee the fundamental rights and dignity bestowed to all people by God the Creator. The Zimbabwean system has made its people so vulnerable to the extent of genocide; this is why people are coming here. They are coming in quest of the messianic promise that ‘I came so that they might have life, and have life in abundance’.

This situation in Zimbabwe has been raised many a times with regional and international governments, but the response has not been encouraging. Those of us who argue that Zimbabwe is suffering from evil governance are touted at as British and American puppets by governments in the region, and yet it is the ordinary citizens of the region who suffer when they have to provide for Zimbabweans who will have fled, as the stories of the anger and frustrations of congregates at the Methodist Church exposed in the articles referred to indicate. The Zimbabweans suffering at the Methodist Church are victims of a government in Zimbabwe that has abrogated its responsibility to its citizens. The congregants suffering at the same church are victims not only of the Zimbabwean government, but the South African and SADC governments who have refused to confront the government of Zimbabwe on failing to honor its obligations to Zimbabweans. Thus we should see what is going on at the Methodist Church as the victimization of victims and the frustration of the poor in looking after the poor.

It is true that when people are offered assistance like the refugees at the church they should reciprocate by among other things good behavior, courtesy and politeness. All of us surely condemn any behavior of drunkenness, rape, thieving and so forth by people who have been assisted. However, there is need to appreciate that the Zimbabweans who are at the Methodist Church are not there by choice, but that there are a dehumanized lot, some of them having gone through traumatic experiences such as rape, beatings and so forth in Zimbabwe and their tormentors have never been brought to book. As such, they have internalized violence and see it as the most reliable means for survival. To this extent, we need to applaud Bishop Veryn and the congregation for taking the first into humanizing these people by providing shelter, however inadequate it is. We all need to take the second step of coming up with interventions that will help the refugees gain their self esteem and confidence. We then need to take the third step of demanding from our governments, including the South African government to exert pressure on the Zimbabwean government to behave in a manner that makes for peace and life for all, in Zimbabwe and the region. By condemning the refugees we are merely victimizing the victim and letting the perpetrator get away with impunity.

It is rather too simplistic and naïve to say the tensions among the Zimbabwean refugees are ethnic in character and form. It is not true to say that in Zimbabwe the Shona and the Ndebele do not see each other eye to eye as suggested in Maphumulo’s story. I am a Shona who grew up in Bulawayo. We lived among the Ndebele, some of them the core Ndebele such as the Khumalos, Mabhenas, Gumedes and so forth. At home we spoke Shona and those who visited us learnt Shona from us. I was taught by the Ndebele to the extent that I studied Ndebele at the University of Zimbabwe being the only Shona among the Ndebele. For the record, I am a holder of a Masters Degree in Ndebele. Tribalism is often engineered not by the ordinary people like you see at the Methodist Church, but by some big people in big offices who have agendas. When I was growing up and visited my rural area in Manicaland, people there always asked us how we were managing since the Ndebele are known to be tribalists who use knives to kill the Shona. The source of this attitude was the Smith regime which liked to propagate such lies so as to keep the Zimbabwean people divided and unable to confront it. It was a diversionary strategy to make the oppressed fight the oppressed rather than the oppressor. Of course, some people fell victim to this and behaved in the stereotype that the regime had created. Our sense of the situation at the Methodist is that it is infiltrated by state agents from Zimbabwe part of whose mandate would be to tarnish the image of the suffering people so that they are deported and finished when they get back to Zimbabwe. In all fairness, no one would like to urinate in the well where s/he drinks water. To propagate uncritically the tribal tensions is to suggest that the Zimbabwean refugees are stupid, and the only sane person in Zimbabwe is the commander of forced evictions such as Operation Murambatsvina and the Border Gezi Youth Militia training program.

The congregants at the Methodist Church are angry and frustrated by the Zimbabweans whom they are looking after. We may not understand their anger, but we surely recognize and appreciate that they should be angry. The Church is divided. It is perhaps important for us to explain the story of the church’s involvement as an extension of the work of the church in Zimbabwe. In 2000 when violence erupted in Zimbabwe, one Bishop declared that all his churches in the diocese are open to any person who found themselves persecuted. The same Bishop went on in the following years to provide sanctuary at his cathedral. A child was born by a mother whose house had been burnt down due to government induced violence. The police and CIO were not happy about the work of the diocese. As internal displacements became a norm, the Bishop extended his ministry to cover a huge part of the country, and for this he earned all sorts of names from the government, was visited by the dreaded CIO and so forth.

When the government launched it Operation Murambatsvina, churches in Bulawayo and some parts of Harare and Mutare opened their doors to the women, children, the elderly and the sick that had been left in the chilly winter for dead. The police raided the churches, abducted the people and left them in various parts of the country stranded with a view that they would die quietly without any notice from anyone. Church pastors and bishops were harassed by the police for providing humanitarian assistance as called for by the gospel of Jesus Christ who came so that they might have life in abundance. These are some of the people who are now residing at the Methodist Church, the filth that the government of Zimbabwean was sweeping out.

We therefore recognize that the work that is being done by the Churches is not an easy one in South Africa, especially when the authorities that be begin to persecute you as was indicated by the Home Affairs spokesperson Mantshele Tau. We recognize that the Methodist Church and many other churches in South Africa, the region and internationally are doing what the churches in Zimbabwe are supposed to be doing but are either inhibited or unwilling to do so. Some of us believe that the Church is called upon to prophesy – to give warning of the consequences of evil actions that human systems create; to provide pastoral care – showing God’s love to all people irrespective of their differences with each other; and to evangelize – calling people to God.

In conclusion, we want to reiterate our gratitude to the Central Methodist Church and all the other churches that are looking after us. We are sorry that we have become such a burden for you. When God created us, God created us in God’s own image, not as a burden. However, the human system in Zimbabwe has turned us into burdens by systematically dehumanizing us through such evil practices as organized state violence and torture, evil laws like POSA which deny us an opportunity to meet freely and discuss our problems in the land of our birth, and evil economic policies that have rendered us jobless and beggars. We wish to express our solidarity with Bishop Veryn and the saints at the Methodist Church for the work you are doing and the pains you are going through. As the saying goes, ‘Silver and gold have I none, but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, stand up and walk’.

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