Resigned Zimbabwe Archbishop Expected to Remain Defiant

HARARE - Zimbabwe's state media on Wednesday cheered the resignation of Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube over a sex scandal, but commentators doubt the fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe will be easily stifled.

The 60-year-old head of the southern Bulawayo archdiocese resigned on Tuesday, two months after being sued for adultery in a case which he called a vicious government smear campaign.

Ncube said he was quitting to protect the Church and to face the adultery allegations as an individual.

Government-run newspapers hit hard. They alleged Ncube, who has tirelessly challenged Mugabe in street protests at home and through lobbying abroad, had been forced by the church to resign in disgrace on moral grounds.

"Pius Ncube defrocked over sex scandal," said a headline in the Chronicle, which said Ncube was pushed out by the Vatican after confessing sex sins to the Pope.

But Eldred Masunungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, did not believe this would be the end of Ncube's resistance.

"I can't speak on behalf of the bishop, but I don't buy the line that this resignation will silence him," he said.

Masunungure said that although Ncube faced adultery charges he had shown moral courage by resigning, and his strident stance against Mugabe's government would still win him support.

"It is the forum that changes not the message," he added.


WEAK AND DIVIDED OPPOSITION

The Vatican said on Tuesday that Pope Benedict had accepted Ncube's resignation under a Church law covering clergy who can no longer perform their duties for health reasons. It has also been used with clerics who brought their office into disrepute.

State media put Ncube in the spotlight by publishing what they said were nude pictures of him in bed with a number of women.

Mugabe faces a weak and divided opposition, with his critics banking on economic turmoil marked by hyper-inflation and severe food and fuel shortages to pile pressure on his government as it cracks down on dissent.

Ncube has been relentless in his efforts to focus attention on alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Mugabe denies the allegations and accuses the opposition and his Western foes of plotting to oust him.

Ncube played a prominent role in documenting and denouncing a military crackdown ordered by Mugabe in the 1980s against "armed dissidents" in which some 20,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed.

Analysts say he still has options.

One is to throw his weight behind one of the two wings of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which appears to be weakening due to infighting.

A civic group called the Pius Ncube Solidarity Coalition -- formed to mobilise support for him following the adultery charges -- was confident he would keep fighting Mugabe.

"He is an important voice that must always be heard," it said in a statement.