Archbishop seeks peaceful uprising against Mugabe

One of Zimbabwe’s most outspoken church leaders called for a peaceful popular uprising to oust President Robert Mugabe in an interview with a South African newspaper today.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, of Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, said a key parliamentary election on Thursday has already been rigged.

“I hope that people get so disillusioned that they really organise against the government and kick him out by a non-violent, popular, mass uprising,” Ncube told the Johannesburg-based Sunday Independent.

“Because as it is, people have been too soft with this government. So people should pluck up just a bit of courage and stand up against him and chase him away.”

Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader, has led Zimbabwe since the end of white rule in 1980. His Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party appears set for victory in Thursday’s poll, which rights groups say is already tainted by years of violence, intimidation and repressive laws.

“Mugabe came in by violence, and now when he is threatened, he turns again to violence to keep people subjugated,” Ncube said in the interview.

He insisted, however, that he is not advocating any kind of violence against Mugabe.

“I am simply backing a non-violent uprising like that in the Philippines in 1986 and such as in the Ukraine recently,” Ncube said.