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CU Man holding up placard in support of Bishop Abel Muzorewa PAN TO UNAC vice-president Walter Mthimkulu speaking. (english SOT)
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SV Reporters listening PAN TO Mthimkulu speaking. (SOT)
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TRANSCRIPT: MTHIMKULU: (SEQS 1-2) "You are aware no doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that the United African national Council is a live and very well-established political organisation of very long standing. Bishop Muzorewa has been, and still is, at the helm of its leadership, and he has been firmly in the driving seat right from this organisation's inception. It is quite pertinent to mention, albeit briefly, that had it not been for Bishop Abel Muzorewa's inborn qualities of good leadership, political magnaminity and abhorrence of violence, there could very well have been no ZANU-PF government today. And a lot of those people strutting and prancing around like peacocks in front of peahens could be languishing in goals and detention camps. Ladies and gentlemen, for anyone to countenance the foregoing allegations as authentic is to play with the intelligence of our people and indeed, to expect a great man like Bishop Muzorewa to be subjected to the ignominious experiences of detention is indicative of the fact that the government is scared out of its pants."





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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, spent his fourth day in jail on November 4 after being arrested by the Zimbabwe government under the country's wide-ranging emergency powers regulations. A new, indefinite detention order on the Bishop had been issued the same day, after Zimbabwe's high court ruled the first order invalid because it did not accurately reflect the reasons for the Bishop's arrest. The court refused to make public detailed reasons for Bishop Muzorewa's detention but Prime Minister Robert Mugabe said his predecessor was in jail because the government had evidence he was involved in subversive activities. The government has often accused the Bishop of engaging in a conspiracy with South Africa and Israel. At a press conference in Harare on November 4, leaders of the Bishop's United African National Council dismissed the government's explanations for the Bishop's detention as 'idiotic'. The first vice-president of the UANC, Mr. Walter Mthimkulu, said the true reason the government had arrested Bishop Muzorewa was that Mr. Mugabe was frightened by what he called growing popular support for the Bishop.