Bringing it all together – what we know, at least.

Reports of an alleged tryst between Ncube and Rosemary Sibanda, a parish secretary in the Bulawayo cathedral, first surfaced in the Mugabe-controlled press in mid-July. Grainy still photos and video, apparently obtained from a hidden camera in the archbishop’s residence, show Sibanda in bed with a man identified by the state-run press as Ncube. The images, however, are of poor quality, and most experts believe positive identification is impossible.

Ncube has rejected the charges, though so far without an unambiguous denial of any relationship with Sibanda. Onesimus Sibanda, the woman’s husband, has filed a 20 billion dollar lawsuit against Ncube in the Zimbabwean currency, estimated to be worth about $80,000 in terms of real value.
In a statement yesterday, the archbishop said he had resigned in order to face the charges “as Pius Ncube, an individual, not that the holy Catholic Church of God should seem to be on trial because I am its head.” Ncube said he would devote himself to a new charity group, the Zimbabwe Humanitarian Support Trust, intended to bring food and medical relief to the country’s poor.
The case has rapidly become a Rorschach test for public opinion, with various parties drawing conclusions even in the absence of conclusive evidence. Pro-Mugabe media assert that Ncube has been disgraced; Zimbabwe’s information minister, Bright Matonga, yesterday said Ncube’s resignation is “proof of his guilt, and we hope that God will forgive his sins.”
Supporters of the archbishop, meanwhile, claim the charges amount to a smear campaign. Ncube said yesterday he was the victim of “a state-driven vicious attack not only on myself, but, by proxy, on the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe.”

Some Western observers seem initially inclined to take the reports seriously – based either on generalized perceptions that clerical celibacy is only spottily enforced in Africa, or as an extension of sexual abuse scandals in the United States and elsewhere. Some Africans, meanwhile, see the clash between Mugabe and Ncube in tribal terms, since Mugabe is a member of one of the two main rival ethnic groups in Zimbabwe, the Shona, while Ncube comes from the other, the Ndebele. According to this school of thought, pro-Mugabe Shona tribesman conspired to frame Ncube.
It hasn’t helped matters that a private detective purportedly hired by the husband to investigate the alleged affair is a Shona tribesman, Ernest Tekere, who is also a former employee of Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organization reportedly linked to anti-Ndebele atrocities in the 1980s. Some observers believe Tekere was actually put on the case by Mugabe in order to discredit Ncube.
Ncube yesterday told Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading newspaper, that he would “never admit” that the photos are authentic. Ncube also said that he would not have resigned on his own, but did so in obedience to a request from Benedict XVI.