Zimbabwe’s Education Ministry has instructed that all teachers and professional staff evicted from Anglican mission schools by a renegade bishop be reinstated immediately.
Senior political sources in Zimbabwe say the Ministry of Education issued the reinstatement directive Thursday. It covers all teachers and staff who had been evicted by Nolbert Kunonga - an excommunicated Anglican bishop who has taken over many Anglican schools, churches and immovable property.
It follows a week of high-level developments on the reinstatement issue.
On Wednesday, the Harare High Court ruled some of the evictions were illegal and ordered 14 teachers, headmasters and medical staff be allowed to return to their posts immediately. Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said the rule of law had been violated because they had been dispossessed of their jobs without due process.
On Monday the head of the worldwide Anglican Church met with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams protested the evictions and other abuses he says members of his church have suffered since Kunonga began his seizures in 2007. Mugabe promised to look into the issue.
Kunonga, a former Anglican bishop of Harare and vocal supporter of Mugabe, established his own Anglican church in Zimbabwe in 2007 - claiming that the worldwide community of Anglican churches supported homosexual marriage.
Zimbabwe to Reinstate Evicted Anglican Teachers
