Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe should be seen as a “21st Century Hitler”, the senior South African Anglican bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka has said calling on churches to pray for his removal, South African Press Association reports.
His comments came as the US ambassador to Zimbabwe warned that the country was turning into a “failed state”.
President Mugabes ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been deadlocked in power-sharing negotiations for several months.
Bishop Seoka said that Mr Mugabe was a “person seemingly without conscience or remorse, and a murderer”.
– I believe it is now an opportune moment for all the church leaders to follow the retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, to call on God to cause the removal Mugabe from the office of the President of Zimbabwe, he said, calling for the prayers to be held next Tuesday.
– “The church in South Africa has done this before with the apartheid regime and there is no doubt that God will hear our prayers even today, stated he.
Bishop Seoka asked South Africans to show patience to Zimbabweans who have fled their homeland. An estimated three million Zimbabweans are living in South Africa, and thousands cross over the border illegally every day.
– We need to commit ourselves to assist the refugees from Zimbabwe in our midst, remembering that the one we call our Lord and Saviour was a refugee in Egypt, fleeing the Mugabe of that period, King Herod, the bishop said.
