Anti-Mugabe cleric Ncube sued for adultery - report

Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic archbishop Pius Ncube, an outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe, is being sued by a man who said Ncube committed adultery with his wife, state radio reported on Monday.

Ncube was served with a Z$20 billion lawsuit, filed by Onesimus Sibanda, less than a week after returning from a trip abroad where he criticised Mugabe's government, the radio said.

Adultery is illegal in Zimbabwe, although it is rarely prosecuted in the courts.

"Archbishop Ncube is alleged to have been having a two-year adulterous relationship with Rosemary Sibanda, the wife of a Bulawayo resident," according to the report, which added that Sibanda was a parish secretary in the city, the nation's second largest.

"Rosemary has since admitted to the affair to ZBC News," it said.

Ncube, who is the archbishop of the southern Bulawayo diocese, was not immediately available for comment.

He has been an ardent foe of Mugabe, accusing the 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader and his government of human rights abuses and suppressing political dissent.

In March the cleric said he was ready to face bullets in anti-government protests to help bring democratic change in the southern African nation, which is mired in a deep economic and political crisis.

Earlier this month London's Sunday Times quoted Ncube as saying Britain would be justified in invading its former colony to rid it of Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in 1980.

Ncube later distanced himself from the report, saying that South African-brokered efforts to end the crisis in Zimbabwe should be given a chance to work.