Ncube's mistress dies

The sad end of the woman at the centre of the scandal

Rosemary Sibanda, the woman at the eye of the infidelity storm that engulfed the then Archbishop Pius Ncube, and eventually forced him to quit, died at Bulawayo's Mpilo General Hospital on Friday.

Ncube, the former head of the Bulawayo diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and a vocal critic of Robert Mugabe's government, admitted to the adulterous affair with Sibanda shortly before he was reassigned to the Vatican.

Rosemary died just after noon on Friday. Hospital authorities say she had been admitted on April 30, suffering from pneumonia. "She was very frail when admitted," a nurse at the well-run but poorly equipped hospital said. "We tried to save her life but it was too late."

Her husband, Onesimus Sibanda, is suing Ncube for Z$5 trillion, accusing him of adultery, and claiming that Rosemary infected him with HIV which she allegedly contracted from the Archbishop.

Ncube was caught in a sting, believed to have been funded by government agents, when he was cap[tured on secret camera planted in his bedroom having sex with Sibanda and various other women.

Ncube initially denied the allegations, but in February he admitted the affair to Frontier TV, an independent film production company.

Apologising to his congregation and his supporters, Ncube said: "I do admit I did fail in keeping God's commandment with regard to adultery."

At the weekend a close friend of Rosemary, Monica Tshuma, said she died a lonely woman, abandoned both by Ncube and her husband. "She was heartbroken, and living a destitute life," she said.

Comments

[RMacleod]

Ncube was a good man and it is a shame Beelzebob's (Mugabe)'sting operation' managed to work.