The former Archbishop of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe Pius Ncube has asserted that allegations he committed adultery were orchestrated by the state.

|PIC1|Bishop Ncube resigned from his position after allegations were brought against him in July and pictures emerged showing him in bed with his married female secretary.

However, he has now spoken out saying that the pictures were used by the state to stop him speaking out on human rights violations by President Robert Mugabe's government.

The BBC reports, however, that Bishop Ncube did not specifically deny the allegations, saying instead that he could not discuss the case as yet.

The former Roman Catholic archbishop has been one of Mugabe's most outspoken critics and has even urged foreign governments to overthrow his regime.

Speaking to the BBC's Reporting Religion programme, the Bishop explained that his accusers had not proved the allegations of adultery. He said: "This was the evil plan of the government to isolate me and to cut me off from the human rights drive in the country, evil plans of trying to break me. That has not succeeded."

Reports have also revealed that the woman's husband is suing Bishop Ncube for 20bn Zimbabwe dollars (£80,000 black market exchange rate) over the alleged affair. The Bishop has said that this too is the work of the state.

He said: "This thing is state driven, it is not from the husband."

Bishop Ncube continued to say that he could not speak about the specifics of the case now but only once the court proceedings were finished. However, he did say that he expects the case to "fizzle out" as "there is no case".

He went on to tell the BBC that the Zimbabwe Government was just using the allegations to distract people's attention from the country's problems, emphasising once again that there were people starving.

Inflation in Zimbabwe has now reached 15,000 per cent and in many places there is no food, and electricity is being rationed. In addition, the bishop said that fuel was now so expensive that very few cars were being used.

Bishop Ncube told the BBC: "The very essentials of our livelihood are not there, and because they are failing to provide them they must try to get people's attention diverted to non essentials."

He also revealed that he had received hundreds of messages of support by e-mail, letter, phone and from visitors, and he promised that the current problems would not halt him highlighting the country's human rights violations in the international arena.

He said: "I refuse to bow to their pressures in any way, because if you bow to that pressure then they have got you where they want you. This is my country and I am free to speak and to criticise the evil things which they are doing against the people."