In an attempt to garner votes ahead of elections expected before March next year, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is using the churches to build support for its 87-year-old leader.
A video clip obtained by the Mail & Guardian shows leaders of the Epworth, Mudzi North and Rushinga branches of Vadzidzi vaJesu, a branch of the Apostolic Christian Church, eulogising Mugabe’s leadership at a church service and urging congregants to support him because “he carries the blood of Jesus”.
“Gabriel [Mugabe] is supreme — he carries the blood of Jesus, so we can’t throw him away,” an unidentified church leader in the video clip tells congregants sitting on the ground. “In this party we say forward with Mugabe, and you also agree. Isn’t that so?
“We shouldn’t just pick anything and vote for it to be the leader of our country.”
It is understood that Zanu-PF’s drive to infiltrate the churches stems from a decision by the party’s commissariat last April to use faith organisations as “future vehicles” for its election campaign.
The commissariat, headed by the information and publicity minister, Webster Shamu, is in charge of rolling out the party’s election strategies. The drive is thought to have begun in earnest at the launch of Zanu-PF’s anti-sanctions campaign in March. At this, Zanu-PF extended an invitation to churches to denounce from the pulpit Western sanctions against Mugabe and his top brass since 2003.
But it is Zanu-PF’s use of one of Zimbabwe’s largest religious groups, the Apostolic Church, that could bolster its shaky popular support. Better known as the vaPostori, the church is reported to have nearly five million members countrywide.
Man of cloth
In July last year Mugabe attended the Passover celebrations of the Johane Marange Apostolic Church. Despite his well-known membership of the Roman Catholic Church, he appeared fully clad in the apostolic church’s white garments, carrying the church’s standard accoutrement — a wooden staff.
In the past, men of cloth, including controversial Anglican Church leader Nolbert Kunonga and the Reverend Obadiah Musindo, have emerged as close Mugabe allies and have openly encouraged their congregations to support Zanu-PF.
Last month media reports claimed that Zanu-PF had wooed “prophet” Emmanuel Makandiwa (34), the founder-leader of the United Families International Church, with farms, cars and houses to endorse Mugabe. But Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo dismissed these reports, saying: “Makandiwa can join the party as an individual, just like any other individual, if he is interested.
“Why particularise Makandiwa when we have other churches that we have been working with, like the Apostolic sects? The position of the party is that we will work with everyone who supports us.”
Makandiwa is renowned for his prophecies, healing and “deliverances” and draws nearly 60Â 000 congregants each week. Invited to the launch of the anti-sanctions campaign, he said an opening prayer.
Makandiwa’s close friend, Bishop Albert Chikuni, said: “There was nothing wrong with the prophet blessing the event as he was doing so in good faith and submitting himself to the rulers of the world.
“This man of God has been elevated from ministering to obscure men and now has access to minister to people of influence, which is an opportunity desired by every cleric.”
Earlier this month Mugabe swore in a nine-member Anti-Corruption Commission tasked with investigating graft and crime in Zimbabwe. It includes a prominent preacher, Goodwill Shana, leader of the Word of Life International Church, which has 8Â 000 followers.