News / Local
Chief banishes Johanne Masowe members
24 Apr 2016 at 04:25hrs | Views
A CHIEF from Gwanda has banned members of the Johanne Masowe Apostolic Church from his area after accusing them of conducting rituals that were not allowed in the area during a burial of a village head who was a member of the church.
Sunday News reported that Chief Nhlamba confirmed that he had banned the members after receiving a report that mourners who included a councillor, Phineas Maphosa conducted "queer rituals" during the burial of John Ndlovu who was the village head at Ntepe.
"I received a report from other village heads who were also present at the funeral. I was told that these members of the Masowe church came and performed rituals which are not allowed in this area. I assure you that these people did not do well at that funeral, that's why we made a decision to chase them away and also ban them. It seems like they had been in agreement with other relatives but we felt that was not good," he said.
Chief Nhlamba, however, refused to divulge the rituals that were performed which he felt warranted the punishment.
However, Clr Maphosa said they were being treated unfairly and were just chased for no reason as they did not practice any ritual.
"Just like any other religious members we had come to pay our final respects to our leader, who was also a tradtional leader to us who was from Ntepe, we did not do any ritual except burying Ndlovu. We had arranged with Ndlovu's children who understood that their father was a leader at our church that we will do it the church way, but we were disappointed to hear the chief saying that we performed unwanted rituals so we are banned from operating in the area. I believe other relatives who are not even blood relatives to Ndlovu wanted the burial to be done in their own way so they influenced the chief to take such an action. We left peacefully and no one said a word against what the chief had said," said Clr Maphosa.
He added that what worsened the situation was that there were a number of other church members who had come for the funeral from Beitbridge, Bulawayo and Gwanda town. A number of churches have their own ways of conducting burials, but some are in conflict with traditional practices.
Sunday News reported that Chief Nhlamba confirmed that he had banned the members after receiving a report that mourners who included a councillor, Phineas Maphosa conducted "queer rituals" during the burial of John Ndlovu who was the village head at Ntepe.
"I received a report from other village heads who were also present at the funeral. I was told that these members of the Masowe church came and performed rituals which are not allowed in this area. I assure you that these people did not do well at that funeral, that's why we made a decision to chase them away and also ban them. It seems like they had been in agreement with other relatives but we felt that was not good," he said.
However, Clr Maphosa said they were being treated unfairly and were just chased for no reason as they did not practice any ritual.
"Just like any other religious members we had come to pay our final respects to our leader, who was also a tradtional leader to us who was from Ntepe, we did not do any ritual except burying Ndlovu. We had arranged with Ndlovu's children who understood that their father was a leader at our church that we will do it the church way, but we were disappointed to hear the chief saying that we performed unwanted rituals so we are banned from operating in the area. I believe other relatives who are not even blood relatives to Ndlovu wanted the burial to be done in their own way so they influenced the chief to take such an action. We left peacefully and no one said a word against what the chief had said," said Clr Maphosa.
He added that what worsened the situation was that there were a number of other church members who had come for the funeral from Beitbridge, Bulawayo and Gwanda town. A number of churches have their own ways of conducting burials, but some are in conflict with traditional practices.
Source - Sunday News
