25 Mapostori arrested

At least 25 members of the Madzibaba Ishamea Mufani Johane Masowe Church have reportedly been arrested for assaulting police officers and journalists.

While police spokesperson Charity Charamba was not picking her mobile phone yesterday, she told State TV on Friday that six members of the Budiriro 2-based Johane Masowe sect had been arrested.

But sources said yesterday more sect members had been rounded up in connection with the violence, with authorities moving in to seal the church venue.

Charamba said the police would not countenance lawlessness, strongly condemning the behaviour of the sect members.

She said police "will quash lawlessness from any quarter".

An official close to the investigation told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday: "25 people have so far been arrested and the investigations are ongoing. We expect more people to be arrested."

The melee occurred after Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) president Johannes Ndanga - who was in the company of about 20 anti-riot police officers - told about 300 Johanne Masowe apostolic sect members at their holy shrine that he had banned the church for abuse of women and girls among other things.

The members were congregated at their sacred shrine in the high-density suburb of Budiriro 2 in Harare when Ndanga addressed them.

Three police officers were seriously injured while three others escaped with minor injuries.

A ZBC photographer, who tried to film the incident, was also clobbered by the marauding congregants using their shepherd's crooks. Windows of a ZBC van were also smashed in the stand-off.

Lameck Chitope, ACCZ Harare provincial chairman, was bludgeoned on the head with a shepherd's crook and sustained serious injuries.

Journalists and ACCZ members had to take refuge at Budiriro 2 Police Station as the agitated mapostori bayed for their blood.

Prior to the clash, Ndanga said he was banning the church for a number of transgressions.

"As ACCZ, we discovered that you denied over 400 children of school-going age access to education," he said.

"There is rampant physical, mental, emotional, psychological as well as economic abuse of the girl child and women," he said amid heckling from the agitated members of the sect.

The ACCZ president then dropped the bombshell, saying he was banning the church for practising "operation recovery" in which church elders were demanding that all girls married after losing their v*rginity must be send back to their parents' home.

"You force your congregants to sell their properties so as to guarantee them entry into what is termed Canaan," Ndanga said.

"There is severe abuse of church congregants and their families or relatives by way of not allowing pregnant women to attend either ante-natal and or post-natal care from trained medical personnel as this is regarded as satanic.

"You coerce church members not to possess technological gadgets such as television sets and cell phones under unfounded religious claims where Madzibaba Ishamel is calling himself ‘God'."

Women rights groups condemned the abuse of women and girls.

Musasa Project executive director Netty Musanhu told State TV that the abuse was a microcosm of the abuse in the church, saying it could be worse in rural areas.

"We have said that churches have to be regulated and some have told us to keep quiet but this just enhances our argument. We cannot have children in Budiriro not going to school and saying that is freedom of worship," Musanhu said.

Virgina Muwanigwa, Women Coalition of Zimbabwe chairperson, said: "It's unfortunate when you have a church refusing children their right to attend school and violating their rights. This is an opportunity to have the situation addressed."