Zanu-PF youths seize Johane Masowe shrine

Youths in President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF have turned the shrine of Johane Masowe weChishanu leader Madzibaba Ishamea Mufani in Harare's Budiriro high-density suburb into a brick moulding site.

Godfrey Gomwe, Zanu-PF provincial youth chairperson for Harare, claimed the sect never owned that land.

"They did not pay rates to the council," Gomwe told the Daily News.

"But as of now, I am not sure what is happening there. I will have to go and check and only then will I be sure that Zanu-PF youths are doing brick moulding there."

Officials with the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) told the Daily News on Monday that Zanu-PF youths had taken over the shrine.

Last month, Gomwe led some 100 Zanu-PF youths in a raid at the shrine, destroying and burning all fabrics and clay pots they found on the site, in apparent retaliation for the violent attack on nine police officers and journalists by the sect members.

This came after members of the Johanne Masowe weChishanu apostolic sect attacked police officers in riot gear, journalists and members of ACCZ.

This was after ACCZ president Johannes Ndanga announced that the sect had been banned because it violated national and Christian laws.

There were allegations of widespread abuse of women in the sect, with children barred from attending conventional schools.