Pastor forced to step down due to his involvement in Tsvangirai's love affairs

THE Gospel Assembly Church leadership has resolved that Pastor Lazarus Muriritirwa be forced to step down as leader of the Johannesburg Assembly Church in South Africa for his involvement in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's love affairs.

The resolution was passed at a recent meeting, which was held in Bulawayo among 24 pastors of the Gospel Assembly Church drawn from Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to minutes of this meeting, which are in possession of State media, signed by the church's secretary Mr Joseph Wafawarova, the pastors who attended this secretive meeting included Pastor Enos Imani of Pretoria in South Africa, Pastor Langton Mboneka, of Gaborone in Botswana, Pastor Francis Mangani of Kitwe in Zambia and Pastor Eddie Gatsi of Zimbabwe, who chaired the meeting.

However, Pastor Muriritirwa, who was expected to be present at the meeting, failed to attend for reasons not mentioned though the minutes stated that he had excused himself.

The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the involvement of Pastor Muriritirwa in facilitating the involvement of church sisters (women worshippers) in relationships with the "ungodly" and his participation in politics thus bringing their church into disrepute.

"The meeting resolved that if Pastor Muriritirwa leaves politics, we will continue to fellowship with him, but if he continues being involved in politics, we will no longer fellowship with him. He should step down from being the pastor of Johannesburg Assembly and put in someone to be in charge of that Assembly," read part of the minutes.

It was also resolved that the pastor should be replaced by another minister, who should have a good record.

"Pastor Muriritirwa should stop offering sisters to ungodly men for relationships or marriage because his public image impacts on the image of the church. He should live a clean life befitting a minister of the gospel," read the minutes.

The forced stepping down of Pastor Muriritirwa as the leader of the Johannesburg Assembly is a step towards regaining the good image of the church after Pastor Muriritirwa had been in the headlines for being a go between in Mr Tsvangirai's relationship with a South African woman, Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane.

Pastor Muriritirwa, who is also the principal director for policy implementation in the Prime Minister's Office, is the one who introduced Ms Shilubane, a member of the church, to Mr Tsvangirai when he was in South Africa for a visit.

The pastor also availed his house in Zimbabwe as a love nest for Mr Tsvangirai and Ms Shilubane where the pair had their first unprotected sexual encounter on 19 September in 2009.

The relationship between the two, however, did not work and the Prime Minister's sex escapades came to light just before his wedding to his present wife, Ms Elizabeth Macheka.

Ms Shilubane's bid to stop PM Tsvangirai's marriage to Ms Macheka failed last year although Ms Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo managed to have the marriage licence issued by a Harare magistrate cancelled.

Ms Karimatsenga Tembo argued that the PM never divorced her and that he was still her husband.

As a result PM Tsvangirai failed to marry Ms Macheka under Chapter 5:11 of the Marriages Act and they had to contend with what they called a "traditional ceremony" after the cancellation of the licence.

PM Tsvangirai married Ms Karimatsenga Tembo in November 2011 and he reportedly paid lobola to the tune of $36 000 but he divorced Ms Karimatsenga Tembo after 11 days citing media attention and alleging that State security agents had hijacked the relationship.