By THE OBSERVER UG
Zimbabwean police announced on Wednesday that they have apprehended a man purporting to be a prophet of an apostolic sect at a compound where adherents reside, uncovering 16 unregistered graves, including those of infants, and over 250 children engaged in exploitative labor.
In a statement, police spokesperson Paul Nyathi disclosed that Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, a “self-proclaimed” prophet, led a sect comprising more than 1,000 members on a farm approximately 34 kilometers [21 miles] northwest of the capital, Harare, where the children resided alongside other followers.
These children, as Nyathi explained, “were being utilized to carry out various physical tasks for the benefit of the sect’s leadership.” Out of the 251 children, 246 lacked birth certificates.
“Police determined that all school-age children did not receive formal education and were subjected to exploitation as inexpensive labor, performing manual tasks under the guise of being taught life skills,” Nyathi elaborated.
Authorities reported discovering graves, including those of seven infants, whose burials had not been registered with the appropriate authorities. The shrine was raided by police officers on Tuesday, leading to the arrest of Chokurongerwa, who went by the name Prophet Ishmael, along with seven aides “for engaging in criminal activities, including the abuse of minors.”
Further details, Nyathi assured, will be provided “in due course as investigations progress.”
During the raid, captured by a state-run tabloid, H-Metro, police clad in riot gear were depicted in confrontations with female adherents clad in white garments and head coverings, demanding the return of the children escorted into a waiting police bus. The destination of the children and some accompanying women remains unclear.
“Why are they taking our children? We are comfortable here. We don’t have a problem here,” one woman shouted in a video shared on the newspaper’s X account.
According to the publication, police officers equipped with firearms, tear gas, and trained canines “executed a dramatic raid” on the compound. Followers described the site as “their promised land.”
One of Chokurongerwa’s aides granted an interview to the newspaper.
“Our belief is not from scriptures. We got it directly from God, who gave us rules on how we can enter heaven,” he said, adding that, “God forbids formal education because the lessons learned at such schools go against his dictates.” “God told us that it won’t rain if we send our children to school. Look at the drought out there, yet we are receiving rains here. We have the gift of a spiritual ear to hear God’s voice,” he said.
Apostolic groups that infuse traditional beliefs into a Pentecostal doctrine are popular in the deeply religious southern African country. There has been little detailed research on Apostolic churches in Zimbabwe, but UNICEF studies estimate it is the largest religious denomination with around 2.5 million followers in a country of 15 million.
Some of the groups adhere to a doctrine demanding that followers avoid formal education for their children, as well as medicines and medical care for members, who must instead seek healing through their faith in prayer, holy water, and anointed stones.
However, others have in recent years begun allowing their members to visit hospitals and enroll children in school following intense campaigns by the government and non-governmental organizations.
In Kenya, police in April 2003 arrested a pastor, Paul Mackenzie, based in coastal Kenya, who allegedly ordered congregants to starve to death in order to meet Jesus.
The country’s top prosecutor in January ordered that the pastor and over 90 people from the doomsday cult be charged with murder, cruelty, child torture, and other crimes in the deaths of 429 people believed to be members of the church.
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