TEN more women have made police reports claiming that RMG Independent End Time Message Church founder Bishop Robert Gumbura (57) had allegedly abused them, it has been learnt.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI,SENIOR REPORTER
Police have said preliminary investigations into Gumbura’s alleged sex escapades have unearthed more abuses and suspected occultism practices.
The investigating officer, Superintendent Ndabezinhle Moyo, on Wednesday said 10 more women had made separate police reports against Gumbura, who already has two separate cases pending at the courts in which he allegedly abused five women.
He is currently in remand prison awaiting trial on those charges.
Moyo told a Press conference where the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) announced a ban of Gumbura’s church that some members were still afraid of disclosing their own ordeals.
“It’s difficult to say (the exact number of all abused women) because we are dealing with those that have volunteered to come. Some might have been abused and they are not opening up because they are bound by the church doctrine. So far, we have quite a number of people who volunteered, about 10 or so. The matter is still under investigation,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Administrative Court sat as a Victim Friendly Court at Morris Depot from midday to around 1600hours where a special committee was established to hear complaints against Gumbura and determine his church’s authenticity. The committee is made up of lawyer Claudius Nhemwa, High Court official Busani Sibanda, magistrate Takawira Mugabe, business consultant Elison Munyaka, university lecturer Joseph Pagan’a, police officer Samuel Masvokweni and Bishop Ladwell Matanhike.
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ACCZ president Johannes Ndanga said in its preliminary investigations, the committee established that both married and single women were abused at the bishop’s whim and the church showed “Satanic leanings”.
“There is also clear evidence of acts of Satanism because the church was actually agreeable to the actions of their bishop and up to this time they are still defending him and they believe he was acting on behalf of the Lord Almighty,” Ndanga said.
He said the committee watched videos of church services in which Gumbura claimed to be God and told congregants that if he told them to eat human flesh, they should do so because it was a divine directive.
“Each time he raped married women, he said it was God blessing their marriages. Even the men whose wives were raped are still members of the church. They still believe what happened to their wives was by the order of God,” he said.
The videos also showed group sex orgies in which Gumbura would bed several women one after the other after he would have taken drugs, Ndanga said. He added that the church, headquartered in Gweru, also had branches in Kwekwe, Harare, Chinhoyi and Britain.
