PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has taken a dig on some fly-by-night Pentecostal church leaders describing them as self-seeking moneymongers who were not concerned with the welfare of their congregants.
BY MOSES MATENGA
Addressing guests at the Kutama centenary celebrations in Zvimba on Sunday, Mugabe said people must work hard to succeed and not wait for miraculous wealth from their spiritual leaders.
“The rise of robberies and murders doesn’t make a good sign and yet we have so many churches. As for the Pentecostals, anyone who has no job can just start preaching and say I can dream, the dream I had last night was I can do A and B and you get that. Oh, oh, oh! And our people, that’s what they want, they hurry,” Mugabe said.
Most leaders of the newly-established Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe were now living lavish lifestyles, staying in expensive mansions and driving flashy vehicles.
Mugabe also attacked some African leaders for what he called betraying the founding values and principles of the African Union founders.
“We are leaders of AU (African Union) where a lot of receding from principle is happening. We have lost the direction laid by our founding fathers like (Julius) Nyerere and others,” Mugabe said.
Meanwhile, outgoing Kutama Old Boys’ Association chairman Dakarai Mapuranga said he was proud to be associated with the Roman Catholic institution which has produced some of the country’s prominent people like Mugabe.
