JOHANE Masowe eChishanu Apostolic sect leader Madzibaba Ishmael Mufani yesterday stunned court officials during his ongoing public violence trial when he wept uncontrollably as he disputed video footage of him shot during violent clashes with the police at his Budiriro, Harare, shrine in May 2013.
BY NQOBILE NKIWANE
Mufani, born Ishmael Chokurongerwa (43), denied being at the scene of the clashes on the day in question, claiming instead that he was in Hurungwe at that material time.
This was after the court played a video clip in which the State’s key witness, Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ)president Johannes Ndanga, claimed to have positively identified Mufani leading to the violent attacks.
“God knows that I was not present,” Mufani said.
He said the images alleged to be of him did not resemble him in any way.
“This person is not me; he has a completely black beard whilst mine has a bit of white, he does not resemble me at all,” Mufani said as he shed tears.
He accused Ndanga of seeking to nail him down because he had refused to “bless” him so that he could land a top political post.
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“All that he said is fabrication because he wants to make me suffer because I told him that I could not pray for what I had not been instructed to pray for by God,” he said.
Mufani said his fallout with Ndanga started way back in 2013 when he and some of his church members were summoned to the ACCZ offices under police escort.
At the office, Ndanga allegedly told him that President Robert Mugabe was about to resign and then Vice-President Joice Mujuru would take over after which Ndanga would land the post of the country’s Vice-President.
Mufani claimed that Ndanga used Mugabe and Mujuru’s portrait pictures in his office to demonstrate the succession plan he envisaged.
“The portrait on the top was of the President, followed by the one of Joice Mujuru and his came last and he said he was going to be the next leader after the Vice-President,” he said.
“He then asked me to pray for him saying there was need for a leader who goes to church and I refused.” The trial continues today.
