Missing activist Itai Dzamara’s family yesterday reacted angrily to the police’s last-minute cancellation of a prayer meeting that was scheduled for Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare to mark 100 days since his disappearance.
by PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The family accused one of the organisers, Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe leader Watson Furayi, of attempting to hijack the programme for alleged financial benefit.
Furayi was accused of lying to police that the opposition MDC-T was planning to use the event to advance its political agenda. Several opposition, civic and religious leaders — among them MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Mavamba/Kusile/Dawn leader Simba Makoni — had been invited to the meeting.
Dzamara went missing after conducting several solo demonstrations calling on President Robert Mugabe to step down over his alleged misrule.
His brother, Patson, said Furayi had sabotaged the meeting after he realised he would not make any money from it.
“This man who answers to the name Watson Furayi is a greedy money hunter,” Patson said.
“He hoped that everything pertaining to the prayer was going to be his responsibility not because of a service motivation, but because of the perceived benefits.
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“When he realised that was not to be the case, he began to do all he could to stifle the prayer gathering and this is something that cannot be expected from a man who claims to be a pastor.”
Patson said the Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe had no mandate to call off the prayer meeting.
“Furayi did not have the mandate to call off the prayer because, after all, it was not his project,” he added.
“His organisation was just invited to represent the church on the table.
“However, his hunger for money, just like many of his colleagues, clouded his sense of judgment and according to him, the prayer meeting had to be cancelled simply because he was not given room to enrich himself.”
Furayi was unreachable for comment, but the religious body’s national co-ordinator Morris Chivandire confirmed being part of the organisers.
“I am not at liberty to comment on allegations levelled against Furayi save to say the prayer itself was the initiative of the Dzamara family,” he said.
MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu yesterday said his party was disappointed by the cancellation of the prayer meeting, but remained ready to mobilise its members to attend whenever it is held in future.
“We are naturally disappointed because the safety of citizens is a key issue that deserves national attention and the invocation of the name of the Almighty God,” Gutu said. “We are told that the event has been postponed to a new date, but we continue to mobilise our members to attend this important national prayer meeting, whenever it will be held.”
Dzamara’s disappearance has put pressure on the government, which has been condemned by Western countries for failing to investigate his whereabouts.
