CHIRUMANZU-ZIBAGWE legislator Auxillia Mnangagwa has berated church leaders in the apostolic sect and Pentecostal churches saying they should respect cultural rites and chiefs.
By BLESSED MHLANGA Mnangagwa said this during a meeting with traditional chiefs, village heads and headmen in Chirumanzu.
This was after the father of Chief Chirumanzu, Samuel Murema (69), had decried the abandonment of traditional cultural practices by modern churches.
Murema brought up the issue with Mnangagwa, saying it was imperative for all subjects living within the Chirumanzu chieftainship to respect sacred cultural values and sacred days like Chisi regardless of their religions.
The sacred day of Chisi (in Shona tradition) has to do with a day set aside for recognising the spiritual power that brings blessings to people. On this day, no member of the community may work in the fields.
Murema blamed apostolic sects and members of Pentecostal churches for violating cultural practices, especially of disrespecting the sacred day in which subjects of the area are not supposed to engage in any work or bury their deceased.
“These people from the churches disrespect the chief and respected cultural norms. They bury their dead on sacred days and go around ploughing their fields in clear disregard of the laws of this land,” Murema said.
Murema, a younger brother to the late national hero Leopold Takawira, said such behaviour was tantamount to desecration of sacred days, adding it showed disrespect to Chief Chirumhanzu (Gerald Mudzengi).
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He said the “sacrilegious” behaviour had also brought untold suffering and drought in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe. Mnangagwa admonished the said behaviour by the churches and called on them to accord the chief due respect by following the laws of the land.
She said failure to respect the chiefs, who derived their powers from an Act of Parliament, was tantamount to disrespecting President Robert Mugabe himself, who had appended his signature to the Act. “We know the Constitution protects the right to any religion of your choice. I’m also a Christian, but I accord my respect to the owners of the land and also their rules. We should also do the same. Refraining from working on Thursdays does not take away your Christianity and by respecting the chief you also respect your parliamentarian and the President by extension,” she said.
Mnangagwa also took the opportunity to attack churches that denied children the right to access basic education, saying it was equal to murder.
The Vapostori sect is well known for snubbing western medicine and education. However, some of the denominations within the Vapostori sect have changed and are accepting modern medicine, as well as taking their children to school.
“Those church leaders who have doctrines that go against the Constitution should be warned that engaging in illegal activities such as denying children education will be dealt with by the law,” she said.
“Denying a child education is equal to killing the child and I would like to condemn that practice in the strongest possible terms. I am proposing that we bring together all churches and we address this matter from a law point of view, and humanitarian point of view.”
Mnangagwa said she was worried about the high number of children in her constituency who were being denied an opportunity to go to school.
“As MP this is a matter that I seek to address through respectful negotiation with church leaders and their congregants because lack of education is certainly a recipe for disaster, for instance, if I had not been educated I would not have been here,” she said.
Actions of apostolic sects of evading both education and access to health have been termed as some of the major issues affecting the realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the country.
