Why Zanu PF is afraid of Johane Masowe YeChishanu Church

By Ngoni Chimbalu

The former revolutionary party Zanu PF has exhibited an inherent fear of Johane Masowe YeChishanu church such that it has unleashed a multi spiked attack fronted by a pseudo Bishop by the name Johannes Ndanga who leads a phony organisation called Apostolic Churches Council of Zimbabwe.

Recently a self confessed Zanu PF bootlicker, Tobaiwa Mudede, has also joined the circus of attacking the church.

One would then wonder why Zanu PF has mobilised all dark forces at its disposal, the Police force, Zanu PF militia, ZBC, The Herald, The Sunday Mail, the impartial courts, bogus church associations as well as dubious human rights groups to wage a physical as well as philosophical war against a relatively inconspicuous and unassuming group of Jesus Christ followers.

To have an informed diagnosis of Zanu PF’s fear, there is need to dip a bit into the history of the Johane Masowe YeChishanu Church. The Church was formed in 1931 by one Shonhiwa Masedza popularly known as Baba Johane. The Holy Spirit descended upon him and they became synonymous.

The church became revolutionary in character departing from convention and defying all oppressive established order such that Shonhiwa became a regular visitor of several prisons. At the height of colonial oppression when our good missionaries where preaching of giving another cheek when slapped, Masedza was teaching his followers not to pay taxes and completely disengage from any activity that benefitted the evil regime.

Masedza urged church members not to participate in politics so that the church remained the rational  voice which rebuked political evil perpetrated by anyone, whether leftists or rightist, by those who supportted the war or those against the war,  without fear or  favour. This makes Zanu PF very uncomfortable.

Zanu PF has persistently tried and failed over the years to penetrate to the core of the church Johane Masowe YeChishanu, of cause giving exception to a few individuals like Godfrey Nzira who were bought by Zanu PF to sway opinion of vapositori, a task he dismally failed.

When the generality of the Johane Masowe read of the adulterous union between Zanu PF and Nzira, Nzira was rightly ostracised and excommunicated such that his church in Chitungwiza became a stand alone with no mutual relationship with other Johane Masowe YeChishanu Churches.

Zanu PF became frustrated and Nzira was jailed. Though Zanu PF doesn’t learn, the Nzira project taught them something, Zanu PF quickly realised that vapositori are independent individuals who are ready to defy anyone including their leaders if they go against church doctrine.

Despite abundant press coverage by the national media of a few Nzira’s followers on Zanu PF events so as to give a wrong impression that vapositori of the Johane Masowe YeChishanu are pro-Zanu, it has remained a painful fact that vapositori are independent thinkers who do not blindly follow their leaders of the day.

Whilst Zanu PF politicians can arrange a meeting with any church, successfully address and leave decently like what we saw during the elections campaign in 2013 at Johane Marange shrine, that is not possible with Johane Masowe YeChishanu. Webster Shamu bears testimony to this.

In 2011 he attempted to address Vapositori at their annual general meeting popularly known as musangano wegore, despite blessings from the so called vapositori leaders, he was heavily booed and many walked away leaving him talking to grass, trees, lizards and of cause a few humans.

The Zanu PF mouthpiece ZBC found it unpalatable to put it on the 8 O’clock news that Cde Shamu has been booed, similarly The Herald found it unworthy to write a headline “Shamu booed”.

Webster Shamu was not the first to suffer this cruel humiliating ordeal at the hands of vapositori. A few years back Amai Mujuru attempted to bulldoze her way on musangano wegore in Chiweshe, but the fundamentalists of the church firmly told her that they are a grouping glued together by their common desire to serve the Lord and they would not want to abuse their followers by nicodemously smuggling in   politicians to the meeting .

This kind of independence sends shivers to the former revolutionary party which has got an infinite an unquenchable appetite of controlling everyone and everything. To Zanu PF  such behaviour is a direct attack on its  centre of power.

There are two key factors which have made the church an unpenetratable fort, the structure of the church and the organisational capacity. The Johane Masowe YeChishanu church can be described as a loose coalition of individual church units who believe and follow the teachings of Masedza popularly known as Baba Johane.

There is a mutual relationship among these basic units based on common beliefs but there is absolutely no centralisation of power. Hence there is no absolute leader. This poses a serious threat to Zanu PF because there is no leader to bribe and use him or her to abuse followers to support Zanu. The Nzira experiment by Zanu PF proved that no single individual yields the necessary power to cow and manipulate vapositori into submission.

The other factor which has kept Zanu PF at bay is the fact that vapositori of Johane Masowe YeChishanu are sharply suspicious of anything which involves money to an extent that its the only church which forbids the paying of tithe, offering or whatever name or form the transaction might take.

This means vapositori have vigorously resisted any kind of donation or dubious projects or manipulation by Zanu PF over the years.

A few leaders were tempted and fell for the trap, but the next Friday (day of prayer) they would find themselves with no one to lead as followers would simply move from one hill to the other freely. The politics of dangling a carrot is irrelevant to these people, the moment you reach your pocket to produce a carrot, they run away, they know some carrots are poisoned.

Since vapositori operate on a zero dollar budget, with not church assets to talk about except firewood for all night prayers, no title deeds, the Kunonga style of infiltration is then rendered useless.

In a bid to bring centralisation to the sect, Zanu PF formed the bogus Apostolic Churches Council Of Zimbabwe but the move backfired, the generality of vapositori do not subscribe to the idea.

Tired and frustrated, Zanu PF is resorting at what it knows best, unleashing the militias and blackboots against vapositori but history shows the stubborn spirit of Johane Masowe YeChishanu church will never be broken, Zanu PF intends to craft draconian laws which are clearly against the Constitution but the vapositori are determined people.

It is a pity that Tobaiwa Mudede presenting his arguments before a Thematic Committee in parliament had the audacity to say we need to craft strict religious laws similar to those of Rwanda. We all know what could have prompted the religious laws in Rwanda, not implying that Rwanda should be allowed to implement draconian laws, but the Zimbabwean situation is far away from that.