APOSTOLIC Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) president Johannes Ndanga has broken ranks with Zanu PF, declaring he won’t dictate to his congregants to vote for the ruling party.
Ndanga, whose organisation was evicted recently from its rented premises after failing to pay rent and who has long been viewed as pro-Zanu PF, appears to have had his Damascene moment as he now embraces the democratic way of doing things.
Ahead of the previous 2013 harmonised elections, the outspoken cleric ordered his church members across the country to vote for Zanu PF.
But this time around, Ndanga said he didn’t want to be a dictator anymore and wanted “democracy to prevail”.
“We are also looking at the elections for 2018, which I feel are around the corner. We need to take a position as a church,”
Ndanga told Southern News during a preparation meeting for the church’s inaugural congress to be held here before month-end.
He added: “Unlike the way we did it in 2013 when I just decided on my own that we are going to support this party (Zanu PF), we are (not) going to be against this party but this time around it’s an issue to do with consultations. We need to consult the church so much so that the church can take part in that decision.”
He went on: “We need to decide whether we are going to support any party, or remain neutral or whether we are going to allow any Christian to vote for whoever they want.
“I am trying to be very democratic to allow bishops to decide our own destiny as a church.”
Zanu PF has in the past turned to churches to garner support for the elections.
President Robert Mugabe has on numerous occasions used the church as a platform for political campaign.
Ndanga’s declaration, however, follows another surprise move in which his church seeks to tackle the Gukurahundi issue, which he said was not a closed chapter.
“There is an issue of Gukurahundi; something which they say is a closed chapter, it is wrong for us to say it’s a closed chapter,” Ndanga said.
“It cannot be a closed chapter, as a church we have to lead the way because that falls under collective sin, a collective sin is a sin of the nation where everybody is a sinner where whoever committed the sin committed it on behalf of the nation,” he said.
ACCZ is an umbrella body of apostolic and zionist churches. Daily News
