The late Harare mayor Tony Gara who infamously once likened
President Robert Mugabe to Jesus Christ, would have been proud of Zanu PF youth
leader Kudzanai Chipanga if he was still alive.
Gara’s name, along with that of former Zanu PF commissar
Webster Shamu, always tops the list when a roll call of Mugabe’s eccentric
bootlickers is made and Chipanga has gone to desperate lengths to be in that
league.
The politician from Manicaland has angered the Christian
community by referring to Mugabe as Black Jesus and an angel.
He has used the ongoing so-called youth interface rallies
to prove his loyalty to the 93-year-old ruler, but religious leaders say he is
now overstepping boundaries.
At the first rally held in Marondera in June, Chipanga said
Mugabe was God’s representative on earth.
“Truly speaking, in heaven there is God and here on earth
there is an angel called Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” he gushed. “You are
representing God here on earth.”
The Makoni South MP got carried away after the partisan
crowd cheered him on, saying in heaven Mugabe would stand beside God, vetting
people.
He repeated the blasphemous statements at subsequent
rallies held in Lupane, Mutare and Chinhoyi.
Christian leaders in the country are not happy and some
believe Mugabe has a responsibility to rein in the excitable politician.
Reverend Useni Sibanda, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance
executive director said although Chipanga’s behaviour was to be expected from
politicians, it was worrying.
“The problem is that in the political space, some people
end up taking political figures to the level of God,” he said.
“It is not a new thing because during the Roman Empire and
even during Jesus’s time, there was the case of Herod who people thought was at
the level of God.”
Sibanda added: “During the New Testament era, Christians
were persecuted because they couldn’t raise their leaders to the level of God.
This is idolatry and it is against the teachings of the church.
“This has something to do with our political leaders. It is
not acceptable to raise a fellow human being to the level of God.”
He said only Mugabe can put a stop to the blasphemy.
“Leaders themselves should restrain their followers. Humans
have a beginning and end, unlike God,” Sibanda said.
“No one should compete with God and it takes servant
leadership to see that.
“President Mugabe, as a Catholic, should correct that.”
Retired Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare said Mugabe as a
Catholic must be worried about Chipanga’s statements.
“Only President Mugabe can say to Chipanga ‘please shut
up’. As a Catholic, he must know better,” he said.
“This is a result of hero-worshiping. This is blasphemous
and Mugabe should say no to that.
“He [Chipanga] is not the first person to do that. At one
point Tony Gara did the same, claiming Mugabe is more than a human figure.
“If we claim that Zimbabwe is a Christian country and a
God-fearing nation, then something has gone terribly wrong with our teachings.”
Rejoice Ngwenya, a political commentator said Chipanga
should be censured.
“Nobel peace prize winning drooling! If Zimbabwe was a
fundamentalist Islamic state, the boy would be lynched. I think Christians
should be on a beeline of protest to whichever graveyard Chipanga resides,” he
said.
“No amount of praise-singing will change the fact that
Mugabe is a habitual dictator who cheats his way into State House.
“These shallow Zanu PF dunderheads survive on benevolence,
but they should be comparing Mugabe to Stalin, Hitler and Idi Amin.”
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said Chipanga needed help.
“Chipanga is mad. He is of unsound mind. He needs help. The
young man desperately needs our prayers,” he said.
However, Zanu PF insiders believe Chipanga is desperate to
prove his loyalty to Mugabe after he was on various occasions caught on the
wrong side of Zanu PF politics.
The youthful politician has survived many political
battles.
In 2013 he was almost fired from the ruling party after he
was identified as one of former vice-president Joice Mujuru’s supporters.
He was viewed as former Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa’s blue-eyed boy.
Chipanga shocked many when he abandoned Mujuru’s faction as
the infighting in the ruling party reached a crescendo.
He became a favourite of Mugabe and was given the powerful
youth secretary post after the incumbent Pupurai Togarepi was fired in 2015.
Chipanga charmed the veteran ruler by organising the
so-called One Million Man march that drew thousands of youths from all over the
country to toyi-toyi in Harare in honour of Mugabe. standard
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