VAPOSITORI DUMP NDANGA

The Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe led by Bishop Johannes Ndanga has been hit by a mass exodus of members that are joining the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches Council whose patron is Zanu-PF Central Committee member Cde Jimayi Muduvuri.

Yesterday, some of the churches that dumped ACCZ represented by their associations, met in Harare to prepare for a meeting of church bishops to be held in the capital next month.

Some of the church organisations represented at yesterday’s meeting included the Federation of Indigenous Churches of Zimbabwe, Association of Apostolic Churches of Zimbabwe, Union for the Development of the Apostolic Churches and the Zimbabwe Christian Development Forum.

Yesterday, Bishop Ndanga could not be reached for a comment, but last week he refused to comment on issues relating to Cde Muduvuri’s patronship of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Christian Council saying he was focusing on ACCZ congress. “I don’t want to comment on (Cde) Muduvuri issue. We are busy preparing for our congress to be held in Bulawayo next month,” he said.

At the workshop, former secretary general of the ACCZ Reverend Mathias Tsine, who now heads the Federation of Indigenous Churches of Zimbabwe accused Bishop Ndanga of running a one-man show at the organisation. “When we realised that there was a leadership crisis at ACCZ since the beginning of this year, we resolved to leave,” he said.

“Problems in ACCZ started long back and now it is almost like a one-man band. On the board that we used to have, I think Bishop Ndanga is the only person who is still sitting there and the rest are no longer ACCZ members. The fact that the organisation can be personalised and even the constitution can be changed to suit an individual was so glaring. If you assume powers that everyone in the organisation should tow your line, then there will be need to part ways.”

Rev Tsine said Bishop Ndanga had no legal basis to attack Cde Muduvuri as patron of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Christian Council because he does not belong to his organisation. “We feel it helps us to be associated with a patron like Cde Muduvuri for various reasons,” he said.

“A patron does not necessarily have to be one of us and him being a politician is not an issue to us. We know if we have a patron, it’s a conduit for us to have a relationship with the Government. We are pleased to have him on board. We are so disturbed when we hear that there are certain individuals who are fighting him as our patron. As far as we know, ACCZ (led by Bishop Ndanga) has their patron who is Dr Joice Mujuru, so they have no right to fight our patron.

“I am referring to the president of ACCZ who attacked Cde Muduvuri on radio (Star FM) and that is inappropriate because ACCZ is not a member of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches Council and Cde Muduvuri is not a patron of ACCZ. Maybe Bishop Ndanga is fighting to ensure that other umbrella bodies come under the patronship of Dr Mujuru and we are saying we cannot do that.” Herald

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