A leadership wrangle
has erupted in the Mugodhi Apostolic Church with one of the church elders, Tony
Sigauke, angling to snatch power from the late church leader’s son, Washington
Mugodhi.
Archbishop Tadewu Mugodhi succumbed to cancer at a local
private hospital a fortnight ago.
He was 79. Prior to his death, he is said to have anointed
his son to take over, a development which did not go down well with Sigauke and
his loyalists.
If the two camps do not find each other soon, this might
become the church’s third major split since it was founded by Elijah Mugodhi in
1932.
Elijah had split from Apostolic Faith Church (AFC). Before starting his own ministry, Elijah rose
through the AFC’s ranks to become the church’s secretary general. However, in
his early years of ministry, he disagreed with AFC leaders when he requested to
marry a second wife.
Together with elders Kunonga, Machakaire, Matigi and
Chakuvinda — Elijah established a new church.
Years later, Kunonga, who was now a senior elder, had a
fall-out with Elijah as he (Kunonga) and Machakaire wanted to ban polygamy in
the church.
The fall-out resulted in the Mugodhi church’s first split.
Elijah fell ill and on his deathbed, he appointed a church
elder, Chakuvinda, as the interim leader since his own son Tadewu was still too
young to assume leadership.
The Sunday Mail Society spoke to Nyasha Chivhuna, the
church’s chief advisor to the Bishop, who narrated the church’s history.
He revealed that despite the fact that Elijah handed over
the church’s leadership to Chakuvinda, he did not hand over the Bible, garments
and rod to him as is the norm when a new leader comes into power.
When Chakuvinda also died, Tadewu was still too young to
assume the church’s leadership. Therefore, leadership was handed over to
another elder in the church – Chikwena.
“Although Tadewu was still young, Chikwena felt it was time
to start grooming him. So, he would call him into crucial meetings,” said
Chivhuna.
Fast forward to 1992, Chikwena died, with Tadewu still
learning.
Mubvuyiwa, one of the elders, became the interim
leader. Before his death, Mubvuyiwa
announced that it was time to return power to Tadewu – the rightful heir. It is
said this did not go down well with another church elder, Muringani.
This led to a second split in 2002.
“He clearly said he was not going to be led by the young
man and founded his own church, Sangano Revapostori,” said Chivhuna.
The Bible, garments and rod were then handed over to Tadewu
in 2002 as he took the leadership of the church.
For close to seven decades, the church had operated without
a constitution.
But, when Tadewu came into power, there were some changes
since he was a modern leader. He championed the drafting of the church
constitution in 2004, with seven elders overseeing the process.
Chivhuna said the constitution had clarity with regards to
the church leadership’s succession. “Tadewu requested to have the constitution
clear on the leadership issue. ln the event of his demise, his son would take
over. This was Elijah’s vision at the church’s inception,” said Chivhuna.
The constitution also addressed the issue of congregants
accessing medical health and allowing children to be immunised, giving them the
permission to do so. Prior to this, if a congregant sought medical health, they
were supposed to be cleansed first before donning church regalia again. If one
died in hospital, congregants were not allowed to wear church uniforms at the
funeral.
However, for years, the constitution was never shared with
congregants.
Chivhuna claims that even Tadewu never accessed it. Unbeknown to him, according to Chivhuna, some
of the clauses the leader had asked to be enshrined in the constitution were
not included.
“They felt he was exercising too much power,” said
Chivhuna.
Unaware of the betrayal, in August just before his death,
Tadewu thanked the church pastors for the work they had done on the
constitution and even announced that his son Washington (42) would take over in
the event of his death.
Much to the amazement of congregants, the pastors told
Tadewu, without mincing their words, that they had not included that succession
clause in the constitution.
“Sigauke made it clear that they had deceived Tadewu,”
revealed Chivhuna.
However, Sigauke refutes the allegations that he deceived
the late leader. He maintains that the late Tadewu attempted to violate the
church’s constitution by appointing his son to take over. In an interview, Sigauke told The Sunday Mail
Society that when the constitution was written, Tadewu was present. He is even
said to have endorsed it.
“It has his signature. We were together in coming up with
the constitution and we all proceeded to the High Court where we signed it in
harmony. So, his deathbed wish is actually a violation of the constitution,
which I together with other elders do not agree with,” said Sigauke.
To add salt to injury, Sigauke and his followers argued
that their late leader was not supposed to be buried in Chitope, the church’s
headquarters in Hwedza.
They said that by appointing his son, Tadewu had become
unholy and a church outcast.
Nonetheless, Chivhuna said Washington is currently learning
the ropes with the assistance of some church elders. He said the young leader
is set to take the reins at the church early next year. Sunday Mail
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