High Court ruling helps end Johanne Masowe shrine war

TWO factions of the Gospel of God Church International 1932 (GGCI) have been given equal opportunities to access the gravesite of their venerated leader Johanne Masowe during the church’s annual synod currently underway at Gandanzara in Rusape.

The High Court ruling last week comes after a fierce legal fight pitting the two factions, one led by Vendiseni Mungweru and the other under the stewardship of Rodgers Masawi.

The ruling means the Mungweru-led faction returns to the shrine after 17 years since their banishment in 2000.

Justice Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa granted an urgent application by the Mungweru-led faction after carrying out an inspection in loco at the shrine.

This was, however, appealed against at the Supreme Court, prompting the factions to apply for leave to execute their judgment.

Justice Happias Zhou, who presided over the fresh urgent chamber application on Friday, granted the relief sought.

“Paragraph 1-7 of the interim relief of the provisional order granted by Justice Munangati-Manongwa in case No8653/17 on September 23 shall remain in operation and applicants are hereby granted leave to execute that portion of the provisional order notwithstanding the noting of appeal filed by the respondent under case No 720/17,” he said.

“The provisional order issued in this matter shall not be suspended by the noting of appeal to Supreme Court.”

Through its lawyer Advocate Nelson Mashizha, the Mungweru faction argued that the GGCI noted an appeal against a provisional order issued by Justice Munangati-Manongwa.

The order, stated Adv Mashizha in his papers, had granted his clients access to the Gandanzara shrine for the annual synod, which runs from September 23 to October 4 every year.

At the time of the noting of the appeal, the provisional order had been partly executed, with the officer commanding Rusape district deploying over 50 police officers at the shrine.

It was also argued that the majority members of the Mungweru-led faction were already at the shrine and had pitched their tents for worshipping in preparation for September 28.

September 28 is the church’s most important day where they are supposed to access Johane Masowe’s grave site and view his grave in terms of the time allotted to them in Justice Munangati-Manongwa’s order.

Some of the church members had travelled from as far as Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Australia.

After reading papers filed by Adv Mashizha, Justice Zhou granted an ex parte order to allow the Mungweru faction to attend the synod.