ED cancels Marange trip over ‘wayward’ church member 

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has cancelled his first thank you rally that was scheduled for St Noah College in Bocha, Manicaland province on Saturday.

NewsDay is reliably informed that the rally and church visit were supposed to be undertaken during the Passover feast.

Mnangagwa cancelled the trip yesterday after reports emerged that a church member, who is also a Member of Parliament for Mutare West (Zanu PF), Nyasha Marange, had abused his relations with church leader St Nimrod and forced rich church members to make contributions towards the President’s visit.

“His actions are tarnishing the image of the church, of which the high priest had no knowledge of what Nyasha Marange was doing, that is forcing church members to contribute towards the rally,” a source said.

Yesterday, Marange denied the allegations saying their church was rich obviating the need to force members to make contributions towards any programme.

“We are a rich church. We have no need of going to anybody to beg for money, let alone force them to make contributions,” he said.

“We have many projects as a church and even government knows all our projects. We grow maize corn, we have dairy cows, we have beef cows, we do fish farming. In fact, even GMB [Grain Marketing Board] knows that we always take our grains there.”

He added: “In all honesty, I would be very happy to see someone who can come and say I forced them to make contributions. Why should I do that? Our church is rich, we have plenty and we can even go around sharing with others, and even those claiming that we forced them to make contributions.”

Marange is not new to controversy.

Just recently, he made headlines after he reportedly demanded total control of US$1,2 million disbursed to the Chiadzwa Community Share Ownership Trust.

Marange was also accused of sidelining fellow Members of Parliament from Mutare North and Mutare South, whose constituencies are supposed to benefit from the funds.

According to traditional leaders, Marange has reportedly imposed himself as the manager of the funds with reports that there is serious infighting over the funds.