Source: Of alcohol drinking apostolic sect, Shamu’s return – NewsDay Zimbabwe November 7, 2017
IN 2014, as Zanu PF rocked under the weight of an internal power struggle that swept aside then Vice President Joice Mujuru, the iconic figure of a forlorn Webster Shamu sitting on a chair and seemingly cut off from the rest of the world stood out.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Mujuru was expelled along with nine provincial chairpersons and hordes of Cabinet ministers.
Shamu, then Zanu PF political commissar, was not spared.
Slapped with a five-year suspension for aligning with Mujuru, the former liberation wartime-disc-jockey toughed it out, took his punishment on the chin and now he is back big-time.
A few weeks ago, President Robert Mugabe brought back Shamu as Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister and on Sunday, he left nothing to imagination that, indeed, Zanu PF’s master-bootlicker, known for his infamous “If I had my way I would have been President Mugabe’s son” public gush, was back.
Draped in all white, Shamu could be seen animatedly talking to Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao and seemingly giving orders to youth league politburo secretary Kudzanai Chipanga.
The drought is indeed over! There was giggling, laughter and a general feeling of good times rolling.
It turned into a kaleidoscope of colours and dance that at some point forced Mugabe’s wife First Lady Grace from her seat and sway to rhythmic drums while those used to the routine left many aghast with their moves.
Rufaro Stadium was the setting of the final assault on beleaguered Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as Grace met “members of the apostolic sect” wheeled into the famous football arena under the stewardship of one Johannes Ndanga, the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe president.
Traditionally, members of the apostolic sect are very conservative and meek individuals, but at the so-called “Super Sunday” rally, alcohol flowed in the terraces and those that occupied the soccer arena’s notorious eastern stand, nicknamed “The Vietnam”, behaved in the same manner football mad supporters would have.
Zanu PF women’s league secretary for administration Letina Undenge, who was master of ceremonies, along with Harare South lawmaker Shadreck Mashayamombe, revelled in the public glare, as she received standing ovations from a section of the crowd reportedly members of a sect led by her father, Reverend Isaac Tititi.
“It’s Super Sunday, with the First Lady, a day like no other,” Undenge gushed.
Just like soccer supporters who normally occupy this stand, the temporary inhabitants of the “Vietnam” section jeered, danced, ululated and whistled and one would have been forgiven to think they were watching a football match between rivals Dynamos and Caps United.
The “Vietnam” section responded to every call, including moments when Ndanga tried to show that over “500 sects” were represented.
As has become the norm with Zanu PF’s rented crowds, the thousands of apostolic sect members who thronged Rufaro did not know the real reason for the gathering and none other than Ndanga revealed this.
“We are just so happy to be here and feel blessed. We do no mind the agenda of this gathering,” Ndanga, who at the height of the Mujuru fiasco was linked to the Gamatox faction, said.
He took the opportunity to remind senior Zanu PF leaders that they had sought to soil him.
“Members of the apostolic sect are the ones who won the election for President Mugabe in 2013 and you all know it. I was the one who gave Mugabe a certificate to rule forever and I will be bishop for life (secretary for administration Ignatius) Chombo knows this and (Defence minister Sydney) Sekeramayi was there.
“We also wanted to give this woman (Grace) a present for her resilience and standing with the President in difficult circumstances, but we were blocked. It’s not an issue anymore,” Ndanga said as Chombo and Sekeramayi sheepishly watched on.
As is tradition, Grace promised them a million kilogrammes of rice to top the end of an apple-polishing session by old man and women of the “cloth” and her “baby dumping” of Mnangagwa.
COMMENTS