President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly cancelled his inaugural post-2023 general elections thank-you rally, which had been planned for St Noah College in Bocha, Manicaland province on Saturday.
According to NewsDay, the rally and church visit were initially scheduled to coincide with the Passover feast.
NewsDay revealed that Mnangagwa decided to cancel the trip on Wednesday due to emerging reports that a church member, Nyasha Marange, had exploited his connections with church leader St. Nimrod.
Marange allegedly coerced affluent church members into contributing funds for the President’s visit.
Nyasha Marange, a member of ZANU PF, currently serves as the Member of Parliament for Mutare West Constituency. Said a NewsDay source:
His actions are tarnishing the image of the church, of which the high priest did not know what Nyasha Marange was doing, which is forcing church members to contribute towards the rally.
However, Marange denied the allegations saying their church does not force members to make contributions towards any programme. He said:
We are a rich church. We do not need to go to anybody to beg for money, let alone force them to make contributions.
We have many projects as a church and even the government knows all our projects. We grow maize corn, we have dairy cows, we have beef cows, and we do fish farming.
Even GMB [Grain Marketing Board] knows that we always take our grains there.
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.
Mnangagwa is set to conduct “Thank You” rallies across Zimbabwe. These events allow him to address the public directly and highlight government initiatives.
Meanwhile, Marange recently stirred controversy by allegedly asserting his demand for complete control over the US$1.2 million allocated to the Chiadzwa Community Share Ownership Trust.
Additionally, he faced accusations of marginalizing fellow Members of Parliament from Mutare North and Mutare South—constituencies that were meant to benefit from these funds.
