THE Gospel Assembly Church leadership has resolved that Pastor Lazarus
Muriritirwa be forced to step down as leader of the Johannesburg
Assembly Church in South Africa for his involvement in Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's love affairs.
The resolution was passed at a
recent meeting, which was held in Bulawayo among 24 pastors of the
Gospel Assembly Church drawn from Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
According to minutes of this meeting, which are in
possession of State media, signed by the church's secretary Mr Joseph
Wafawarova, the pastors who attended this secretive meeting included
Pastor Enos Imani of Pretoria in South Africa, Pastor Langton Mboneka,
of Gaborone in Botswana, Pastor Francis Mangani of Kitwe in Zambia and
Pastor Eddie Gatsi of Zimbabwe, who chaired the meeting.
However,
Pastor Muriritirwa, who was expected to be present at the meeting,
failed to attend for reasons not mentioned though the minutes stated
that he had excused himself.
The agenda of the meeting was to
discuss the involvement of Pastor Muriritirwa in facilitating the
involvement of church sisters (women worshippers) in relationships with
the "ungodly" and his participation in politics thus bringing their
church into disrepute.
"The meeting resolved that if Pastor
Muriritirwa leaves politics, we will continue to fellowship with him,
but if he continues being involved in politics, we will no longer
fellowship with him. He should step down from being the pastor of
Johannesburg Assembly and put in someone to be in charge of that
Assembly," read part of the minutes.
It was also resolved that the pastor should be replaced by another minister, who should have a good record.
"Pastor
Muriritirwa should stop offering sisters to ungodly men for
relationships or marriage because his public image impacts on the image
of the church. He should live a clean life befitting a minister of the
gospel," read the minutes.
The forced stepping down of Pastor
Muriritirwa as the leader of the Johannesburg Assembly is a step towards
regaining the good image of the church after Pastor Muriritirwa had
been in the headlines for being a go between in Mr Tsvangirai's
relationship with a South African woman, Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane.
Pastor
Muriritirwa, who is also the principal director for policy
implementation in the Prime Minister's Office, is the one who introduced
Ms Shilubane, a member of the church, to Mr Tsvangirai when he was in
South Africa for a visit.
The pastor also availed his house in
Zimbabwe as a love nest for Mr Tsvangirai and Ms Shilubane where the
pair had their first unprotected sexual encounter on 19 September in
2009.
The relationship between the two, however, did not work and
the Prime Minister's sex escapades came to light just before his
wedding to his present wife, Ms Elizabeth Macheka.
Ms Shilubane's
bid to stop PM Tsvangirai's marriage to Ms Macheka failed last year
although Ms Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo managed to have the marriage
licence issued by a Harare magistrate cancelled.
Ms Karimatsenga Tembo argued that the PM never divorced her and that he was still her husband.
As
a result PM Tsvangirai failed to marry Ms Macheka under Chapter 5:11 of
the Marriages Act and they had to contend with what they called a
"traditional ceremony" after the cancellation of the licence.
PM
Tsvangirai married Ms Karimatsenga Tembo in November 2011 and he
reportedly paid lobola to the tune of $36 000 but he divorced Ms
Karimatsenga Tembo after 11 days citing media attention and alleging
that State security agents had hijacked the relationship.
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