Zanu PF presidential candidate Robert Mugabe arrives at Apostolic Sect at Mafararikwa Shrine in Marange. (photo: M.Chibaya.)
President Mugabe has blasted some sections of Pentecostal churches who mislead their congregants into believing they can get rich quickly, while demanding that the church members give all they have to the church to enrich the pastors.
He was speaking at a recent Kutama Mission centenary celebrations in Zvimba, President Mugabe also lamented the moral decadence in society.
He said Pentecostal churches were taking advantage of desperate congregants taking their hard earned cash and make them believe they can be rich over night.
“As for the Pentecostal ones, anyone who thinks because there is no job, he can just catch Genesis 1 and they just start preaching,” he said.
He drew the guests into laughter after he imitated the forceful manner used by Pentecostal pastors when preaching, President Mugabe said after grasping Genesis 1 they start saying; “That is what God has done, I can also do that through him. I have the inspiration and the message.
“The dream I had last night was that I must do A&B, E&B. And you will get that (what the church wants) in no time.”
He urged the nation to be patient and work hard as prescribed in the Bible to sustain their livelihoods.
“That’s what we get even in Genesis when Adam was punished,” he said. “That you now have to sweat for you to live. But God was kind enough; there is the whole world, you see, just yours. You work on it. You have to work.
“A piece of ground, you grow potatoes; in no time, you become well to do.”
“There are others varikuteya mari, varikubata mbeva dzemari,” he said. “Zvinobva zvanzi handei kumakuva, vakamuka ikoko vanokuisira mari muriva, but asi iwe unotanga waisa $300 muno umu, wozoenda ikoko mari hapana, zvonzi ah pane chawatadza iwewe. Ndiwe waita kuti mari iyende.”
President Mugabe is on record as saying some Pentecostal churches in the country were extorting gifts from their followers by making it mandatory for them to “give” to their leaders.