Mugabe’s CIOs infiltrate church and donor organizations in S.A.

By Tererai Karimakwenda
17 November 2006

Many pastors in Zimbabwe are fed up with the political and economic situation and have been applying to leave and go to South Africa. This is according to Steven Chiadzwa of The Zimbabwe Pastors Forum. He has been on a mission to encourage the church officials to stay. Chiadzwa said the church in Zimbabwe has long been infiltrated by the government’s central intelligence officials and this is why the suffering parishioners have no voice and no representation.

Chiadzwa runs The Hope Centre which was established by The Pastors Forum in Johannesburg to help Zimbabwean refugees. He said CIO’s have infiltrated church and donor organizations there as well. The pastor believes the eviction this week of Zimbabwean refugees from the Central Methodist Church in Joburg, where they were being sheltered, was orchestrated by agents. CIO’s are also believed to be behind the Sunday Mirror newspaper which is being distributed in South Africa. An official at the Pastors Forum alleged that journalists from the paper tried to solicit bribes from them to not print stories damaging to the organization. Pastor Chiadzwa said the Sunday Mirror is linked to The Daily Mirror in Zimbabwe. “And we all know who is behind that” he added.

The Pastors Forum recently dismissed most of the staff at their Hope Center in Johannesburg after discovering they were being paid by CIO’s to supply information about the organization. They were exposed before much damage and had been done and Chiadzwa said he thanks God for this. The Forum decided to relocate to new offices that are more secure.

Chiadzwa said on his trip to Zimbabwe he noticed many people can no longer afford to travel to church because it is too expensive to take the whole family. So some pastors are conducting services on the street. He said some churches have closed down since they cannot afford to rent buildings for their congregations. Only the established ones like the Catholic church can sustain their operations. The pastors who want to leave will now have a very difficult time getting legal status in South Africa. According to Chiadzwa, immigration laws there have changed a great deal.