MDC leader Nelson Chamisa says his continued call for street confrontation against the Zanu PF led government was not at odds with his calling as a pastor.
He was addressing mourners at late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s Harare home where mourners are gathered for the funeral wake of the ex-Prime Minister’s daughter Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java who on Monday succumbed to injuries sustained in a fatal car crash last month.
Chamisa has kept pressure against the Emmerson Mnangagwa led administration he accuses of cheating its way back to power and later subjecting locals to economic hardship through poor leadership.
In this, he has urged his followers and ordinary Zimbabweans to stage demonstrations against the regime, which has often responded with brute force when put in a corner.
Churches and Civil Society Forum chairperson Anglistone Sibanda has blasted Chamisa for his confrontational attitude and has urged the firebrand opposition chief to make a conscious effort to exchange the pulpit for the battlefield.
In his address to mourners Tuesday, Chamisa gave examples of men of cloth from the bible to emphasise the need for pastors to take active participation in national politics.
“Some people do not know. They say pastors should desist from taking part in politics. David had three anointings; a prophetic, priestly anointing and kingly anointing.
“You should then understand. When we take part in politics, we were sent and are here to add light as politics has a lot of the dark periods, men of cloth should do more in this light,” Chamisa said.
In his comments, Pastor Sibanda had said Chamisa should instead leave for Syria if he was serious with causing violence.
Syria has been torn apart by a civil strife since the famous Arab Spring of 2011 which ousted some leaders in Arab countries.
“It is on record that the MDC president Nelson Chamisa who is also a pastor like me has been threatening that the citizens must rise up and remove the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“We are saying to him, violence does not build a nation; if he wants war, he should resign from being a pastor and go to Syria,” Sibanda told journalists at the time.
Chamisa is a qualified Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) pastor having attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology.
His church is on record as saying it will not interfere with his political ambitions. – NewZim
