adminPatrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of Africa International overseer and president Reverend Tony Tshuma yesterday suffered a major setback after the High Court barred him from expelling or interfering with the activities of members of the church’s breakaway faction led by Rev Clement Nyathi.
Divisions in the church heightened after Rev Nyathi’s faction accused Rev Tshuma of fraudulently taking over the reins of the church in 2008, abuse of church funds and allegedly grabbing a church-owned farm in Mangwe, Matabeleland South, charges he vehemently denies.
Rev Tshuma then expelled his rivals, who then went to court to challenge the expulsions.
High Court Judge Justice Maxwell Takuwa yesterday issued a provisional order squashing the overseer and church president’s decision to expel Rev Nyathi and his backers from the church.
Rev Nyathi and two other reverends were the applicants in the matter while Rev Tshuma and 25 other church leaders are the respondents.
“The Respondents are interdicted from making church decisions which involve disputes pending before this court on HC 704/14 and HC 580/14 until those matters are finalised,” reads part of the judgment.
“The Respondents are barred from causing demotions, suspensions and or expulsions of the 1st Applicant’s members pending the final determination of HC 704/14 and HC 580/14.”
The court is still to make a ruling on case numbers HC580/14 and HC 704/14 pitting the two sides. In the former case Rev Tshuma’s faction made an application for a declaration that he is the rightful overseer and president of the religious grouping, while in the other case his rivals are seeking to block his ordination.
The two matters are pending at the Bulawayo High Court.
Early this month, Kwekwe provincial magistrate Vimbai Mutukwa also ordered the squabbling Mbizo branch not to interfere with each other’s operations until the two cases in Bulawayo are resolved.
This is not the first time power struggles have rocked the church that was founded in Zimbabwe by Rev Morgan Sengwayo in 1955. Following Sengwayo’s death in 1982, Rev Philemon Sibanda was appointed church overseer.
In 1985, squabbles hit the church following allegations of adultery against Sibanda, which prompted him to break away from the church with disgruntled members and formed his own church, renaming it Apostolic Faith Mission of Africa.
Sibanda died in 2008 and Tony Tshuma succeeded him.
derick.khumalo