ZANU PF has resolved to honour the ancestral spirits and seek their direction in correcting “wrongs” perpetrated after the country’s independence in 1980.
This is according to the superstitious party’s resolutions at the just ended annual national people’s conference which was held in Esigodini weekend.
“There should be ceremonies in honour of ancestral spirits that guided the nation during the armed struggle; this should be conducted by the party and government,” read the resolutions in part.
“Spirit mediums should also lead the nation in correcting the wrongs that supposedly happened spiritually after independence in our country.”
However, the party’s beliefs in supernatural powers brings back memories of 2007 when the entire government, under then President Robert Mugabe, was taken on a wild goose chase by a cheeky spirit medium who claimed a Chinhoyi rock could gush out loads of pure diesel capable of satisfying the country’s needs.
Awe-struck cabinet ministers, among them Kembo Mohadi (now vice president), Didymus Mutasa (then National Security Minister), Sydney Sekeramayi (then Defence) and former Mashonaland West Governor Nelson Samkange were shown bare-footed in pictures sitting on bare ground and clapping hands in reverence as Mavhunga demonstrated “pure diesel” pouring out of rocks.
Government ministers at Rotina Mavhunga’s shrine in 2007
Even top cops like then Deputy Commissioner General Godwin Matanga (now substantive) were seen at Mavhunga’s shrine going through the traditional rites that Rotina Mavhunga ordered them to perform before her.
The spirim medium, who became known as the “diesel n’anga” among Zimbabweans, was latter slapped with a 39-month prison term by a Chinhoyi magistrate who found her guilty of defrauding the government after she accepted thousands of dollars in terms of tax payers’ tax for her “services”.
The magistrate noted that the state channeled a lot of resources, including helicopters, vehicles and money, “on a wild goose chase” at a time the country was going through its hardest time in economic history and was literally on its knees.
The embarrassing incident exposed the Zanu PF government’s naivety when it came to matters of the spirit as well as its desperation when confronted with challenges on how to resolve economic problems.-NewZim
