Legal Action against Zimbabwe sect leaders exploiting 251 children as cheap labor

•  Ishmael Chokurongerwa, a leader of a religious sect, faces charges after police raided his compound.
• The raid found over 250 children being kept away from school and used as cheap labor.
• Authorities discovered 16 unregistered graves, including seven infants, at the farm.

In a Zimbabwean court on Thursday, a man calling himself a prophet faced charges after police raided the compound where he led a religious sect and found that he was keeping more than 250 children away from school and using them as cheap labor. Additionally, police discovered 16 unregistered graves, including those of seven infants, at the farm about 34 kilometers (21 miles) northwest of the capital, Harare.

Police spokesman Paul Nyathi announced that Ishmael Chokurongerwa and seven of his aides faced charges of exploiting children and denying them access to education and health services. Nyathi stated that investigations were ongoing, and authorities might bring further charges. The sect leaders also stand accused of breaking laws that mandate the registration of deaths and burials. State media reported that around 1,000 people were living on the farm before the raid.

A magistrate announced at their court hearing that Chokurongerwa, 56, and his aides would remain in custody. She stated that she would rule on their bail application next week. The men did not have legal representation at the hearing, and authorities had not disclosed their location.

The men pleaded with the magistrate to release them on bail, emphasizing that they were not violent people and had children to look after who would suffer if they were sent to prison. Some of Chokurongerwa’s followers traveled to the court hearing in the nearby town of Norton to show support for him.

“Come rain, come thunder, we will follow our God,” said Tabeth Mupfana, a 34-year-old woman who said she was born into the sect when it was at another location and had not experienced any abuse. “We will never leave our religion. We are like an elephant, nothing can stop us. All those people fighting us are merchants of Satan.”

Nearby residents observed that the farm operated like a factory, producing soap, cooking oil, and furniture for sale, while the sect also cultivated crops and raised livestock. On Tuesday, armed police officers with tear gas and dogs arrived on the farm in trucks. Nyathi stated that they found 251 children whom “the sect’s leadership was using to perform various physical activities for their benefit.” He also noted that 246 of the children had no birth certificates.

They “were subjected to abuse as cheap labor, doing manual work in the name of being taught life skills,” Nyathi said.

On Wednesday, police accompanied by social workers returned to the farm and gathered up children and women, many of whom had infants, before transporting them on buses to a shelter. Observers believe that the sect is one of Zimbabwe’s many Apostolic Christian groups, identifiable by their long white robes, with women and girls also sporting white headscarves. These Apostolic groups blend traditional beliefs with a Pentecostal doctrine. Some of these groups are reclusive, eschew modern medicine, keep children away from school, and practice polygamy.

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