Zimbabwean police on Wednesday arrested a man claiming to be a prophet from the Apostolic sect at a shrine where believers stay on the premises, and authorities say they have recovered 16 unregistered graves, including those of infants, and others used as low-paid labor. They announced that they had found more than 250 children.
Police spokesman Paul Nyati said in a statement that 56-year-old “self-styled” prophet Ishmael Choklongelwa led a sect of more than 1,000 followers on a farm about 34 miles northwest of the capital, Harare. He said his children were staying there. He along with other believers.
The children were “used to perform various physical activities for the benefit of the sect’s leaders,” he said. Of the 251 children, 246 did not have birth certificates.
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“Police have established that all school-age children receive no formal education, are forced to do physical labor in the name of teaching them life skills, and are abused as cheap labor.” he said.
Police said that among the graves discovered were those of seven infants whose burials were not registered with authorities.
He said police raided the shrine on Tuesday. Choklongelwa, who called himself Prophet Ishmael, was arrested along with seven of his aides on charges of “criminal acts including abuse of minors.”
More than 250 child laborers and 16 unregistered graves have been discovered on the property of a self-proclaimed Zimbabwean prophet. (Fox News Digital)
Nyati said details would be released “as the investigation progresses.”
H Metro, a state-run tabloid that accompanied the raid, reported that police in riot gear were joined by female believers wearing white clothes and hoods demanding the return of children who had been put on a waiting police bus. The video showed them arguing. It is not clear where police took the children and several women who were with them at the time.
“Why are they taking our children? We are comfortable here. We have no problems here,” he said in a video posted to the newspaper’s X (formerly Twitter) account. One of the women inside screamed.
The newspaper said police armed with guns, tear gas and trained dogs “carried out a brutal attack” on the shrine. Believers described the site as a “promised land.”
One of Choklongerwa’s close aides agreed to an interview with this newspaper.
“Our faith does not come from the Bible, but directly from God, who gave us the rules on how to enter heaven. God forbids formal education. Such schools Because the lessons you learn are contrary to God’s commands,” he said, adding, “Thus says God.” “Tell us you send your kids to school and it doesn’t rain. Look at the drought over there, and yet we get rain. We hear the voice of God spiritually. “I have the gift of a good ear,” he said.
The apostolic group, which infuses Pentecostal doctrine with traditional beliefs, is popular in the deeply religious southern African country.
There are few detailed studies of the Apostolic Church in Zimbabwe, but UNICEF estimates that Zimbabwe is the largest religious denomination with approximately 2.5 million members in a country of 15 million people. Some groups require that believers avoid formal education for children and medicines and medical care for members who must instead seek healing through prayer, holy water, and faith in anointed stones. adheres to the doctrine of
But following intense campaigns by governments and non-governmental organizations, some groups have recently begun allowing their members to visit hospitals and enroll children in schools.
In Kenya, in April 2023, police arrested Paul McKenzie, a pastor based on the Kenyan coast, on suspicion of ordering his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus.
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In January, the country’s top prosecutor ordered a pastor and more than 90 members of a doomsday cult to be indicted on charges including murder, brutality and child torture over the deaths of 429 people believed to be church members.
