MTHWAKAZI Republic Party (MRP) activists claim to have discovered dangerous traditional weapons and other objects allegedly believed to be used for ritual purposes during their raids on bush churches mostly run by apostolic sects.
The MRP activists launched the clean-up campaign sometime last month in Bulawayo.
MRP spokesperson Velile Moyo told Southern Eye that they are spreading the clean-up campaign to Matabeleland North and South provinces.
“We have realised that our bushes are dirty because of these bush shrines,” Moyo said.
“We are happy that the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is also positively responding to our campaign by sending municipal rangers to deal with the littering of our bushes by the churches.”
Moyo said their patrol uncovered an unprecedented deluge of illicit practices at the shrines.
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He said they ordered the sect members to remove their ritual cloths and flags, adding that they violated local cultural norms and values.
“We discovered weapons such as spears, swords, piles of underpants, wrapped pieces of wool, piles of other people’s pictures and we advised them (church members) to burn them,” he said.
“Some have complied with our advice because we are going to them in peace.”
Moyo advised the church leaders to regularise their operations by applying for stands from council to conduct their services.
“We are telling them that they must go and see council so that they are allocated stands on which to operate from,” he said.
BCC used to conduct raids on churches accusing them of polluting the environment as the majority do not have ablution facilities.
Bulawayo United Residents Association chairperson Winos Dube welcomed the clean-up campaign.
“If it is done without any other sinister motives, we welcome the move,” he said.
“We always appreciate such moves as residents but we do not want it done in a manner that will infringe other people’s rights.
“Just like Murambatsvina, it was a clean-up campaign but it ended up infringing other people’s rights.”
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said they had not heard about the clean-up campaign being conducted by the MRP activists.