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Cult women remain defiant
The bizarre Bulawayo-based cult, whose members have now spent one and half months in remand prison at Khami as they continually refuse to appear in court, is gradually disintegrating, the Sunday News has learnt.
Ten of the cult members, comprising four juveniles, who were released, cautioned and discharged by the courts and six young men who consented to bail have indicated that they no longer want to be part of the cult. They said they want to turn over a new leaf.
Eighteen women, including one with a year-old baby and four young men, are still in custody and their fate will be decided on 29 March.
Bulawayo magistrate Mr Lizwe Jamela, who has been presiding over what has turned out to be a test case for the courts, on Monday set 29 March as the trial date for the cult members who have refused to appear before him since 30 January.
This would be the first time accused persons would be tried without having set foot in court, without furnishing the court with their details, without having their side of the story heard or entertaining any questions or enquiries from both the police and the court officials. All this is contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.
The four remaining young men, however, agreed to appear in court on Monday together with the six who are out on bail but their plea recording was later stopped after they questioned some essential elements of the case.
As usual, the women remained behind in the court cells the whole day until they were returned to what has become their new home, Khami Remand Prison.
The six who are out on bail are being represented by lawyer Mr Mehluli Ndlovu of Coghlan and Welsh Legal Practitioners and all pleaded guilty.
They were remanded to March 22 for plea recording and to allow the State to separate the four who did not plead guilty so that they could go for trial.
The cult is set to remain female-dominated. The only four male members remaining in custody are likely to emulate their counterparts and break ranks if they are released.
Relatives and friends of the cult members have had to ponder their fate every time they go for their routine remand hearings in which they have remained defiant and refused even to be seen while in the holding cells.
Such is the defiance and oneness of the female cult members that even the contravention of the Miscellaneous Offences Act — which is usually punishable by a fine not exceeding $300 000 — is seeing them remanded in custody as is the case with serious violent crimes such as robbery.
Apart from the Miscellaneous Offences Act, the cult members will also be tried for contravening the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act after they tore money into shreds. They will also face charges under the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act and will have to answer to allegations of contempt of court.
Relatives and friends, general members of the public, the police and legal practitioners are all keenly awaiting 29 March to see how the test case will finally end.
One city lawyer suggested that the magistrate should just warn, caution and free the cult members while one said it was difficult to deal with people that needed psychiatric examination.
“It has been a hectic period for us as a family. Since my daughters were arrested together with their members in January and sent to Khami, we have had to travel up and down between Zhombe and Bulawayo fortnightly to no avail,” said Mrs Idah Ncube, the mother of the cult leaders Patience Hama Ncube and Memory Ncube, in an interview at the Tredgold courts on Monday..
“However, I am relieved that the children were later released so that they can go back to school. My two nieces have since got places at some schools in Kwekwe. We took all the property from the flat where they were staying to safeguard them and left behind the few members that are looking after some of the children. I am relieved that the girls have vowed not to go back to this sect. As for my daughters, whatever the court will decide, its up to them. They are adults and they are free to do as they please, not to coerce young and innocent children,” she said.
Lawyer Mr Ndlovu said the youngmen he was representing had shown great enthusiasm and willingness to go back to school and “start afresh”.
“They have changed a lot since they consented to bail. I have spoken to them. They are intelligent young men whose future is bright and I am confident that they will fulfill their promise to return to school. They need further counseling which I am sure their parents and relatives will continue to do,” he said in an interview.
In interviews, some of the released juveniles, whose names the Sunday News is not at liberty to reveal for ethical reasons, said they had realized that they were merely coerced into joining the cult and were ready to go back to school.
“I have missed out a lot since my mother brought me here from Kwekwe last year in December. I was supposed to have started Form Two with others but now that I am free, I will work hard to catch up with them.
“That is not the way we should worship God. What we were being taught was extremist. I feel for the little children who have remained at the flat while their mothers are still in prison. I don’t want to think about my experience at Mlondolozi,” she said, almost in tears. Mlondolozi is the female wing at Khami Prison.
Two male members and one female are looking after less than 10 children aged between two and 10 who have remained at the flat along Samuel Parirenyatwa Street in the city which had become the cult’s congregation centre since last year.
Relatives reportedly took away some of the children who complained of hunger two weeks as food reserves dwindled while the situation was worsened by the unavailability of electricity at the flat due to an electrical explosion.
“We will see what will happen on 29 March. We have endured for too long and I pray that this matter is dealt with once and for all,” said one woman whose son is still in custody.
Mr Chrispen Chikwanha, whose former wife Patience Hama Ncube is one of the cult leaders and his daughter left nurse training at the United Bulawayo Hospitals to join the sect, could only say: “I have given up on this matter. I am just there to give my in-laws moral and social support.”
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