The Herald – Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has commended churches that foster unity, peace and development in the country.
VP Mnangagwa made the remarks yesterday when he was addressing more than 100 000 Zion Christian Church (ZCC) members gathered for the 2015 Easter conference at the church located some 40km east of Masvingo.
“Churches like ZCC play a pivotal role in fostering peace, unity and development and this is as it should be,” he said.
VP Mnangagwa said ZCC’s leader Bishop Dr Nehemiah Mutendi had been steadfast in supporting the Government’s empowerment programmes through infrastructural development.
He said Zimbabweans fought to remove the settler regime with assistance from leaders of churches such as ZCC.
The VP said his wisdom to lead and survive the protracted war of liberation could have been as a result of meeting ZCC’s founder, Bishop Samuel Mutendi who prayed for him.
VP Mnangagwa, who received a rapturous welcome from ZCC members, said he visited the late Bishop Mutendi during the liberation struggle and the bishop prayed for him and an unnamed friend and they went on to survive many atrocities.
He said during his latest visit to Masvingo, he had visited, together with the provincial leadership the scene where he blew up a train in 1964 in the then Fort Victoria.