A man calling himself a prophet was charged in a Zimbabwean court Thursday after police raided the compound where he led a religious sect and found more than 250 children being kept away from school and used as cheap labor.
Police also discovered 16 unregistered graves, including those of seven infants, at the farm about 34 kilometers (21 miles) northwest of the capital, Harare.
Ishmael Chokurongerwa and seven of his aides were charged with exploiting children and denying them access to education and health services. Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said investigations were still ongoing and authorities may press more charges.
The sect leaders are also accused of breaking laws that require deaths and burials to be registered. State media reported there were around 1,000 people living on the farm before the raid.
Chokurongerwa, 56, and his aides will remain in custody after a magistrate said at their court hearing that she would rule on their bail application next week. None of the men had legal representation at the hearing and it was unclear where they were being held.
The men pleaded with the magistrate to release them on bail, saying 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.”
A man who lives near the farm said it was run like a factory, producing soap, cooking oil and furniture for sale, while the sect also grew crops and kept livestock. Armed police officers with tear gas and dogs arrived on the farm Tuesday in trucks. They found 251 children who “were being used to perform various physical activities for the benefit of the sect’s leadership,” said Nyathi.—AFP
