Worshippers drag Chief Sairi to court

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
FIFTEEN members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have dragged Chief Sairi of the Ngoni speaking people in Eastern Province to court seeking an injunction to restrain him from demolishing their place of worship for refusing to contribute a K1 each towards the financing of the Nc’wala traditional ceremony.
Patrick Vumisa and 14 others have accused Chimsakasa Jere, who has been sued in his capacity as Chief Sairi of subjecting them to forced labour and threatening to grab their farm fields and to demolish their place of worship.
Mr Vumisa and 14 others have since petitioned the Constitutional Court over the matter and asked it to grant them an injunction to restrain the chief or his agents from repossessing their farm land, demolishing their place of worship or chasing them from the chiefdom until the determination of the matter.
He states in his affidavit in support of an interim injunction that he and 14 others are members of Khova Congregation of Jehovah‘s Witnesses in Magodi Vumisa, Kabaza and Mnukwa villages in Chief Sairi‘s Chiefdom.
Mr Vumisa alleges that on May 10 this year, the chief‘s executive councillors, with the authority of the chief summoned them and charged them for not making monetary contributions towards the Nc’wala traditional ceremony.
He said that they were punished each to work for one week at the chief’s farm and paying a goat each, which they did.
Mr Vumisa said that on May 21 and May 22 this year, another meeting was held with the traditional leader’s executive, where it was explained that the church members could not contribute due to their religious beliefs, but the chief‘s representatives resorted to punishing them.
He said they made several attempts to meet with the chief so that they could explain their stance that contributing the K1 would have meant supporting spiritism and dead ancestor worship, but he allegedly refused to meet with them and repeated the punishment.
Mr Vumisa said the chief threatened to grab their fields and demolish their church building if they did not start making the contributions, which they refused, as the traditional ceremony was a thanksgiving one to ancestral spirits and involved the killing of a black bull and drinking of its blood by the chief, which the 15 did not believe in.
He contended that the 15 were loyal and committed members of Magadi Vamisa Village and even supported community projects that were not in conflict with their religious beliefs.
Mr Vumisa said that the chief’s threats to repossess their farmland and demolish their place of worship infringed on their rights to freedom of thought, religion, conscience and their legal right to own land.
He argued that unless the injunction was granted, they would suffer irreparable injury which could not be atoned for by the way of damage as their rights that were being infringed upon were guaranteed by the country’s Constitution.