HARARE, Zimbabwe (LifeSiteNews) — Zimbabwe has barred Christians who have not taken COVID jabs from church worship despite a High Court ruling suspending the ban.
Only 19% of the majority-Christian country has had even one COVID-19 shot.
On September 14, Monica Mustvangwa, the Minister of Information, told the public on behalf of the government that it will be ignoring the September 10 High Court ruling that the state must stop asking citizens for documents proving they’ve had the COVID jabs to attend church.
“Whilst all other gatherings shall not exceed 100 persons, with regards to churches, Cabinet has resolved [against the High Court ruling] that only vaccinated congregants can attend and should be limited to 50% of the holding capacity of the Church,” Mustvangwa said during a post-Cabinet press briefing.
Mustvangwa announced the initial ban on the “unvaccinated” in August, and her recent statement came out only four days after the High Court suspended the measure.
Justice David Mangota’s September 10 order overruling the ban stated: “The statement issued by the 1st respondent [Minister of Information Monica Mustvangwa] on behalf of the Cabinet barring unvaccinated sit-in congregants in Churches [is] suspended pending the return date of this application.”
“Further […] the conduct of the 2nd respondent [Minister of Home Affairs Kazembe Kazembe] in enforcing the statement by Cabinet and conducting arrests and criminal proceedings against unvaccinated sit-in church congregants [is] suspended pending the return date of this application,” the judge added.
Instead of retracting the government policy as required by the court, Mustvangwa and the rest of the Cabinet immediately announced they were doubling down on enforcing the measure. This has caused grave concern among the local population.
“For the Cabinet to overturn a High Court order, it’s worrying,” said Zimbabwe Christian Vusumuzi Chirwa.
“We wonder if the Cabinet has replaced both the Supreme and Constitutional Courts,” he continued.
“Here is no need to force church congregants to be vaccinated [against COVID-19] when most of them only attend church services once a week for a couple of hours. In the church of Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, vaccinated or unvaccinated; we shall all worship our God whether vaccinated or not.”
According to human rights lawyer Obert Kondongwe, who had represented the “uvaccinated” churchgoers in their successful court appeal, “There is no law currently in Zimbabwe which makes vaccination mandatory. Concomitantly, there is no criminal law which penalizes church gatherings of unvaccinated congregants.”
“It is trite that each person, having fully considered the implications and effects of vaccination, is expected to make a personal decision on whether or not to get vaccinated, and even to make a personal decision regarding the timing of such vaccination,” he continued.
Other Christians in Zimbabwe more explicitly alluded to dictatorship and tyranny after Mustvangwa indicated that the Cabinet was going to ignore the High Court ruling.
“This Cabinet, whoever they are, are definitely not a representation of the level of sound-minded Zimbabweans,” stated Zimbabwean Christian Qalani Nhliziyo.
“They represent a clique which has actually forcibly imposed itself on a reasoning population. They are not our legitimate leaders.”
“The High Court decision flies in the face of politics, and therefore they must ignore it so they can show who is powerful. This is the sad reality of our context,” lamented Kiton Moyo, another Christian.
“The government is setting itself for a dangerous warfare with God,” Moyo added.
“Soon He will respond. When you persecute the Church, you are persecuting Christ. So where does this take them?”
Zimbabwe boasts a large and faithful Christian population, with over 85% of the population identifying as Christian. Among this Christian majority, over 60% report they attend church weekly.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 inoculation rate, including people who have had only one dose, is a mere 19%, and so this gives heft to the local theory that this governmental action is a direct persecution of Christians.
“There is the High Court ruling that must be respected,” said Zimbabwe Christian Alliance executive director Reverend Useni Sibanda.
“We encourage the government to uphold the High Court ruling.”
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