reprinted with corrections from The Zimbabwe Mail

by Wonai Masvingise

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF is concerned over Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s invitation of popular Nigerian prophet TB Joshua to attend prayer meetings in the country this year.

The Daily News was told that hardliners in Zanu-PF, who are worried that the relationship between TB Joshua and Tsvangirai could give the MDC leader massive support, are already plotting to deny him entry into Zimbabwe.

This takes place, as the Nigerian’s stock has been rising in Zimbabwe and abroad after his February prediction that an old African leader would die within months. Sixty days later, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika, 78, died of heart failure. A few days before wa Mutharika’s death, TB Joshua announced that the death of an African leader was imminent.

Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu-PF secretary for administration, however stressed that they had no problems with TB Joshua’s anticipated arrival in the country even though he was coming on Tsvangirai’s invitation. “He can come if he is Tsvangirai’s guest. If he is Tsvangirai’s guest he is programmed by Tsvangirai to do what he says. Where does Zanu PF fit in?,” he said.

TB Joshua is expected to be in the country on May 25 for the National Day of Prayer.

“In some circles, there is even spirited speculation in well-informed circles that TB Joshua had privileged intelligence information about a death plot against… Mutharika and the plotters used him as their microphone to divert attention… and let the death appear like it was an act of God when it was an intelligence operation,” opined Zanu-PF’s Jonathan Moyo.

Moyo went on to quote the Bible — 2 Timothy 3 v 1-5 — about false prophets and in his bid to further discredit the TB Joshua, and said the precision in timing could have been a coincidence based on “someone with medical information and not from God. It’s possible to medically induce a cardiac arrest. No wonder why his death was first leaked by his doctors,” the former government minister said.

A top MDC official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Zanu-PF was misleading people into believing that TB Joshua told Tsvangirai he would never lead the country.
“Zanu-PF is panicking because they know the truth about what was said and what is unfolding. They want to hide behind the man of God’s name to promulgate their own agendas. You must not twist a man of God’s words. What TB Joshua told Tsvangirai was in the positive; actually it was very, very positive,” the MDC official said.

“TB Joshua did not say he [Tsvangirai] will not lead the country. They [Zanu-PF] know the truth of what God has in store for this country. That is why they are panicking. God works in his own way, for Zanu-PF to be where it is, it was God’s design,” he added.