The trial of controversial cult leader Ismail Chukurungirwa and six of his co-accused failed in Norton on Tuesday, after remand prison officials failed to hand them over to court because they were not in good health and were in hospital, the National Prosecuting Authority said. He said.
In a post on X, the NPA said the trial has been rescheduled to May 23 and 24 this year.
Chukurungirwa, 54, known as Badzibaba Ismail, was arrested in March after riot police accompanied by dogs raided his shrine in Nyabira, about 34 kilometers northwest of the capital, and rescued dozens of women and children.
He faces charges of abusing or neglecting 41 minors, conducting funerals or burials without burial orders, and failing to provide notifications of births and deaths.
Chokurungirwa was recently re-arrested on new charges of engaging in sexual intercourse between 2018 and 2024 which resulted in the birth of six children.
Four of the cases involved girls aged thirteen, fifteen and sixteen years giving birth to children while the fifth case involved a fourteen year old girl who gave birth to Chukurungirwa of two children.
When police raided the Chukurungirwa compound, they found more than 1,000 people, including children, most of whom did not have birth certificates and did not go to school.
Chukurungirwa is not new to the courts. In 2015, he was sentenced to five years in prison for leading an attack on police officers, journalists and members of Archbishop Johannes Ndanga’s Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe at his shrine in Buderero in 2014.
Archbishop Ndanga wanted the Chukurungirwa sect shut down over allegations of abuse of women and children by his followers.
Upon his release from prison, Chukurungirwa established a new shrine in Nyabira.
New Ziana
