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Roselyn Sachiti Features Editor
He is a certified sex predator, now serving time for serial rape and possession of pornographic material.
Robert Martin Gumbura will spend the next 40 years behind bars leaving behind his adoring 11 wives and 30 children.
There are many other people, too, who relied on Gumbura for their livelihoods, despite his evil works.
Yet Gumbura, at 57, is such a polarising figure.

Back in Makonde, his rural home, he is a prophet with honour and dishonour in equal measure.
Monday Tapera Gumbura (70), a cousin to the notorious cleric, is the head of Gondiya Village in the Kenzamba area of Makonde, Mashonaland West province.

He says growing up, Robert Gumbura was like any other boy.
The two did not spend much of their childhood together as Robert Gumbura’s family lived in the city, but he remembers him as a disciplined child.

Robert Gumbura’s late father, Forbes, was a village headman, a headmaster at a school at Alaska Mine and later on a teacher at a school in Harare’s Highfield suburb.

Forbes wanted the best out of his children – Robert, Antipas, Wilson and Innocent – and strove to ensure they were well educated.
His wish came true as young Robert was to become a teacher at Regina Mundi and Mambo High Schools in Gweru.

In 1978 Robert Gumbura joined End Time Message, where he was a minister.
“I did not hear anything extraordinary about him as a child even as a young man. We never thought he would do such a thing,” says Monday.

Back in the village, even when both his parents were alive, they saw less and less of Gumbura, only briefly meeting him at funerals despite him owning a vibrant gold mill a few metres from his father’s homestead.

Pastor Gumbura rarely came to his gold mill and the manager, Brother Devera, would deliver purchased gold to him.
It was quite shocking for Monday to discover his cousin was a rapist of national notoriety.

From his modest hilltop homestead, Monday and other villagers closely followed the trial via solar-powered radios and newspapers brought by bus.

“What did he want 11 wives for? We heard he had nine when he came for his father’s funeral in 2010 and we thought they were too many. While we were digesting the shock, he took more. I only know the first wife Tafadzwa Makoni (52) and second wife Queen Bunga (45). As for kids, I only know Shyra and the one who has a hearing impairment. I do not know the other 28,” says Monday, who has two wives.

“This is now about juju not love for women. If anything the wives are very young and can satisfy him. Eleven wives! He was a brave man,” muses Monday.

He pauses to pull on his cigarette, then continues: “Surprisingly, he never dated or married in our village, he would do his strange things in Harare. We just concluded that this was the work of money.”

Robert Gumbura, according to Monday, rarely assisted family members financially, opting to put all his resources into his church.
Several villagers who joined his church were rescued from the clutches of poverty.

“He would only buy coffins for dead relatives. That he was good at and never let us down. Just a phone call and he was there though he would never stay throughout the funeral.

“Surprisingly, his church members got everything they wanted from him. The same church resulted in his downfall,” adds Monday, who never attended the church.

Arrogance and Ambition
Robert Gumbura had ambitions of being the village headman and declared his interests while speaking at a funeral of his aunt.
It is the fashion he did it that left Monday agape.

“At the funeral, he said he wanted to take over from his late father who was once a village headman because he is wealthy and was just the right candidate.

“He also said people could not have a poor headman like me (Monday), who does not even own a pair of shoes. From that day I did not go to his house in Harare. I will not go there. Even if I had bus fare, I would not have gone to attend his trial,” he says.

He speaks of his cousin’s arrogance.
“He would rarely answer his cellphone if anyone from the village called. Mai Shifra would always answer and say he is not around but I knew I was being tricked.

“When I visited his Harare home, I would only be allowed to speak with Mai Shifra. You would never see the other wives. I only saw the other eight when he lined them up for introductions before they were whisked away. I don’t even remember them.”
He says Robert Gumbura’s Marlborough house intimidated him.

“I would not spend more than two days there. The big house is unfriendly and tells you not to come back. The security wall is big, even Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison does not have a gate that big.

“Some relatives would go to his mansion at 8am and only see him at 1pm. He would be locked somewhere and when all these stories came out I concluded he was busy filming himself.

“But I never took any of that, I would tell his secretary to call him and he would show up in 30 minutes. Mai Shifra would make sure you are well fed.”

He thinks all the other wives were only interested in Robert Gumbura’s wealth.
“I do not know if he had money in the bank or if he blew it all on the women. I would see many cars at his house, maybe they are an indication of his wealth. But the generator that powers his mill broke down last year when his misfortunes started and has not been repaired, maybe the court case swallowed all the money.”

Evil spirits
To Monday, Robert Gumbura is paying the price for not holding a memorial service for his late father.
When his father died in August 2010, his clothes were not distributed as per local tradition with Robert Gumbura calling the practice ungodly.

“No memorial service was held and Uncle Forbes’ clothes were stored in a garage at his Hillside home, now being used by Pastor Gumbura’s young brother. Mice destroyed the clothes and I warned them that this was a bad omen.

“I asked for their blessing to have the memorial service but it was all in vain; they ignored me. I did not want to do it without his blessing since he is Forbes’ first born child,” he reveals.

He adds: “In our culture you encounter problems if you do not take care of your parents. So when he was arrested, I told his uncle back here that Forbes’ spirit had risen.”

He worries that Robert Gumbura will die in prison.
“This is a death sentence. At 97, he will find us all dead and his wives gone when he is released. He will not buy my coffin.
“We fear stress will kill him. He will worry about his 11 wives, welfare of his 30 children, his 20 cars, houses, his plot in Mainga and farm in Chinhoyi, and the gold mill among other things. I saw the house he was building and I would worry very much if I were him.”

He foresees a tough time taking care of the 11 wives.
“I will talk to his brother Wilson so that we map the way forward. We want to meet his first wife who will decide if she wants to continue staying with the others. That’s their decision to make,” he says.

Monday does not want to inherit any of the wives, the two he has are enough. If anything, he wishes he only had one, women are a problem, he says.

“No sane woman will wait 40 years. For example, if you go to Chinhoyi for three months, you will come back and find your wife pregnant by another man. Imagine 40 years?”

Brothers and broilers
Another cousin, a former soldier, lives a stone’s throw away from Robert Gumbura’s homestead. He remembers his relative as a humble man.

“The sentence is outrageous, it was moved by emotions,” he fumes.
Robert Gumbura’s nephew, Robson Mtandwa Mutambudze (38), adds that he is at a loss for words.
“I wish they gave him seven years with hard labour. This will teach him the importance of wisdom,” he said.

Following the sentence, some orphans whose school fees were being paid by Robert Gumbura dropped out.
Some “sisters” from the church sought employment at nearby shops.

But, staunch followers like Oslee Zenda of Chirumanzu will not desert him. Zenda is one of many followers (brothers).
Unbeknown to them, the community has christened them “broilers” because they are well taken care of and depend almost entirely on Robert Gumbura for their livelihood.

RGM End Time Message has many similarities with that of Warren Jeffs, the leader of an extremist Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FDLS).

Jeffs church also called its followers “brothers” and “sisters” and allowed polygamy. He had 80 wives and married all but two of his father’s wives.

At the Gumbura homestead, some of the “brothers” are married men who left their homes to serve the church and work at the gold mill.
They could spend up to three years without seeing their families, as Robert Gumbura would visit their homes and see to their dependants’ needs.

“Sisters” would cook, wash clothes and provide other “services” for the brothers.
Today, Zenda stays at Gumbura’s homestead with only two other “brothers” as the others have left.
The homestead belonged to the pastor’s parents and is littered with buildings, most of them incomplete.

One big partially built house seems to have frozen in time. Construction stopped at window level with frames and glass panels already fitted. Other incomplete structures are losing the battle to nature and are covered in long grass.

There is a Blair toilet, the only one we see in the area.

A diamond
Zenda believes his “saviour” is being tested by God and will come out stronger, like a diamond.
While shaken by the sentence, Zenda, whose sister Chipo is married to Gumbura, said before the arrest, many strange things happened in their church. He believes they were messages from God.

What hurts him most is that his leader was arrested before he could fulfil his dream of siring 100 children.
“If not arrested, he was going to be a great man. The arrest has made me realise that our shepherd is ready to go anywhere for what he believes. He was arrested for polygamy, not rape. He has given me courage. I want to surpass the number of his wives and children,” says Zenda.

“He has been taking care of many orphans. He also took care of our family in 2002 by providing (food). He has been funding my education since I was young and had promised to pay for my course as a lab technician. Will the courts take care of us now that he has been arrested?”

To him, history is just repeating itself.
“The biblical Paul ran a church from prison and our pastor will run ours from there. What he told us before he was arrested will guide us,” he adds.

Zenda says Gumbura would have brought development to the area.
“Most villagers here are like rabbits, they do not have money. Pastor Gumbura wanted to develop this area and most were jealous,” he lashes out.

Zenda says whoever intended to date or marry any woman from the church needed Pastor Gumbura’s blessing before making any move, and he would do the same when his time comes, even if he is still in prison.

“Sister” Audrey Ganji will not join another church, choosing to wait for Gumbura’s release. She will be 58 by then.
“We no longer have a shepherd. I am deeply hurt by the sentence. I do not believe that he raped,” she says.

As life goes on for the Makonde villagers, they just hope that one day Gumbura will return to the innocence of his childhood.
They also hope the women he raped will forgive him, but he has to apologise first.

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