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Hildegarde Mazvanzike The Arena —
This week Zimbabwe buries another illustrious son of the soil, a son with a rich history in the struggle for the land; a son whose Svosve people dared the Freeths, Campbells and their ilk, to remove their farms from their land as narrated to this writer by national hero David Karimanzira in 2008.

Thus Chief Justice (Retired) Godfrey Guwa Chidyausiku goes back to mother earth, to suckle yet again. But this Chidyausiku clan, what are they made of?

When the CJ was ensuring, through due process, that land was a done deal, his brother, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, was also holding fort at the United Nations Security Council. He fought a good fight that resulted in two vetoes meaning that Zimbabwe would not be put on UN Chapter VII.

Doesn’t the good book in Luke’s gospel say, “Blessed (happy, favoured by God) is the womb that gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you”?

ZveZimbabwe zvakaita. Now let’s take a sneak view of our brothers and sisters across the Limpopo River. There seems to be a land revolution of some sort about to take place — unless they want the Boers to be forever!

Since 1994, this writer has wondered whether they realised that they tread on one of the world’s richest soils, but it seemed as though talking about land was an untouchable issue even within the ruling African National Congress and other liberation movements.

The moment someone spoke about land, they were silenced or profiled.

In this piece, I look at whether the church has fared any better, because they have more people that need land than anybody else.

The role of the church in South Africa’s quest for democracy is well documented.

The likes of Anglican Archbishop (Retired) Desmond Tutu became Nobel Laureates because of the role he played in ensuring that the apartheid system was dismantled, and justice, peace and equity prevailed.

During the apartheid era, the church stood by what they believed to be Godly, interceding in the process, for people like Nelson Mandela who was incarcerated at Robben Island.

Twenty-three years of democratic rule since April 27, 1994 have also seen the church playing various roles in South Africa’s body politic.

But, is the church in South Africa alive to the foundational issues that led to the fight against apartheid rule — LAND to the people?

When we see the church in South Africa taking positions against state authorities, are they making political and/or spiritual statements?

When they act like a body divided, with disunity so apparent, what is it they are communicating since they are the nation’s moral compass?

This week, I speak with a South African cleric, Pastor Enoch Phiri who is also the overseer of Restoration Church in Protea Glen, Soweto in Johannesburg.

Pastor Phiri is an apostolic strategist and a leader with a passion to minister the Word of God in a clear, provocative and revelatory manner.

In the run-up to the 23rd anniversary of Freedom Day recently, he gave several cutting edge messages on various platforms (radio, satellite TV, social media) about the unfinished business of empowering the majority of black South Africans — land.

The writer is grateful to Pastor Phiri for granting her permission to use some of the messages she recorded and collected from other sources.

Below are Pastor Phiri’s views on the land issue:

“During the liberation struggle, there were black people who were opposed to pastors preaching against injustices of the past, apartheid, colonialism and slavery.

“It’s sad to note that there are still black people today who believe that pastors must not be involved in matters of nation building, especially in addressing the injustices of the past.

“The total size of South African land is 122 million hectares, of this, the white minority owned 80 million hectares by 1994.

“The government undertook to have 25 million hectares (30 percent) transferred to blacks by 2014, through the land reform policies.

“The problem we are currently facing in this country is due to the unfinished business of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). I feel challenged in my spirit that if the minority don’t adhere to the biblical principle of restitution, this nation will see land grabs worse than what happened in Zimbabwe. May God help this nation!

“Let me give you an insight of true freedom, which comes from Christ. As God was about to deliver the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, three key words were given to Moses: DELIVER my people and take them to a LAND to WORSHIP me.

“You cannot enjoy the benefits of your freedom if you live on land where you are a stranger and moreover, you cannot WORSHIP God freely if you don’t control your economy.

“The reason why people are fed snakes, get hypnotised to eat grass is because they are seeking ways of getting out of this chronic poverty and as pastors, we are not offering a solution to the problem.

“The role of preachers is to meet the spiritual needs of the people as well as teach them biblical principles of how to get out of poverty.

“People are not experiencing what was fought for, therefore people are bitter, but I hear everyday people saying we must forgive and forget.

“It’s impossible ladies and gentlemen to forgive and forget. But we forgive and remember, and the difference is that you remember it differently.

“In this land, in this country, the economy is in the hands of a few people. I think this is what brings bitterness among South Africans — bitterness on the entire African continent — because in Africa, we don’t own our land.

“In Africa, we don’t own our economy. In Africa, we don’t own ourselves. We are actually civilised slaves. That’s why you hear people say endure life.

“However, for God to heal this land, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, ‘If my people who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’

“Firstly, humility is needed from our white brothers to humble themselves and also realise that restitution is there in the Bible.

“Let me give you some scriptures on restitution (Exodus 22, Luke 19:8-9 and Matthew 26:52-64).

“What I am coming to ladies and gentlemen is that this land was stolen. I am speaking into the entire African continent.

“This land was stolen and when you read the Bible when God delivers the children of Israel from bondage, He said to them, ‘I am sending you into Canaan to possess the land.’

“The question for you is: was Canaan a bare land? There were people in Canaan already. So, God is not going to create new land where the perpetrators must say, ‘we have stolen the land, therefore we want to share the stolen land, and give it back to the disadvantaged people.’

“I don’t know where you live, but where I live and where I come from, I see black people every day, with hopelessness, with no vision. Some of them worked for 20 years but have no proper savings and you know why, it is because they are coming from a violent past.

“Thus I am praying for you as a black person that God gives you so much grace in this age that you may be able to own land before you die.

“You should own land before you die! Sometimes people do not understand that having $20 million in your account does not make you a millionaire. What makes you a millionaire is when you have movable and non-movable assets. Then you are a millionaire. That is why land is very critical.

“You can never say ‘let the poor say I am rich’, in the meantime, you don’t even have plans to own land as a black man. That is shameful.

“I know that some of you are now saying, ‘Pastor Phiri, you are now preaching politics!’ I say no, I am not preaching politics. I preach what God drops into my spirit.

“Even the issues of xenophobia are too deep. It’s not about certain South Africans hating foreigners. No! It is South Africans who are crowded up in one place and they are fighting for survival.

“That is what is happening – fighting for survival. It’s survival of the fittest and at the end of the day, questions are asked. So, we all have to come to a solution at the end of the day.

“Now we need to answer a big question: who owns the land? That is the question we need to answer. Some of you will say we must pray for these things! Yes I am praying, but I am standing against xenophobia, and I am also standing against Afro-phobia, because there is a difference between xenophobia and Afro-phobia.

“Xenophobia is when we fight other nationals including whites, Chinese, Pakistanis, etc. Afro-phobia is when it is black-on-black. That’s Afro-phobia, and the media just gets excited to report of things of that nature, without getting to the bottom of the question of land, the question of restitution, the question of our Caucasian brothers and sisters who have benefitted from the legislation on land. That’s the question we must answer.

“When that question is answered, then we shall pray for healing, successfully. “As we pray for healing my brothers and sisters, we cannot pray for healing effectively if one section of the people is impoverished, and the other section says we will also pray for you.

“You are poor in one corner, and we are rich this side, and we shall pray for you that God heals our land.

“What is required is equal redistribution of wealth, then we shall pray, because African people are prayerful people . . . I am believing God to raise men and women in these end times, who are going to own land — men and women who are going to leave wealth for their children’s children, for most black people have inherited only poverty from their fathers.

“Many of us have inherited only curses and poverty, that’s why, if you are to teach in churches about breaking generational curses, people come in droves, because they believe that the reason they are impoverished is because of generational curses.

“No, ladies and gentlemen. It is because of the political inequality, and this is what we need to solve, in order for us to pray for the nation to be properly healed. “The Bible also speaks about restitution, forgiveness and reconciliation. We need to reconcile with one another as a nation. Black and white people must be reconciled.”