Three-Way Mwazha Split Triggers Logistical Chaos As Heated Factional Arguments Precede Fatal Chivhu Crash That Claimed 27 Lives.
A bitter, three-way power struggle tearing through the African Apostolic Church breakaway movement reached a boiling point when furious arguments between rival leaders sparked frantic logistical chaos, directly preceding a horrific highway inferno that claimed 27 lives near Chivhu.
The root cause of the tragedy traces back to an administrative civil war that erupted following the passing of the church’s centenarian founder, Archbishop Ernest Paul Mwazha, at age 107. Although the patriarch explicitly appointed his youngest son, Tawanda Israel Mwazha, as his canonical successor, three elder sons—Alfred Kushamisa, James, and Ngonidzashe Edward Mwazha—launched a fierce bid to seize the throne. That initial rebellion recently imploded into three hostile factions after Board of Trustees Chairman Elsom Tafa and the founder’s daughter, Loveness Mwazha, threatened a total executive purge against Ngonidzashe’s camp.
In the hours leading up to the disaster, heated altercations and fierce shouting matches broke out among faction executives attempting to control sacred gathering grounds at the Guvambwa and Ndarikure Shrines. As tempers flared and conflicting directives were issued, local leaders engaged in screaming matches over attendance numbers, authority, and protocol. The intense friction created total panic on the ground, forcing organizers into a desperate scramble to arrange rushed, uncoordinated transport to bolster member numbers at the Chirumanzi assembly and assert dominance over rival groups.
That frantic, argument-fueled rush ended in absolute devastation along the Harare-Masvingo Highway. A commuter omnibus packed with congregants traveling from Dema collided head-on with a haulage truck, triggering a violent inferno that trapped passengers inside. The crash killed 27 people and prompted President Emmerson Mnangagwa to declare a State of Disaster.
Grief-stricken congregants are pointing directly to the bitter infighting as the catalyst for the carnage, demanding a complete ban on dissident factions accessing sacred shrines to restore canonical leadership under Archbishop Tawanda Israel Mwazha.
