Showdown over Johane Masowe’s exhumation

ROWDY, armed youths have mounted a vigil at the entrance of the Gospel of God Church International (1932) headquarters in Gandanzara, barring visitors as church leaders resist the court sanctioned exhumation of their late founder, Peter Jack Masedza – widely known as Johanne Masowe.
The exhumation was authorised after lengthy legal and administrative proceedings.
Masedza, who died in 1973, was buried at the Gandanzara shrine in Makoni District, which later became the church’s principal headquarters.
On March 25, 2026, legal representatives of Masedza’s biological sons, Magaga and Rueben, formally notified the church that the exhumation would take place on April 2, 2026.
However, when The Manica Post visited the shrine yesterday (Thursday), more than 20 visibly agitated youths armed with machetes, knobkerries, and other weapons — led by a bouncer identified as Saunyama — blocked access from a distant entry point. After demanding identification, they ordered the news crew to leave immediately.
The group then broke into warlike hymns, toyi toying, while hurling insults and threats.
A relative of the Masedza family, Mr Tawanda Kutsanzira, said: “No one came to exhume the remains. I think they received information that people were waiting for them, so they decided not to come. These youths came from various places, some from as far as Chegutu, to ensure the exhumation does not proceed.”
Registrar General, Mr Henry Tawona Machiri, declined to comment on the matter.
“I have no comment to make about the issue,” he said.
However, Masedza’s sons have long argued that they should be allowed to rebury their father at a place they can freely access.
The church, however, insists that the site was chosen by Masedza himself and has since become sacred to thousands of congregants.
A letter from Mushangwe and Company Legal Practitioners, affirmed that its clients had complied with all the necessary administrative procedures, and a burial order was secured.
“Authority was granted from the relevant authorities to exhume and rebury the remains,” stated the letter.
The firm outlined the legal basis for the process, referencing a High Court judgment under Case No. HCH1769/23, which granted the Masedza family the right to exhume their father’s remains.
The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in Case No. SCI 12/25.
The District Registrar was authorised to issue a burial order.
The Manica Post also established that the shrine’s atmosphere was tense in recent days as the exhumation date drew closer.

In a recent interview with our sister paper, The Herald, the elder brother in the Masedza family, Magaga, who had led the fight, said: “It has been years of waiting. We have heard their prayers and braved their courts for many years, but we believe our father deserves to rest where he belongs, among his people, his blood.”
In December last year, the Supreme Court brought closure to a decades-long legal dispute over the burial of Johanne Masowe, dismissing an appeal by the Gospel of God Church International, and confirming that the late church founder’s sons may pursue legal processes to exhume and rebury him.
However, the court stressed that only Government authorities, not the Judiciary, can authorise an exhumation.

Central to the case was the question of whether a site regarded as a shrine could be treated differently under exhumation laws.
The Supreme Court held that no burial place, shrine or otherwise, is exempt from the provisions of the Cemeteries Act, and that any party seeking exhumation must follow administrative procedures provided for in law.
In her judgment, Justice Susan Mavangira, said the lower court had merely recognised the sons’ right to initiate that process — it did not authorise the removal of the remains.
“The applicants have a right to seek the exhumation of the remains of the deceased. Whether they succeed in that quest is not for this court to decide, but for the appropriate administrative authorities,” she said.
The church argued that the matter had already been settled through a 2003 High Court ruling, which denied the sons access to the burial site, but the Supreme Court found that the earlier case related only to visitation and not exhumation.

It also dismissed claims that the matter had prescribed, noting that the respondents had remained engaged in related litigation over the years.
The court further observed that the exhumation process was already underway, with notices published in the Government Gazette and a local newspaper, prompting more than 50 objections.
Although this technically rendered the appeal moot, the bench decided to issue a judgment in the public interest, given the legal questions raised.
Justice Mavangira also criticised the basis of the appeal, saying the appellant “appears to be appealing against an idea, not an order,” and found no merit in the argument that a shrine was immune from statutory processes. The exhumation, if it will come to fruition, marks the culmination of a highly contested legal battle between the Masedza family and the Gospel of God Church International concerning the resting place of the late Peter Jack Masedza.

_Herald_