“False prophet who became a praetorian”: Mliswa savages Prophet Angel over VP Chiwenga remarks

Former ZANU PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Temba Mliswa has slammed GoodNews Ministries founder Uebert Angel, accusing the preacher of abandoning the Gospel for politics and using the pulpit to defend powerful figures.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Mliswa took issue with comments recently made by Angel in defence of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, whom the preacher said was being subjected to unfair and abusive criticism.

Addressing his congregation at the Hippodrome, Angel described attacks on Chiwenga as “a disgraceful exhibition of political impropriety” and “a display of intellectual bankruptcy”, adding that contempt disguised as criticism was “diabolic” and evil.

However, Mliswa, who has been openly critical of Chiwenga, dismissed Angel’s intervention as politically motivated.

“There are Sundays when a man goes to church to hear the Gospel, and there are Sundays when he goes to church and finds himself, unknowingly, at a rally,” Mliswa wrote.

“Last Sunday at the Hippodrome was the latter for Christ Embassy congregants.”

The former Norton legislator questioned what he saw as a growing tendency by some church leaders to police political discourse.

“Since when did the pulpit become the place where the citizen is taught what he may not say about his own Vice President?” he asked.

Drawing from Biblical history, Mliswa argued that prophets were never expected to shield political leaders from public criticism. He cited the prophet Nathan’s confrontation with King David, Elijah’s rebuke of Ahab and John the Baptist’s criticism of King Herod as examples of religious figures speaking truth to power.

According to Mliswa, Angel’s distinction between legitimate criticism and contempt was problematic because it effectively gave someone the authority to determine what citizens could and could not say about public officials.

“That is not theology but censorship,” he charged.

Mliswa also turned his fire on Angel’s prophetic credentials, accusing him of making predictions that had failed to materialise.

He referenced a prophecy made by Angel in July in which the preacher reportedly spoke of a successor who was “walking, but dead inside” and another who would emerge after August.

“August came and went. Chiwenga is still Vice President and no successor has come,” Mliswa said.

“A prophet whose prophecy fails does not get to reinvent failure as mystery but must be ignored.”

The outspoken politician argued that Zimbabwe’s Constitution provides for only one centre of executive authority, namely President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is Head of State, Head of Government, Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces and First Secretary of ZANU PF.

He said the Vice President holds no independent mandate and serves under the authority of the President.

Mliswa accused Angel of selectively defending Chiwenga while remaining silent on what he described as attempts by members of the Vice President’s camp to undermine Mnangagwa.

“If Angel’s doctrine is to mean anything then it must apply first, and most severely, to the undermining of the President,” he wrote.

Referring to remarks made by Chiwenga at a gathering in Chinhoyi on 16 October, Mliswa claimed it was the Vice President’s allies, not ordinary citizens, who had turned succession politics into a daily national discussion while the incumbent remained in office.

He accused Angel of ignoring that reality while focusing on critics of the Vice President.

The result, Mliswa argued, was a church increasingly drawn into factional political battles.

“Every succession battle in Zimbabwe now produces its own prophets and apostles,” he said.

“Every Sunday, another prophetic voice pops from a random bush to bless one politician and curse another.”

He warned that churches risked losing their spiritual mission when they become involved in political contests.

“That is not the Gospel,” he said. “The Gospel is sin, repentance, salvation and truth that does not bend.”

Mliswa said political disputes should be resolved through party structures, Parliament and the courts rather than from church pulpits.

He suggested that Angel’s defence of Chiwenga had less to do with principle and more to do with maintaining influence within powerful circles.

“Angel’s intervention was never really about protecting Chiwenga,” he wrote.

“The General does not need a preacher in a white suit to protect him from criticism.”

Instead, Mliswa claimed, Angel’s comments were aimed at protecting “his access, relevance and proximity to power”.

Mliswa described Angel as “the false prophet who became a praetorian” and warned that churches would continue producing what he called “ecclesiastical praetorians” until they returned to preaching the Gospel rather than participating in political theatre.