One such  meeting  where birth certificates were  issued  to the church members was at Gokwe Centre last week where President Mugabe’s Nephew Phillip Chiyangwa addressed and introduced officials  from the registrar general’s  office to issue the documents.

The move  by ZANU-Pf  is aimed at forcing the Apostolic sect members to vote  for  it in the next election.

President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai  of  MDC are  calling  for elections  next  year, despite the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC)unpreparedness  to  conduct a free and  fair  poll any time soon because  of resource constraints.

Chiyangwa who visited the church congregation last week introduced Birth and Registration officials to the church and
challenged all adults who had no Identity cards to get them throughout the week.

ZANU-PF has targeted Johane Marange Apostolic church because of its huge following. Since the  beginning of the  year when the party started talking  about elections its  senior officials have  been visible at  the  church’s  gatherings where  they are telling them to vote  for ZANU-PF come  election time.

Sources  said Chiyangwa also launched an ‘income generating’ loan project in which he gave every member of the church an interest free US$300 which will be returned in installments