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Pastor Blessing Chiza

Opinion Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
Bulawayo-based Pastor Chiza’s prediction that the Zimbabwe soccer team, the Warriors, would win three-nil against Libya caused quite a bit of hullabaloo after the national squad lost through a penalty shoot-out in Bloemfontein, South Africa, recently.Some punters might have probably backed the Warriors on the basis of the man of God’s so-called prophecy. The pastor was apologetic after he was proved to have been wrong in his spiritually inspired prediction.

Pastor Chiza was neither the first man of the Book to give what some people regarded as prophetic results of a sports events, nor is he the last.
So-called prognostications have been made before. Many punters interested in the South African horse race, the July Handicap, seek supernatural guidance from either Pentecostal men of the cloth or from some traditional practitioners in charms and herbs.

Some of these traditional medicine people are said to see the future by means of casting bones (hakata, amathambo). In 1953, a pastor of a Zionist sect based in Johannesburg’s Alexandra Township told some punters that a horse named Mercury whose slot number was seven (7) would win that year’s July Handicap.

The punters placed large bets on that horse. There were 13 horses in that particular race, and Mercury came 13th. Asked to explain, the Zionist prophet said: “The horse was the first from behind”. His church was later deserted by all except his four wives and about 20 children. He became a big joke in every bus.

That old Alexandra Township story apart, we need to look at predictions (so called prophesying) in connection with various types of sports. One can correctly predict that athlete suppositiously called Tjingwili will win a 100-metre track race against, say Samson because he runs that distance in nine seconds compared to Samson’s time of 10 seconds.

In a field event such as long jump, we can very safely predict that athlete Shadreck will beat athlete Nkhwakwa because he (Shadreck) jumps a length of eight metres compared to Nkhwakwa’s seven metres. Linear distance is involved here.

However, in soccer, we cannot be that certain because there are several factors to consider. First, we should very seriously consider whether or not the referee will be fair, the second factor is whether or not there will be opportunities such as free kicks or penalties for the contending teams; the third factor is the prevailing environment, the attitude, the temperature and the general attitude of the majority of the spectators; and the fourth is how motivated is each team.

These four factors can be explained in much greater detail in a much longer article than one of this type.
Meanwhile, we can easily see that what our media generally call prophesying is mere wishful thinking.

Pastor Chiza was thinking not only wishfully but also loudly. As a pastor, his duty is to talk to God through prayer, and leave it to the Almighty to grant or not to grant his wish. For anyone to claim to know what tomorrow’s rugby or cricket or soccer results will be is to claim powers that human beings do not have.

If we had such powers, this world could have avoided all the numerous deadly wars it has experienced. So, it is utterly nonsensical for anyone to claim to have powers to see what will occur in the future. The exception to this, to some extent, is in the science of weather forecasting. To understand why that is so, we would require an article or two on how meteorologists collect and interpret data about our world locally, regionally and globally.

Centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, some kings and queens who ruled some of the nations of Asia Minor and Egypt consulted oracles, that is to say prophets or prophetesses. One such oracle was Ammon at a locality in what is now Libya.

The historic Macedonian leader, Alexander the Great, visited that oracle (Ammon). However, historical records do not say what he was told. He died a few years later (333 BC) at what was later called Alexandria North of Cairo. Although we do not know for sure what Alexander was told by the oracle, it is a historical fact that those who consulted oracles were usually given obscure or ambiguous responses.

Watching the game between Libya and Zimbabwe, I got the impression that Zimbabwe was a better team, and that it was unfairly treated by the referee who denied it a magnificent goal by Simba Sithole, arbitrarily saying it was an off-side.

That apart, Zimbabwe’s choice of players to shoot penalties did not show much wisdom when it came to the selection of Moyo who had on several occasions skied his shots over the Libya goal post. He had done the same during the match against Mali.

My opinion is that the Warriors did not adequately practice penalty shooting.
In any case, Pastor Chiza’s reference to juju surprised me and, I believe, not a few other modern-minded people who do not think that juju has any role in today’s sporting skills.

Juju has no more role in today’s sports than so-called prophesying has in modern pastors’ intercession with God.

 Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a Bulawayo-based retired journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or through [email protected]