{"id":116330,"date":"2026-04-08T19:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills"},"modified":"2026-04-08T23:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:38:55","slug":"chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child marriages and drug and substance abuse.<\/p>\n<p>The collaboration between traditional leaders and churches reflects a growing recognition that tackling societal problems requires both cultural and spiritual leadership, ensuring communities are guided morally and socially.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the ordination ceremony of Bishop Nyika Sangweni of the Pentecostal Apostles Church in Nyazura over the Easter holiday, Chief Godfrey Dangirwa welcomed the churches in his area, saying they help in reducing social ills within communities.<\/p>\n<p>Dangirwa said traditional leaders upheld freedom of worship, especially if it brought positive results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are losing generations because our children lack guidance from the church and elders. Witnessing the growth of the Pentecostal Apostles Church in my area brings hope as the church has many projects that help us to reduce social ills affecting our area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a country to be deemed morally correct, it needs the role of the church. Having more churches in the area means the burden is shared, thereby maximising the results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe president Obert Matsveru said the church had a role to play in assisting the government to fight social ills within communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI urge churches to unite as the church is one. If we are united, it enables us to unite the country and fight the bad within communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe country is currently seized with fighting the drug menace bedevilling society. The church has a role to play in all this, encouraging good practices and pushing for a better society through its existence and service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The newly-ordained bishop said, as a church, their duty was to complement communities\u2019 efforts in fighting social ills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt marks the beginning of good news to come. We are there to protect the citizens by giving them the correct word and by engaging in community initiatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also there to promote the social cohesion aspect of the community, to uphold our culture. We are also, as a church, implementing a programme where we empower the youth in terms of education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child marriages and drug and substance abuse. The collaboration between traditional leaders and churches reflects a growing recognition that tackling societal problems requires both cultural and spiritual leadership, ensuring communities are guided morally and socially. Speaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":116329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-116330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\"},\"wordCount\":371,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\",\"name\":\"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills - zimbabwe","description":"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills","og_description":"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills","datePublished":"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills"},"wordCount":371,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg","keywords":["Zimbabwe"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills","name":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-08T17:30:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-08T21:38:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"TRADITIONAL leaders have committed to joining hands with the church in fighting rising societal ills, including child ma ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775677706.47198.jpg","width":720,"height":720,"caption":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/chiefs-church-vow-to-fight-social-ills#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chiefs, church vow to fight social ills"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116343,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116330\/revisions\/116343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}