Harare (New Ziana)-United Family International Church (UFIC) founder and leader Emmanuel Makandiwa on Sunday made a dramatic turn when he encouraged his followers to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

In a previous sermon, Makandiwa discouraged his followers from getting the Covid-19 vaccine saying
vaccinations were a mark of the beast.

But in is sermon delivered online early Sunday, Makandiwa said getting the Covid-19 -19 jabs was the way out of the pandemic.

“Quickly receive it and it is good for you. It doesn’t really matter what I say, eventually you are going to die either vaccinated or not. You are not going to live forever,” Makandiwa said.

He dismissed claims that the vaccine was ‘a mark of the beast’ as had been earlier claimed adding “time is coming that you won’t be able to do anything if you are not vaccinated so it’s better to be vaccinated now”.

“It’s going to hurt you not receiving this thing and don’t blame your local leaders because it’s coming from above, it’s being dictated”

“When the vaccine comes and it’s accompanied by the mark of the beast I will let you know. This is not the mark of the beast.  There is no chip; there is no mark in the vaccine. It gets into your body, after a while it goes what remains is the immunity” said Makandiwa.

As of Saturday, at least 1 438 890 Zimbabweans had received their first Covid-19 dose while 677 774 had got their second jab.

Government launched the country’s Covid-19 vaccination program early this year in a bid to boost its fight against the pandemic.

As of 24 July 2021, Zimbabwe had recorded 97 277 cases and 3 050 Covid-19 deaths.

New Ziana