* Highlights that he is very concerned that the General Administration Committee (GCA) is dismissing CCAP ministers over petty matters bordering on personal differences
* “How many ministers are we going to fire if this trend continues?” asks Rev. Chimesya, emphasising that dismissals are not the solution but through divine intervention, matters can be solved to pay the way forward
By Duncan Mlanjira
Retired Rev. Stanley Chimesya has rebuked the administration style of the Blantyre Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) following its unilateral and excessively ungodly dismissals of its church ministers.
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Rev. Chimesya, who is former Blantyre Synod Prison Chaplain for many years in which he worked with Malawi Prison Service in collaboration with US govenment on issues of prison ministry and initiated a lot of projects in prisons in Malawi, maintains that he is “retired but not expired”.
In a WhatsApp voice note he sent to the Blantyre Synod management, which Maravi Express is in possession with, Rev. Chimesya highlights that he is “very concerned” that the General Administration Committee (GCA) is dismissing CCAP ministers over petty matters bordering on personal differences.
“How many ministers are we going to fire if this trend continues?” asks Rev. Chimesya, emphasising that dismissals are not the solution but through divine intervention, matters can be solved to pay the way forward.
He pleads for love amongst the CCAP leadership, saying everyone has their own weaknesses but as Jesus preached; ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone’ (John 8:7), the duty of the Church is not to send sinners away but to guide them into the path of righteousness.
“The Church should forgive; the Church is a house full of sinners — you don’t dismiss them but pray with them and offer the religious guidance for them to remain on the path of righteousness,” says Rev. Simwaka.
He preached to the fired ministers, Rev. Duncan Kananji and Rev. Wilson Kazembe, saying they need to remain steadfast since theirs was a calling from God and thus they should seek His guidance in their “troubling times” with the Blantyre Synod management.
At the centre of all this is a controversy involving Blantyre Synod’s Presbytery in South Africa with General Secretary Rev Anderson-Juma at the centre of it — including a civil court injunction that came about Rev. Kananji was dismissed.
Rev. Anderson Juma
When contacted, Rev. Kananji explained that Blantyre Synod facilitated for him to travel to South Africa in 2022 to pursue his PhD at the University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape.
When Rev. Juma was elected as general secretary (GS) in August 2023 Synod elections, he requested that Kananji and his wife, also a ministers, should serve the CCAP’s congregations in Cape Town while studying.
“I refused to sign the contract, telling him that it would affect my study time frame, but after weeks of insistence, my wife and I accepted,” says Rev. Kananji. “I was also instructed to help establish the Presbytery in South Africa.
“In the course of my ministry and that of other ministers in South Africa, we discovered anomalies — that some Synod leaders had been taking Christians’ money for personal use without church procedures.”
Rev. Kananji and his wife, who helped establish the SA Presbytery
He added that the church leaders speeded up the process of establishing the Presbytery, “but this met resistance” from the GS Juma, who used two ordinands (unordained ministers) to frustrate the plans.
The two ordinands were posted in Malawi for probation until ordination “but the GS sent them to Johannesburg, where there was no ordained minister to supervise them”.
When the ministers in South Africa highlighted the anomaly, indicating that the distance between Cape Town to Johannesburg was too far for the two to be supervised by an ordained minister, the GS’ office refused, but later commissioned Rev. Feston Chilumpha instead, who was already in Johannesburg.
Kananji reveals that the ministers in South Africa kept highlighting the anomalies to Synod through writing and recordings “but to no avail”.
“At one time, when the GS was sending Rev. Matola from Domasi to supervise an ordinand, the ministers wrote the Synod that this is unconstitutional and unprofessional.
“We insisted that there is a minister who can ably supervise the two. We requested an audience with the management, which was accepted except the GS.
“Rev. Kazembe and I travelled to Malawi, but we were surprised to hear that the GS quickly processed air tickets for Rev. Matola.
“The Presbytery in South Africa agreed to take an injunction, as temporary relief paving the way for discussion. The Presbytery was forced to lift the injunction so that Rev. Matola could proceed with his trip, but without addressing our genuine complaints.”
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A process to dismiss Rev. Kananji then went ahead yet “the decision to take an injunction was made by the whole presbytery of South Africa, but I was the only one taken for disciplinary action and later dismissed in January 2026.
“Later, I learnt that the main reason was that I was among the ministers who signed a letter stopping the GS from taking K50 million from a French donor who wanted to put solar power at HHI Secondary School hostels in 2024 for his own private school in Mangochi.
“At one time, the GS instructed an elder from South Africa to mobilise members to chase me from the church or hire gangsters to assault me,” says Kananji, who indicates that the elder recorded the instructions, which he forwarded to Kananji.
He further forwarded the recording to the Synod leadership, “but was not helped. After dismissal in January, I took the matter to the industrial court through my lawyer.
“But the Synod lawyer begged the court that, being a church matter, there is another court within the church which was not exhausted, and the Industrial Court advised me to do so and that if I am not assisted, I can go back.
“Unfortunately, the GS and his friends continue to say that I lost the case, which is not true.”
Despite the solidarity intervention by Kananji’s colleagues — the Rev. Kingsley Maulana (Clerk of Mangochi Presbytery), Rev. Enos Muhiwa (Malosa CCAP in Domasi Presbytery), and Rev. Gracious Meki of the then St. Michael & All Angels in Blantyre, now minister of St. Luke CCAP in Chiuta Presbytery in Machinga — appealing the judgment to the CCAP General Assembly on his behalf, the case is yet to be judged, which is meeting in Harare from July 27-31, 2026.
This General Assembly comprises Blantyre Synod, Nkhoma Synod, Livingstonia Synod, Harare Synod and Zambia Synod.
Rev. Duncan Kananji
Our source, who declined to be mentioned, indicated that after dismissing Kananji, GS Juma is then alleged to have turned his attention on Rev. Wilson Kazembe in his divisive administration by terminating his contract in South Africa.
“When Kazembe asked for transport back home at a cost of K6 million, the Synod delayed it up to March this year, says the source. “Then the GS bought air tickets for Rev. Kazembe, his wife, and his two children without informing him, and just sent the tickets through WhatsApp.”
Our source further says Kazembe alerted the Synod that he risked being arrested if he proceeded to the airport with their overstayed passports, which the Malawi High Commissioner to South Africa, Stella Ndau corroborated.
“The GS cancelled the air tickets and got part of the money from the travel agents, which he to buy bus tickets in April — again without consulting Rev. Kazembe on the dates, so that his wife can resign at her workplace and get transfers for his kids.
“At the same time, the GS never sent funds for his luggage and money for travel documents as they overstayed. Instead, the Synod negotiated with his congregation to provide for those funds.”
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The source revealed that the congregation agreed but told the GS to give them time to collect the required funds — “but the GS wrote a letter through the disciplinary committee summoning Kazembe for a hearing”.
“Through his lawyer, Kazembe wrote the Synod that Kazembe is willing to attend the hearing, but it was difficult for him to travel to the hearing because of a lack of funds.
“The lawyer requested the Synod to give Kazembe enough transport, as requested before, for him and his family to travel but the GS and the Synod never responded.
“Instead, the GS took the matter to the Synod General Administration Committee (SGA) for his dismissal on 17th July, 2026. He misinformed SGC that the Synod spent K16 million for Kazembe’s travel, yet he never came home.
“The question is, how can Synod spend K16 million, yet Rev. Kazembe only asked for K6 million for himself and his family, which was never provided?” asked our reverend source.
“Furthermore, he hired an elder from Johannesburg, who has come through government repatriation, to stand before the meeting and talk badly about Rev. Kazembe so that everyone would be convinced to dismiss Kazembe from the ministry.
“Apart from that, eight congregations and 13 prayer houses in South Africa have been disassociated from Blantyre Synod, citing lack of policy compliance, without mentioning which policies were violated.
“Seven congregations that are contributing a R10,000 monthly allowance and a box of groceries to the GS are the only ones that were announced to be complying with Synod policies.”
From all this, it has been summed up by Rev. Chimesya that the dismissal of Rev. Kananji and Rev. Kazembe “are purely personal differences and hatred” with GS Juma using church platforms to achieve it.
The CCAP’s mission work, which was started in the 1990s by Malawian migrant workers in South Africa, is being threatened through the Synod’s management style of disassociating itself from some of the congregations.
In February, this 21st Presbytery of the CCAP issued a petition to the Blantyre Synod to intervene over Rev. Juma’s unilateral and divisive administrative decisions
The 14 petitioners across all parishes indicated that they had been submitting several letters to Blantyre Synod “regarding serious concerns, yet received no response or remedial action”.
Some church leaders also filed a notice of appeal against the General Administration Committee’s decision on the laicisation of Rev. Kananji on February 9, 2026 “to expedite the process of appeal and accord a fair hearing”.
