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- "Prophet" Ishmael Chokurongerwa and some of his congregants appeared in court on Thursday.
- Police found more than 200 children living on a farm run by Chokurongerwa.
- They said the children did not go to school but were instead being "subjected to abuse as cheap labour".
The leader of an apostolic sect in Zimbabwe was charged with exploiting minors on Thursday after police said hundreds of children were abused at his church's farm.
"Self-styled prophet" Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, was arrested on Tuesday alongside seven congregants "for criminal activities which include abuse of minors", authorities said.
The eight appeared before a magistrate's court southwest of Harare on Thursday.
They were all charged with violating children's rights and contravening burial and cremation laws.
Police said that 251 minors were found living on a farm run by Chokurongerwa outside Harare during a raid carried out earlier this week.
The children "were being used to perform various physical activities for the benefit of the sect's leadership," police said.
They did not go to school but were instead being "taught life skills" and "subjected to abuse as cheap labour".
Only five out of 251 had birth certificates.
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Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi told AFP that church members were also denied access to medicine and healthcare.
Investigators found 16 graves at Chokurongerwa's shrine. Nine held the bodies of adults and seven infants.
The burials took place without prior registration with the state office or permission.
According to a former church member interviewed by a local radio station this week, Chokurongerwa was keeping hundreds of families at his farm which was blocked from the outside world.
The woman said the shrine was named Canaan and sect members believed that the world was coming to an end.
Chokurongerwa was previously sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 for leading his followers to attack police and journalists.
The development comes at a time apostolic sects in the southern African country are under scrutiny over child marriages and their other practices which deprive children of their constitutional rights.
The case has been postponed to March 19 for a bail hearing. All the accused have been remanded into custody.
