Forget about Tsvangirai as Zimbabwe turns to 'prophets'

FORGET Morgan Tsvangirai: a self-styled "prophet" who can make money miraculously appear in your pocket is Zimbabweans' new hope for change.

Frustrated with growing corruption in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the 13-year old opposition to President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, Zimbabweans are turning to a crop of glitzy, Mercedes-driving "prophets" who promise their followers wealth, health and a better life.

Uebert Angel, 34, set the country talking last week when hundreds of his congregants reportedly "found" extra cash in their purses and pockets during a prayer session.

Angel is alleged to have performed the same feat days earlier in Botswana. Testimony from a woman who shouted, "I only had 10 (pula, about 80p) in my pocket and now it's 650" has been widely publicised inside Zimbabwe.

Married to "Prophetess Beverley", Angel says he was broke in Manchester, where he lived until 2011. Now he claims he can instruct cash machines to give him free moneyand says he only has to pray to see his bank account credited with huge sums of money.

Zimbabweans cannot get enough of him or rival prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa, last year voted the country's most influential young person.

"Makandiwa is the biggest people magnet in Zimbabwe," says Itai Zimunya, of Osisa, a regional think-tank. "In terms of the crowds he pulls, he beats even the most popular footballer in Zimbabwe, and Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe."

Disillusionment is high four years into Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, formed after election violence in 2008.

Though the adoption of the US dollar brought relief from hyperinflation, water and power cuts persist and the cost of living is high.

Tourism minister Walter Mzembi said last week that prices in Zimbabwe were eight times higher than in neighbouring South Africa.

Little wonder then that Makandiwa's new year prediction that Zimbabweans would soon be "picking up gold without any drilling" was met with joy. The independent Newsday said yesterday gold grains were being picked up by villagers outside their homes in Mount Darwin, central Mashonaland.

"The failure of the state to do what it is supposed to do has left many people doubting and vulnerable," said Zimunya. "They want to use these spiritual quick-fixes."

He insists that Zimbabweans remain "deeply entrenched in their political persuasions" but concedes that the MDC has lost appeal.

Tsvangirai's multiple affairs ahead of a traditional wedding ceremony (to the daughter of a Zanu-PF official) in September dented his party's popularity, as has the corruption of MDC councillors.

"One would want to question whether [the MDC] is beginning to suffer from the Zanu-PF disease of … making the state benefit their families and their clan," Zimunya told The Scotsman.

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