Prophet Makandiwa builds a hotel

United Family International Church (UFIC) founder Emmanuel Makandiwa is reportedly venturing into the hospitality industry with revelations that he is a building a boutique hotel in Harare's plush Kambanji area.

The project is apparently being handled by a South African company, Cape Island Construction (CIC), based in the Western Cape province.

While denying the existence of a hotel project, UFIC spokesperson Prime Kufa said people could be confusing "the Man of God" and the church's construction company.

"There is no way the man of God can do such a thing without my knowledge, unless the people you are talking about have hired our construction company. We have a construction company building our church in Chitungwiza and that is as far as I know, but they can also be hired out by other people to work on their projects," Kufa said.

Kufa said there were many co-operatives within the UFIC that sometimes use church leaders as fronts in their businesses.

"I must say we do not have much control over such compa¬nies because these are profes¬sional companies that can choose a pastor to be a director just to sanitise things," Kufa added.

Although details of the hotel were still sketchy, investigations by the Zimbabwe Mail revealed that the project was indeed Makandiwa's despite denials by Kufa.

A CIC representative in Harare, who is one of the company's managing directors, Greg Hodges, initially confirmed that Makandiwa was the man behind the boutique hotel.

"It is true we are building a boutique hotel for the prophet. If you want something like that we can talk," he said, initially thinking that this reporter was a potential client only to sing a different tune when pressed further.

"I do not know the prophet you are talking about. We are working for Elias Wenga, the owner of Eleagnus Investments," Hodges said.

Asked on who owned the company and the kind of project under construction, Hodges pro¬fessed ignorance.

"We are constructing a build¬ing. That is all it is - a building. I do not have Elias's contacts. You have to talk to him, but I do not have his number on me. Call me after two hours," Hodges said before hanging up his phone.

Makandiwa has bought his own concrete mixer for the project after initially using a local firm, Premix's equipment.

An official at Premix told The Zimbabwe Mail that nine massive pillars for the project believed to be between two and three storeys were made at a cost of $45 000 each.

"They are massive pillars and cannot be for anything less than a two-storey building. He paid for them, but has since stopped doing business with us because he wants to limit the number of people getting into the site," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Premix managing director, only identified as Gosho, declined to comment, but not before confirming the said project owners had resorted to their own concrete mixer.

On site, work is going on with massive earthmoving equipment constructing a road going up the hill on which the hotel is situated. A security wall that was put up about a month ago has since been knocked down and in its place a sparkling fence is coming up.

Tourism minister Walter Mzembi was not available for comment, but a director at the ministry confirmed having heard discussion around the project. Mzembi has in the past called for construction of hotels to cater for "religious tourists".