Stop 'buying' people with your money, prophet Magaya told

HARARE - Crowd-pulling preacher Walter Magaya has decided to give bereaved families $1 000 each ostensibly to help FINANCE the funerals of their dead.

On the face of it, this is good gesture, but a closer look shows it is an attempt to hoodwink the public into silence when they should be asking questions and demanding answers.

It is obvious the bereaved families are more than capable of burying their dead; families and communities in Zimbabwe have never failed to come to each other's aid in such circumstances.

In fact, it is one of the greatest hallmarks of indigenous Zimbabwean communities to come together in times of bereavement.

People should begin to question the contradictions in today's church, particularly regarding the new churches which claim legitimacy through so-called prophetic healing.

Many biblical verses will be pulled out to explain why Magaya failed to foresee the tragedy that befell his congregation in Kwekwe and the gullible will be convinced.

But for those who wish that such tragedies do not recur, Magaya must be taken to task about this calamity.

It didn't really require prophecy to see how dangerous the situation in the stadium could become. Magaya, for the sake of scoring a few points about him being the greatest of them all, was prepared to pack the ground with three times its capacity without the slightest regard to the safety of worshippers.

To show that his intention was more about himself than the conversion or healing of the poor souls, an attempt was made to make a head count of the attendees according to weekend reports.

It was apparently his concern for figures that necessitated the closure of extra exits so that like sheep the congregants would file out and get counted.
Not only does this show a desperate lack of common sense, but it also defies logic that he was prepared to do this when he knew that the facility was never meant to accommodate such huge numbers.

The police too were complicit in the events that followed. They shouldn't have allowed the event to go ahead in the small stadium in the first place. What has happened to the police's ability to anticipate danger and advise accordingly?

Magaya may have taken a leaf from Nigerian preacher Temitope Balogun Joshua, better known as TB Joshua, who also dished out money to families of the deceased when a poorly constructed hostel collapsed, killing more than a hundred people. Magaya claims the Nigerian is his spiritual father.

It is known that in prosperity gospel churches, money is everything; hence there is loud talk of miracle money etc. But for these preachers to think that money will replace those whose death they have caused through sheer negligence is nothing short of criminal.

Going forward, the police should reclaim their authority and be able to stop events that have the potential to end in disaster.

It is known that some of these church leaders have the capacity to bribe police officers into allowing them to continue with such gatherings, but someone somewhere should have the final say.