By Staff Reporter- Controversial preacher and leader of Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD), Prophet Walter Magaya, has made an out-of-court settlement with a Bulawayo family he defrauded.
Charles Chapindura and his wife had sued Magaya, demanding US$4 100 for failing to fulfil a promise to build a house for them under a botched housing project in Douglasdale, Bulawayo.
The lawsuit was filed under case number WCSCC 324/24.
The family accused the prophet of failing to provide the promised housing stand, and he was scheduled to appear at Western Commonage Court this week, but he, however, convinced the Chapindura family for an out-of-court settlement, sparing himself from embarrassment.
“The first party (Magaya) shall settle the above amount by paying an initial deposit of US$500-00 on or before the 31st of May 2024 and subsequent instalments of US$200-00 starting on or before the 30th of June 2024, up until the full amount is extinguished,” read the settlement deed.
The family, in turn, agreed to withdraw the summons filed at Western Commonage Small Claims Court.
The out-of-court deed of the settlement stated that Mr Chapindura was among a group of congregants that had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prophet Magaya for the Douglasdale housing project in 2016.
The document acknowledged that the Chapindura family had contributed an amount of US$4 100 and that they were withdrawing from the housing project. The parties agreed that the MoU be cancelled and that the money be restituted.
This is not the first time that Prophet Magaya has been involved in land and housing disputes.
In 2016 he was sued after admitting to unlawfully encroaching onto a neighbour’s property popularly known as “Rocks Lodge” next to PHD’s Waterfalls chapel in Harare without the consent of the legitimate owners.
The church offered to purchase the land to avoid eviction from part of Number 8 Prospect in Waterfalls.
The admission was made in a bid to seek an out-of-court settlement and to avoid eviction from the stand where PHD Ministries was carrying out construction work.
In the same year, his PHD Ministries was sued at the High Court for “invading” and encroaching onto the property owned by Panabase Consultancy (Private) Limited at Number 8 Prospect in Waterfalls.
This followed an unsuccessful attempt by PHD Ministries to purchase the two-hectare property for $235 000, a price that was turned down by Panabase as too little.
According to reports, despite a disagreement over the price, PHD “invaded” the property and allegedly destroyed some structures they had found on the land.
Panabase, through its director and Harare lawyer, Mr Shingai Mutumbwa, viewed PHD’s actions as unlawful and a way of arm-twisting the company into selling the property at an unreasonably low price.
Panabase filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking the eviction of the church, Prophet Magaya, his employees and their guests from the property.
Again in 2019, Prophet Magaya was sucked into a US$900 000 land scandal after buying Kalulu Farm in Goromonzi, which had not been distributed by a deceased estate.
This was exposed in a letter dated June 7, 2019, written by Samukange Hungwe Attorneys on behalf of Nicholas Obert Mukomberanwa to the PHD leader.
The Mukomberanwa family through its lawyers sought to cancel the transaction and recover the farm.
The property was then fully paid for by the prophet after which he received a Deed of Transfer Number 2402/18.
-State media