HARARE – Controversial preacher Apostle Talent Chiwenga was involved in a horrific road accident which killed his wife and two other people on Wednesday afternoon – just days after saying state security agents were following him.
Chiwenga, popular for his politically-charged sermons in which he rails at Zimbabwe’s rulers and corruption, was battling for life at the Makurira Memorial Clinic in Masvingo, where staff said he was in a critical condition.
The accident occurred about 50km north of Masvingo, near the Chartsworth turn-off on the road to Harare. Unconfirmed reports say the four passengers were returning from a church conference in South Africa when tragedy struck.
It is not known who was driving but police believe the driver lost control and the vehicle, a Mitsubishi Pajero, rolled several times.
Two female passengers died on the spot and a man died upon arrival in hospital.
Chiwenga was admitted at Makurira Memorial Clinic.
Last week, during a sermon, the street preacher said he was being tailed by people he believed were state security agents.
He threatened he would go to President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week and tell the Zanu PF leader to shoot him, before declaring: “To my wife, please take care of the kids.”
Chiwenga’s politically-charged sermons have drawn him a huge following, but also earned him powerful enemies.
When he prophesied the dead of two prominent political figures, the ailing Vice President Constantino Chiwenga – a former army general – accused the preacher of making “false prophesies” before warning ominously: “Let it stop today. Let him be warned.”
In last week’s sermon on a Harare street, Apostle Chiwenga said strange cars were following him, “hounding and terrorising me.”
The haunting words by Apostle Chiwenga:
“I want to go to Mnangagwa’s office and say ‘if you are looking for me to kill me, I have come, kill me. Why should you send people to follow me? I can’t live my life looking behind to see if there are no cars following me. For what? If you have issues, I have come. Let’s talk about them. If you want to kill me, I have come, kill me. Call Chiwenga, your junior, and tell him that boy has come.’
“The coming week won’t end before I go to Mnangagwa’s office. CIO can’t be going to work to follow a pastor when Itai Dzamara hasn’t been found. I don’t have problems with people, I don’t travel with weapons because I don’t have enemies, they are the ones who say I’m their enemy. I don’t hate anyone, I only speak what God instructs me to speak and I will do so without fear or any reservations.
“I will go to his office, if they say he’s not there I will sit there until he comes. I will tell him there are people who are hounding me, who are terrorising me. I shouldn’t live in fear of politicians. To those who have been sent by Mnangagwa to kill me, if you don’t kill me today, next week I will be at your boss’s office. I will tell him ‘maybe you’re failing to find me, I said let me come on my own.’
“I will tell my wife I’m going, look after the children well. I will tell him (Mnangagwa) ‘since you like blood, here’s some more blood, spill some more. Since you like killing, I have come so that you can kill me, but I’m not going to apologise for what I said because it was the truth. God is not happy with you, you must change your ways. If you don’t do that, nothing will change. This is not the way to run a country’.”
