HARARE – Prominent Harare preacher and gospel author Bishop Berry Dambaza died on Monday after falling to his death from a fourth-floor car park.
Police were called after a man was seen dropping four floors to his death at Rezende Mall in central Harare.
The man was identified at the scene as Dambaza, a senior pastor with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe (PAOZ) Upper Room Ministries which is housed in the same building.
Police have launched an investigation, amid claims that Dambaza may have committed suicide.
Witnesses told ZimLive that police had recovered a phone on Dambaza’s body which might hold clues over his mental state in the hours leading up to his death.
Police spokesman Paul Nyathi could not be reached.
On his personal website, Dambaza is described as a “dynamic power-packed preacher of the gospel… divinely endowed with a unique and powerful gift of ministering the word of God that captivates listeners’ attention.”
He graduated from the Pentecostal Bible College (now known as Pan African Christian College) with a ministerial diploma and later obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible Theology in 2005.
He published two books, ‘How To Become a Vessel That God Can Use’ and ‘How To Receive And Release The Anointing.’
He joined Upper Room Ministries in 1996 from Rivers of Life Ministries in Harare where he was a pastor.
He worked as a pastor at the church’s branches in Marondera and Kambuzuma in Harare before his promotion to be a senior pastor at the main church.
He was married to wife, Sithembeni, and they had two sons and two daughters.
