Several women have stepped forward to say they too have been sexually abused by Prophet Magaya. Charity Dlodlo and Sarah Maruta are th...
Several women have stepped forward to say they too have been
sexually abused by Prophet Magaya.
Charity Dlodlo and Sarah Maruta are the latest to reveal
the abuse. “I am coming out not because I have any scores to settle
with Magaya, nor that I want his money but because I want justice to be done. I
am doing this for the girl child, many of whom were sexually abused at the
church and who might not be strong enough to stand up to him,” said Charity
Dlodlo on Wednesday.
She travelled from Malawi, where she is currently based as
a swimming coach, to file charges against the prophet.
“This is not the first time that I have been raising these
allegations but previously no one would listen to me. The police were
compromised and so were most of the journalists, but I am hoping that the
opening up by the Maenzanises will go some way in bringing closure to the many
sexual allegations against Magaya,” she told the Sunday Mail.
Dlodlo, who gained fame on Studio 263 as Mai Madziva, said
she joined PHD Ministries on August 2. She was pampered by Magaya with gifts
and money.
“Then the day Prophet Magaya went to Israel, Sarah Maruta,
whom I had become close to during the acting lessons, phoned to say she wanted
to talk to me. We met in town and after some lunch, when I was about to say my
goodbyes, she opened up. She told me she had been raped by Prophet Magaya.”
“Earlier on, the prophet had told me to appraise him if any
girl had opened up to me about any problems, whatever problem. So when the
prophet came from Israel, I approached him with Sarah’s allegations, which he
flatly denied and asked me to keep him in the loop of what Sarah was saying to
me.
But when she was asked to steal Maruta’s cellphone, that is
when she realised she was playing for the wrong team.
Then her moment came. She was asked to come to the Prospect
offices where she knelt before the prophet, as per church tradition. When the
man of cloth rose from his chair, she assumed he was coming to pray for her,
possibly with his hand placed on her head.
But instead, he kissed her and touched her breasts. In response, Dlodlo cried out loud, possibly
attracting the attention of those who were nearby.
But Maruta was not as lucky as Charity, as she claims she
was raped at a house in Borrowdale (address withheld), not once, but twice. The
second rape incident resulted in her getting pregnant.
The pregnancy, she further alleges, was forcibly terminated
at one of the biggest hospitals in Harare, again at the instigation of the
prophet.
“Mai Chibhero (name changed) is at the centre of most of
the sexual abuses happening at PHD, she acts more like a pimp for the prophet,
and she is the one who accompanied me to hospital and made sure my pregnancy
was terminated. She also accompanied me to a shopping trip to South Africa, a
trip which I strongly believe was arranged to kill me.
And then the hush money started pouring in, with Mai
Chibhero, Admire Mango and a prominent Harare lawyer involved in the
negotiations for the settlement.
After a letter of demand was written to Prophet Magaya, the
prophet agreed to settle out-of-court so that Maruta would not press any
charges against him.
The money that was advanced to Maruta comes close to $100
000. “This money was paid at different stages and times, some of it in hard
currency, some through bank transfers from his church account into my personal
account and some of it as RTGS dollars.
“In fact, there are
many girls at the church who have been sexually abused. There is Teclar,
Caroline, Petronellah, Precious and Diana, to name just a few of these girls. I
know these girls because there came a time when we opened up to each other and
we would openly discuss these issues.
“Besides, there came a time when we went to church and we
knew every girl who was being handed an envelope, we knew what it meant — she
would have slept with the prophet.”
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