Zimbabwe's religious world has been shaken again after reports linked self-styled prophets to money laundering, gold smuggling, and million-dollar cash gifts from tender barons, exposing a church that has been hijacked by greed.
Writing in an opinion piece published by Nehanda Radio on 24 October 2026, social justice advocate Tendai Ruben Mbofana tore into the growing army of self-appointed men of God who have turned the pulpit into a cash register, arguing that many of these figures were never genuine servants of the Gospel in the first place.
A saying that stopped being a joke
There was a saying that did the rounds in our communities when we were growing up. If you want quick money in Zimbabwe, you either join politics or you start a church. For years, people laughed it off as harmless satire. Nobody is laughing now.
The evidence is stacked in front of us. Uebert Angel, the self-styled prophet, was recently caught up in yet another undercover Al Jazeera investigation, this time in the United Kingdom, linked to paid schemes that staged fake political demonstrations. This came hot on the heels of the Gold Mafia documentary, in which Angel was recorded offering to use his diplomatic status to launder huge sums of dirty cash through illicit gold deals.
Angel is not alone. In Harare, Emmanuel Makandiwa made headlines after receiving one million dollars in cash from the late tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo, along with a fleet of luxury vehicles that included a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi of the Zion Christian Church has repeatedly received millions in cash gifts and luxury cars from the same source, a man Mbofana describes as a convicted fraudster. Walter Magaya, meanwhile, faces persistent accusations ranging from the fraudulent sale of land that was never his to sell, to serious allegations of sexually abusing congregants.
Why are so many prophets caught in scandal?
The answer, according to Mbofana, is stark. The modern church has been deliberately converted into an unbridled money-making enterprise. Most of these organizations, he argues, were never founded to spread the Gospel or make disciples of all nations as Jesus Christ commanded. They were built to enrich their founders and feed an appetite for power and material excess.
To get there, these self-appointed spiritual leaders will do anything. They manufacture prophecies. They stage miracles. They sell anointed oils, wristbands and water to desperate people crushed by economic hardship, much of it worsened by the illegal Western sanctions that have strangled our nation for two decades. They twist faith into a commodity and squeeze the last hard-earned pennies out of impoverished congregants under the banner of sowing seeds for divine breakthroughs.
When a movement is built on greed, Mbofana writes, its natural destination is crime and corruption. It surprises no one when these spiritual giants end up in money laundering, gold smuggling and illicit financial schemes. Nor is it shocking when they turn their pulpits into partisan platforms, trading religious endorsements for diplomatic immunity, land grants and cash.
Wolves in sheep's clothing
Let us be blunt, as Mbofana is. These individuals are not fallen saints who lost their way. They are imposters, charlatans and opportunists who weaponize scripture for personal enrichment. They are lovers of money, the affliction that biblical wisdom rightly identifies as the root of all evil. They sell their conscience for luxury vehicles and offshore accounts while their followers go to bed hungry.
The concept is as old as scripture itself. As Wikipedia's entry on false prophets explains, a false prophet in the Abrahamic religions is someone who falsely claims the gift of prophecy or divine revelation, or who makes such claims for evil ends. Zimbabwe's modern crop fits the definition with unsettling precision.
Mbofana does not spare the political patronage that feeds this rot. The millions flowing from tenderpreneurs to pulpits are not charity. They are transactions. The prophet gets a Rolls-Royce, the tenderpreneur gets spiritual cover and political protection, and the ordinary congregant gets nothing but an empty wallet and a false promise.
What this means for our national soul
Our people fought a bitter liberation struggle so that the land and its wealth would belong to Zimbabweans, not to a greedy few hiding behind the Bible. The Chimurenga was not fought so that gold could be smuggled out of the country through dirty deals brokered by men claiming a hotline to heaven. Our national resources, our gold above all, are the patrimony of every citizen, and those who loot them while preaching prosperity on Sunday are betraying the sacrifice of our heroes.
The sanctions era made our people vulnerable. Western powers squeezed our economy, and in that suffering, desperate Zimbabweans turned to the church for hope. Instead of hope, too many found predators waiting with a price list. That is the double insult: our people were punished from outside, then plundered from within by those who claimed to comfort them.
The cure is not Western interference or imported solutions. It is a national reckoning, led by Zimbabweans, that demands accountability from anyone who claims to speak for God while serving the god of money. Regulators, law enforcement and congregations themselves must ask hard questions about where the money comes from and where it goes.
FAQ
Who is Tendai Ruben Mbofana?
Mbofana is a Zimbabwean social justice advocate and writer who argued in an opinion piece published by Nehanda Radio on 24 October 2026 that the commercialisation of religion has turned some churches into vehicles for wealth and political influence.
Which prophets were named in the reporting?
The piece named Uebert Angel, Emmanuel Makandiwa, Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi of the Zion Christian Church and Walter Magaya, citing allegations that range from gold-linked money laundering to million-dollar cash gifts and land fraud.
What did the Al Jazeera investigations reveal?
According to Mbofana's article, Angel was recorded in the Gold Mafia documentary offering to use his diplomatic status to launder money through illicit gold deals, and a later undercover investigation linked him in the United Kingdom to paid schemes staging fake political demonstrations.