A Bulawayo pastor reportedly died of stress after he was “duped” by Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founded by controversial Harare pastor, Water Magaya.
The late Ernest Mutasa was a pastor with the Assemblies of God Church. He died in April this year after his US$14 000 invested into a housing scheme started by PHD Ministries did not yield the promised results.
Mutasa’s daughter, Miss Bethel Mutasa (36), told Sunday News that her father died a bitter man after his frantic efforts to recover his money repeatedly hit a brick wall. She said:
What is really painful is that they caused his death and don’t want to acknowledge it. He was stressed and all he wanted to do was to secure a house for the family. He thought this was a good investment but on the contrary, it took his life.
He sold our family house with the hope of building three houses, which would, in turn, make returns to the money he invested in the programme.
Mutasa revealed that she had been to the PHD Ministries offices in Bulawayo several times but nothing has come out of it yet. She continued:
Many a time I have been there and it is the same answer I get. We are tired as a family and we are stressed.
We lost our breadwinner due to stress and now we are suffering too, all because of some church ministry that doesn’t want to own up to its mess.
They come up with different excuses all the time. One time they say they are reimbursing us, the next they say the stands will be availed with us being the first beneficiaries.
We are tired of these lies and just want our father’s investment back.
She revealed that the issue has affected her mother’s health as well as she is now showing signs of stress.
An Overseer at the church pleaded with the Sunday News not to publish the story and promised to have a one-on-one meeting with the reporter on Monday.