The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
SOUTH Africa-based self-proclaimed Congolese pastor — Alph Lukau has yet again found himself at the centre of controversy, after delivering what has been deemed to be a fake prophecy.
This time around the conflict-ridden Lukau did not perform a miracle involving any form of resurrection, as would be expected, but ironically it was linked to another Zimbabwean national.
Pastor Lukau, who is the founder and leader of Alleluia Ministries International, located in South Africa’s upmarket town of Sandton, was early this year accused of stage managing a resurrection miracle, which led to the questioning of his authenticity as a ‘‘man of the cloth’’. He has however, denied the claims.
In a recently published video, Lukau supposedly receives a ‘‘prophecy’’, where he then calls out a man among his thousands of followers to deliver the prophecy.
In the video Lukau claims to have received a prophecy, where he picks out a man from his multitude of congregants and tells him he once served in the Zimbabwe National Army and was being haunted by ghosts from his past.
The man, Tawanda Zinyemba — who Sunday News has established to be from Bulawayo’s Gwabalanda suburb, acknowledges the prophecy but however, it raises a stink from people who know him, as well as some of the historical information he provides.
Zinyemba claims, in the video, to have served in the army and was deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 1996 to 2003. Factually the Zimbabwe army was only deployed in DRC from 1998.
Sunday News took the liberty of investigating Zinyemba’s history, where it was discovered that his closest to serving in any form of security service was in the Zimbabwe Prison Correctional Services (ZPCS) in Manicaland.
“This guy was paid, according to people who know him in South Africa. He was paid R5 000 for the fake prophecy. He claimed to have served in the army and was deployed to battle in the second Congo war. He confessed to lies, claiming to have committed crimes of war that include murdering and raping civilians,” claimed a man who preferred anonymity.
The man went on to add: “Zinyemba was never a soldier, in 1996 and if you know our history with DRC, Zimbabwe only got involved in 1998, not 1996. In 1996 he was waiting for his O-level results. He is such a gullible person to agree to be used by a man whom the world believes to be a charlatan.”
At the end of the nine-minute video Lukau ‘‘delivers’’ the man from the alleged phantoms, which he says were haunting him because of the unmannerly and inhuman acts he partook in while serving in the army.
Two Zimbabweans, according to reports from South Africa have been arrested, and are accused of taking part in the sham resurrection of Elliot Moyo, who eventually died two months down the line. The two stand accused of fraud in the case relating to the resurrection of Moyo appeared in court last Friday. Nkululeko Dlamini and Silungisani Sibanda initially appeared in court last month where the matter was postponed.
Moyo made headlines in February, after a video was widely shared on social media, were he emerged from a coffin with many congregants believing he had been brought back to life.
