Walter Magaya’s plot to seize
Against a backdrop of numerous allegations of land scandals, sexual misconduct, fraud, false prophecy promises, tax evasions and a spate of other controversies, self-proclaimed prophet Walter Magaya is embroiled in another serious allegation — this time an attempt to literally steal the entire town of Chitungwiza.
The charismatic albeit controversial man-of-the-cloth has had an adventurous past beginning in his home town of Chitungwiza where allegations of shadowy activities including dramatic money changing escapades have refused to rub off his later day eminence.
Magaya has built for himself a massive empire under his Prophetic, Healing and Deliverance church in the past 12 years.
The kingdom is headlined by an upmarket in real estate too and is rumoured to own several gold mines.
All these allegations may have dented his reputation and put his pastoral credence in harm’s way, but it has done nothing to his empire, which has continued to expand.
He has continued to grow his influence as seen by his recent invite to President Emmerson Mnangagwa who turned up at his facility — Heart Stadium — which he officially opened, amid pomp and fanfare.
It is this ability to pull strings that bring royalty to his feet that keeps Magaya and others like him above the clouds and within reach of means of easy riches.
Magaya is said to have used such a proximity to power to push for this attempt at seizing control and ultimately ownership of Chitungwiza town.
The Chitungwiza saga has exposed deep-rooted political and boardroom power manoeuvres at the townhouse aided by corruption and manipulation of residents groups in what looked set to be one of the biggest local authority scandals to ever happen in the country.
It started as a mere donation
What started as a plain and innocent donation to the people of Chitungwiza last year turned out to be a covert grand plan to put the city and everything in it under the control of Wistmer Investments, a company owned by Magaya.
Truth Diggers, an Alpha Media Holdings investigative journalism unit, unearthed this scandal in a three-week investigation that took us to the town’s council chambers where councillors rose in alarm and anger upon realisation, at the nick of time, they had almost signed off the town to the prophet.
The investigations also included observations, leak inquiries and undercover interviews with representatives from residents’ associations, local authority workers and councillors.
“Magaya brought Chitungwiza councillors to his Waterfalls hotel sometime last year and presented his multi-pronged proposal where he would become the town’s key private partner, who would champion and own all major town projects,” a source at Chitungwiza Municipality told Truth Diggers.
“Councillors told him that while his idea sounded good, he needed to follow procedure, which involved presenting his proposal to council and management and wait for the decision of these two bodies.
“Magaya was apparently not happy with this kind of treatment as he expected his proposal to be embraced and rubber-stamped without much ado.”
The source said Magaya took the opportunity of Mnangagwa’s availability at the official opening of his facility — Heart Stadium — and rode roughshod on the councillors, accusing them of thwarting development and donations of public services in Chitungwiza.
“In response Mnangagwa dispatched his ministers — [then] Local Government Winston Chitando, Lands and Water Anxious Masuku and Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Affairs for Harare Metropolitan Charles Tawengwa to whip the councillors into line,” said the source.
“The councillors, however, stood their ground and told the ministers that Magaya wanted to cut corners and that they were not comfortable bequeathing the lives of millions of residents into the hands of one businessman. They insisted procedure needed to be followed and the law looked at.
“The ministers agreed with the councillors and Magaya had to go back to the drawing board and follow procedure.
“Magaya drafted a memorandum of agreement through his company, Wistmer Investments, which procedurally had to go through council and management technical teams for legal counsel.” Second bite of the cherry
A leaked memorandum of agreement between Chitungwiza and Wistmer Investments, a copy of which is in possession of the Truth Diggers, seeks the establishment of a 10-year collaborative relationship between the two parties for preparation of the Chitungwiza masterplan.
“The parties acknowledge that Wistmer’s proposal and masterplan conceptualised the Chitungwiza Smart City vision, of which potential future projects and development initiatives will be constituent parts (Smart City Projects),” reads part of the memorandum of agreement.
“In recognition of Wistmer’s integral role, the municipality hereby grants to Wistmer an exclusive and irrevocable right of first refusal to participate as the lead private partner for any Smart City projects the municipality intends to implement and exclusive development rights to solely undertake Smart City Projects for an initial period of 10 years from the date of this agreement.
“If at any time the municipality wishes to proceed with a Smart City project, it shall provide written notice to Wistmer with details of the proposed project.
“Wistmer shall then have an exclusivity period of 120 days to exercise its right of first refusal by notifying the municipality of its interest in taking up the project and entering into negotiations to agree on the terms, commercial model and project-specific agreement under which Wistmer will implement the project.”
However, this did not go down well with residents, who felt betrayed by their councillors who are making such critical decisions without consulting them.
“While the idea was noble, the conditions attached by Wistmer Investments are not sincere and do not benefit the council, but the company,” said an insider at Chitungwiza Municipality.
“Ten years is a long time and I think this is not sustainable with a lot of similarities to the Geo Pomona deal in Harare?”
The Truth Diggers established that Chitungwiza Municipality is not interested in the deal, but sources said Wistmer Investments has been dangling the carrot in front of councillors and council workers, residents associations’ representatives and politicians of which some have since given the nod to the deal.
Magaya allegedly kept throwing Mnangagwa’s name in his push for the memorandum of agreement approval to a point where the town management felt threatened.
“Council then acted against advice from their technical team and instead of shelving the memorandum of agreement as advised, they pushed it through to the full council for final deliberation and approval,” said a source.
“Council reacted by confronting management over this unusual act and demanded to see management’s independent written response to the MOU proposal.
“They were furnished with the response, which was against the memorandum of agreement.”
Magaya is said to have offered US$300 000 to pay the consultant for the crafting of the masterplan, but councillors and some people in the management wanted him to pay that money directly to the local authority, the Truth Diggers established.
“I am told he even paid US$200 000 to the consultant, but the councillors and some workers would have none of it,” said the source. Retracing his roots
After noticing that the deal was facing an imminent collapse, Magaya mobilised his childhood colleagues from Unit L in Seke, who include Goodwell Mafuratidze and Donald Makuvaza as well as Jonathan Masamba.
Mafuratidze is a losing Zanu PF candidate for Chitungwiza South constituency in the August 2023 general elections while Masamba and Makuvaza are leaders of the Chitungwiza Multi-stakeholder Forum (CMF) and the Chitungwiza Amalgamated Vendors and Informal Traders Association (CAVITA), respectively.
“In their capacities these people have been trying to mobilise the community to buy-in to the memorandum of agreement,” the source said.
“Makuvaza was the most vocal after that memorandum of agreement was leaked as he denounced it and he immediately called for a stakeholders meeting with the council.
“However, after meeting Magaya at his farm in Domboshava, he has since changed goalposts and is now supporting the memorandum of agreement in favour of Wistmer.”
The Truth Diggers is in possession of a letter dated April 8, 2024, which Makuvaza wrote to Chitungwiza Municipality urging them to “stop a resolution on the agreement with Wistmer Investments until consultation with all stakeholders”.
“Magaya says he has investors and the money is in the country waiting for council approval,” Makuvaza told the Truth Diggers.
“That memorandum of agreement was deliberately leaked by someone in council, who does not like the development of Chitungwiza.
“They want people to go against the idea of setting up of the master plan and develop Chitungwiza.”
A week ago, a stakeholders meeting was convened at Magaya’s facility, Yadah Hotel in Waterfalls, where Zanu PF youths mainly from Magaya’s hood, Unit L, constituted a large chunk of the audience and representatives from CMF, among others, sources