The head of a Pentecostal church in Chitungwiza, who made headlines earlier this year for leaving his wife of 18 years for a 21-year-old member of his congregation, has been arrested on fraud charges. Ezekiel Masiyandima, aged 44 and the leader of Ebenezer Prophetic Ministries, was arrested on Thursday and was scheduled to appear in court over the weekend. He had previously been the subject of a case opened at St Mary’s Police Station, but he now faces charges of fraud.
Masiyandima is accused of selling a stand in Epworth to a member of his congregation for $2,500, even though the stand did not exist. The transaction is alleged to have taken place in St Mary’s, and when the buyer went to the site in Epworth, they found that someone else had already built a structure on the stand. Masiyandima’s arrest followed this discovery.
Earlier this year, Masiyandima gained notoriety for ending his long-standing marriage to Portia Chiwanga, aged 38, and marrying Melania Madamombe, aged 21. This caused a rift in the church, with some members supporting Masiyandima’s decision and others condemning it. Masiyandima claimed that his first wife had accused him of witchcraft, which he attributed to their losing three of their five children under mysterious circumstances. According to Chiwanga, Masiyandima had visited T.B. Joshua’s SCOAN in Nigeria and had even met with Joshua’s wife. Chiwanga went on to accuse her estranged husband of being a womanizer and an abuser.
