(Last Updated on December 2, 2015 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – The majority of listeners and readers of the Nehanda Radio website have no respect for Zimbabwe’s three most prominent and charismatic prophets; Emmanuel Makandiwa, Walter Magaya and Uebert Angel.
What started out as an online poll to test the popularity of the three prophets against each other, took an interesting dimension when we added an extra choice for those who did not approve of the Prophets. Over three weeks 4852 of our readers cast their votes online.
An astonishing 57,8 percent felt that the ‘major’ prophets did not deserve their respect.
Despite drawing huge crowds to their church services, Prophets Makandiwa, Magaya and Angel have often faced criticism that their wealth has come on the back of exploiting vulnerable Zimbabweans who are desperate for solutions to their economic challenges.
With unemployment hovering near 90 percent, the prosperity gospel preached by Makandiwa and Angel for example encourages congregants that the more they give to the church the more they will get in blessings from God.
This, critics say has been used by the preachers to fleece poverty stricken congregants.
Our poll however shows that Makandiwa who leads the United Family International Church (UFIC) is the most respected of the three prophets, commanding 31,5 percent of the vote.
Magaya, a relative new comer with his Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD) is second with 9,1 percent of the vote. Prophet Angel who runs Spirit Embassy (now Good News Church) is a distant last with 1,6 percent of the vote.