(Last Updated on March 19, 2014 by Editor)
A SELF-PROCLAIMED Bulawayo prophet who recently made headlines with his Zesa recharge miracles reportedly sneaked into the power utility’s offices to confess that he lied.Little-known prophet Dennis Hungwe from Bulawayo’s Nketa 6 suburb sent tongues wagging early this month after he claimed to have performed a miracle of paying off his congregants’ energy bills and miraculously topping up airtime on their mobile phones.
But Zesa officials forced him to surrender to their offices after they had tracked him down to prove his miracles and verify if indeed the claims were practical. He visited Zesa six days after his “miracle” to disown it and blame the media for “publishing falsehoods.”
“We were shocked when the pastor sneaked into our offices in private and asked to meet management. This was after we had publicised our intention to visit him at his church for him to explain his claims,” said a Zesa official (name supplied) who requested anonymity for professional reasons.
“He denied having performed the power recharge miracle and claimed the Press published falsehoods. He said the said miracles report and the said miracles were illusions.”
The official said the prophet pleaded with the power utility’s loss control department not to take legal action on the matter – probably fearing arrest.
“He said he did not recharge anything for congregants. The only miracle he performed was that of changing the sex of a child in her mother’s womb,” the Zesa official said.
However, the Tabernacle of Faith Church leader had confirmed to Chronicle that he performed the miracle electricity recharge as well as airtime top up for congregants who attended a church service on Sunday, March 2.
Some members from his congregation claimed to have benefited from the purported miracle. Sipho Ncube, who was in church on miracle day said:“Our pastor began to pray and suddenly our airtime was topped up. The most shocking part was when he instructed us to scratch our foreheads carefully and then read the airtime recharge number. We successfully reloaded the number and got $1 airtime each.”
Others expressed disappointment, saying they missed the “blessings” because they had left their cellphones at home. “The person who was sitting next to me was instructed to scratch her forehead, the pastor read out the digits and she recharged successfully,” said one woman, who asked not to be named.
Patience Hove claimed Hungwe had also mysteriously recharged worshippers’ Zesa pre-paid meters, some to the tune of $100. Hungwe promised to perform more recharge miracles the following Sunday but he was nowhere to be seen as he was reported to have gone to Gweru.
Chronicle has been trying to get in touch with him since then, and most recently yesterday, without success. We sought to engage him on the March 2 miracles and his reported confessions at Zesa.
The prophet could not be reached on his mobile phone the whole of yesterday. When the news crew visited his church in Nketa, there was no one and the usual evening services were also not held.
Hungwe had noted that his miracles were grounded on the scriptures and quoted Isaiah 55 v 1, which says believers do not need money because there is nothing impossible with God.
“I don’t perform these miracles, but God does,” he said then. “I can’t explain what I do, but I can tell you that I see these digits in the spirit and children of God can recharge.”