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Dr Masimba Mavaza Correspondent
There has been an increase in the number of Zimbabweans dying abroad, many of them after being tricked into abandoning their medication by self-styled prophets and pastors.
Everyday there is a hearse bringing coffins at any entry point into Zimbabwe.
Many Zimbabweans are succumbing to HIV and Aids not because they are promiscuous, but because they are being fooled by faith healers and preachers.
A lot of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who are HIV positive, have died after they stopped taking life-saving drugs on the advice of their spiritual parents, the Christian pastors and prophets.
Pastors have taken advantage of the respect they get from church members and have started abusing their faith by claiming to be able to cure HIV and AIDS.
It sounds like an old story, but it is actually very painful. Many Zimbabweans abroad have health challenges not only HIV, some have diabetes, high blood pressure and added to that is a surge in cancer. Millions of people in the world are surviving on medication.
But not to be outdone and seeking relevance, the mushrooming churches have zeroed in with a parade of questionable healing powers which have backfired in the face of the gullible.
During this Covid-19 pandemic era, Miros Dondo succumbed to HIV/AIDS-related challenges after a pastor at his Pentecostal church told him that he had been cured of the HIV virus.
He was asked to bring all his medication and bin it in front of shocked congregants on Zoom as a show of faith.
With shouts of Amen and Power, Power he casts his only life line in a dustbin covered as faith.
The evil pastors have the verses to support their blood-letting blood sucking evil spiritual show of force.
The churches compete to be recognised and they take it a step further and claim to have powers to heal people with HIV and any cancer. They support their claims with verses in the bible and the believing faithfuls who have been tormented by pain, take the healing promise with love. Unbeknown that will be a fast track ticket to their graves.
Angela Matapo (not her real name) passed on after a well-known Zimbabwean pastor in the UK claimed that she had been healed and she could dump her medication.
What makes it so sad is that Angie was a nurse by profession. The pastor made sure he took all her earnings and savings before abandoning her in her last few days.
One wonders why people are so gullible. They are in the medical field and yet they are fooled by a Grade One dropout who claims to have holy fire.
“Why is God silent while his people are being killed,” asked Shanduka with pain in his eyes. Shanduka was arranging repatriation of the body of his close friend who died of cancer after his medication was consumed in a holy fire from a man of god. He can not be a man of God as God can never bless such trickery.
Many Zimbabweans have died after attending churches in London where they were encouraged to stop taking the anti-retroviral drugs in the belief that God would heal them and their friends, a leading HIV doctor said.
Responding to the BBC London investigation, Lord Fowler, the former Health Minister responsible for the famous Aids awareness campaign of the 1980s, condemned the practice.
“It’s just wrong, bad advice that should be confronted,” said the Tory Peer, who chaired 2011 House of Lords committee on HIV.
Elias Masakadza (48) from Newham, East London, described one case, saying: “I know of a friend who had been to a pastor. She told her to stop taking her medication, that God is a healer and has healed her.
“This lady believed it. She stopped taking her medication. She passed away,” said Masakadza.
BBC London spoke to a second woman from East London who told of a friend who died after taking advice from her pastor who told her to stop taking her anti-retroviral drugs.
Meanwhile, the director of a leading HIV research centre in East London said she had dealt with a separate case in which a person who was HIV positive died as a result of advice from a pastor.
“I’ve only seen that once, but it has happened,” said Prof Jane Anderson, director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV, in Hackney.
“We see patients quite often who will come having expressed the belief that if they pray frequently enough, their HIV will somehow be cured,” she added.
“We have seen people who choose not to take the tablets at all.”
Lord Fowler condemned pastors giving this advice, saying: “It’s dangerous to the public and dangerous in terms of public health.”
“It’s irresponsible,” he said, suggesting pastors should instead “come off the air on it, look at things much more seriously, and not give this completely wrong advice to the public.”
Misheck Gwabalanda from Cape Town, South Africa, said: “ I process tens of Zimbabweans a week in this region only. These are people who die after their pastors encourage them to abandon their medication. Now we have more people dying from medical neglect caused by these men of the cloth.”
Prudence Mashiri from the Beitbridge Border Post said she has observed that there is an increase in the number of hearses crossing into Zimbabwe. Many if not all have died of natural causes induced by abandoning their medication.”
“The most painful thing is those who are dying are simply refusing to take medication. They have a chance to survive but they throw it in the dust of spiritual conmen,” said Reverend Tsapo in Kwazulu Natal.
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