Gender Commission reopens probe into Walter Magaya’s sex scandal

By Caleb Chikwawawa

The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) says it has reopened investigations into Walter Magaya’s sexual exploitation and women abuse allegations after the controversial preacher’s failed bid to halt the process through the courts.

The PhD Ministries founder was in 2019 mired in a sex scandal involving members of his congregation.

Investigations were later stopped when Magaya launched a court challenge claiming the Commission did not have authority to investigate him.

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However, the commission resumed its investigation in 2022 after winning the court case.

At a press conference in Harare on Friday, ZGC chairperson Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe and ZGC CEO Virginia Muwanigwa both took time to address the matter after being asked by journalists on why the Commission was taking time to finalise the matter.

Muwanigwa said investigations were still ongoing adding that the Commission was not allowed by law to make conclusions based on “secondary information”.

“The information around investigation into the PhD ministries allegations is ongoing,” she said.

“As we are talking to you, we are still talking to people since 2022.

“What you need to understand is that when we do investigations as Zimbabwe Gender Commission, we are not allowed by law to rely on secondary information, but we have to speak to direct witnesses and then use the information that we get from those direct witnesses to take the process forward.

“Up until towards the end of last year, we had heard that there were some witnesses but we were not getting them. They were not coming to us.

“We even had at some point, a situation where we had some people attending (Magaya church) services hoping that they would be able to get some information, but what I can tell you right now is that there has been some progress without going into detail.

“We are very sure that as of now, we have got the kind of information that can then enable us to really say with certainty what advice we can give to other institutions, whose responsibility it is to take the issue forward,” said Muwanigwa.

Also touching on the matter, Sangarwe attributed the inordinate delay in concluding investigations to Magaya’s court challenge.

“The other delay with the Magaya issue was because initially, when we said we wanted to investigate, he went to court to challenge the authority of the commission to investigate him.

“We went to the High Court, and then we went to court and we won. He appealed to the Supreme Court and we had to go to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court decided that we had the authority to investigate. So, that was part of the delay that he was challenging the authority of the commission to investigate him.

“And also the issue of protection, it’s very difficult to protect someone you don’t know like witnesses. They can be bribed, anything can happen because we don’t know them. The issue of whistle blower protection is an issue that has to be regulated,” said Mukahana Sangarwe.