When Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) ministries leader Walter Magaya “converted” raunchy dancer Beverly Sibanda, he shot to the limelight.
By Silence Charumbira
He literally became the most talked about church leader, dwarfing others who had, for a long time, dominated the scene.
But having picked Bev, the controversial conversion was to come with consequences.
It was also going to be a nasty experience for Oscar Pambuka, the spokesperson for the church. Questions were asked daily about Bev’s conversion and he had to fight near-scandals day-in-day-out.
The conversion itself raised its fair share of scepticism. The general public and the showbiz scene took it with a pinch of salt and it is her bitter rival Zoey Sifelani who, like the Standardlife&style once reported, has had the last laugh.
Zoey doubted her rival would last in the church. Her utterances appeared to be mere malice at the time, but hardly three months down the line, her words have come to pass.
As a reward for joining Magaya’s church, the clergyman dangled a bait for Bev to leave her “dirty dancing” business by promising and eventually opening a boutique for her in Harare’s central business district. Bev was given money to stock up the shop.
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She travelled first to Tanzania where she bought some clothes and then to South Africa. For the period of the union, Bev stopped patronising bars and her raunchy stage work.
It would now seem that the boutique could have been the reason for her short repentance.
Before that, Bev had grown to be family with her dance group members, The Sexy Angels and when she joined PHD ministries, she left her group stranded, without a leader.
True, they could go it alone, after all, Bev is just another member, but the name of the group sums it up. Bev and the Sexy Angels means there is no Sexy Angels without Bev.
The dance group collapsed without her and the starving dancers and their manager Happaz Mapimhidze in a way pressured Bev to re-trace her steps. They are the family that had groomed her from being a cheap dancer to one of the most revered names in her circles and she owed them a lot.
The question that could be lingering in many people’s minds is why Prophet Magaya did not see it coming?
Pambuka refused to comment and said only Magaya could comment on the issue.
“As of now, we do not have a comment on that but I think the prophet is better positioned to speak on that,” said Pambuka, refusing to call it a crisis.
“The church does not have a position on that.”
