Harare Metropolitan province minister, Miriam Chikukwa on Friday named Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) ministries founder Walter Magaya as the best religious tourism personality for 2016.
By Staff Reporter
Chikukwa said the youthful preacher, who commands one of the largest congregations in the country, had helped market brand Zimbabwe by attracting thousands of foreigners to his church and hosting them at his villas and prayer mountain.
“The nominations for this award were done by ordinary people and the adjudication was done by an independent organisation,” she said.
“Through your works, you have placed the image of the city of Harare and the country at large competitively on the global market. Your villas have played host to a number of foreign dignitaries and you have boosted our religious tourism desk.”
The Harare provincial minister said government would want to see statistics of foreigners who flock to such churches increase as it comes with foreign currency inflows as well as open business opportunities for employment creation.
Magaya mostly accommodates foreign visitors that visit his ministry.
Chikukwa said this was bringing in a lot of foreign currency, as well as helping rebrand Zimbabwe, which for long has been admonished for its poor human rights record and economic failure.
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After receiving the award, Magaya led his followers in a clean-up exercise of the city yesterday, saying the move was aimed at helping the local authority keep the capital city clean.
“We want to help prevent diseases that come by due to a dirty environment,” Magaya said.
