By Staff Reporter

SELF-styled street preacher and controversial cleric, Apostle Talent Chiwenga has accused “cruel politicians” for trying to assassinate him.

Chiwenga was Wednesday involved in a fatal road accident that claimed the lives of his wife, Rejoice Jerina Chiwenga and two church members, Rosemary Vhurumuko and Tafadzwa Egen Kanyuchi.

In an emotional video shot from his hospital bed, the cleric who has riled Vice President Constantino Chiwenga through claims God had shown him two caskets of top government officials, in deaths that he claimed would change the face of Zimbabwean politics, said he was sure the accident had been “engineered.”

“This was not a normal accident. The man wanted us involved in an accident. Probably they did not shoot me on site because they thought I had died.

“I wrote a letter to President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa two weeks ago, (indicating) that some people were stalking me. I have received calls from people in the security services, some suggesting I should run away from the country. This is the cruelty of our politicians,” said Chiwenga.

“I am recording this to say, I hope God will forgive those behind this. I don’t think it was necessary for them to kill my wife, Mr Kanyuchi and Mrs Vhurumuko. It was not necessary. If they wanted me, there are so many ways they could have done that.”

In the 13 minute video, Chiwenga narrated events leading to the crash that happened while he was travelling from neighboruing South Africa, where he said he had held two services in Johannesburg and Pretoria last weekend.

The cleric said his car had developed a mechanical problem in Masvingo, which took three hours to fix. As they fixed the car, Chiwenga said three mysterious cars had approached them with their occupants not saying a word.

“When we came into Masvingo, we had a fan-belt problem and spent three hours fixing the problem. I offered to drive just to check if the car had been fixed properly. After the toll-gate just outside Masvingo, Mr Kanyuchi asked if he could drive but I refused because I realised he had slept in that short distance, so I felt he was in no position to drive us,” said Chiwenga.

Then came the moment: “While I was driving, I saw a car coming from the Harare side. It swerved into my lane. I flashed at him to show that he was wrong and he returned to his lane.”

“But less than 10 meters later he came back on my side and I tried to warn him including using the horn but he kept coming. I am not sure about the type of the car but it had a bumper and was by no means a small car. It had round head-lamps and some yellow lamps at the top. I swerved to the far left and landed I think in a ditch. I heard a loud bang and realised I had lost control of the car.”

Chiwenga said he only woke up to see a group of people trying to help them out of the car with Kanyuchi drenched in blood apparently coming from the controversial cleric’s head.

“When I came to, I think an hour later. Mr Kanyuchi was alive and he told me not to mention my name.

“He said ‘don’t mention your name they are still here,” said Chiwenga insinuating there were people out to kill him.

Earlier on, Chiwenga said something unusual had happened at Beitbridge Border Post that got him suspicious.

“I can assure you that this was not an ordinary accident. When we arrived at Beitbridge Border Post, the immigration officer took my passport and went away for a long time.

“I realised he was lying and suspected there are people who knew we had gone to South Africa. This I know because he at some point before me he used his scanner and then after me he did the same. But he claimed it was not working as regards my passport. Those guys (at the border) wanted to inform some people that we had arrived at Beitbridge,” said Chiwenga.

Vice President Chiwenga reacted angrily to the “prophesy” describing his namesake as a “fake prophet.”

The preacher was undeterred, shot back and declared Chiwenga and Mnangagwa were unfit to rule the country.

He then began claiming he was being tailed by unknown men before reports said he had appealed to President Mnangagwa to “get your men off.”