A Zimbabwe court has fined a popular pastor $700 for falsely claiming he has a herbal cure for HIV and AIDS.
The pastor, Walter Magaya, 35, pleaded guilty to contravening the country’s Medicines Control Act by distributing and selling an unapproved drug.
Magaya was arrested in November 2018, with police seizing a herbal drug which he said could cure people who had HIV and AIDS.
He told his followers that the herbal drug – which he named aguma – had magical powers to destroy the HIV virus within 14 days.
“The herb is 100% organic. Why I say so is because we found out that there are no side effects,” New Zimbabwe news outlet quotes Magaya to have said.
Magaya’s charge sheet read that he had “destroyed some of the exhibits by flushing them in the office toilets and burning containers which were, however, recovered half-burnt”.
“Several aguma sachets and other torn sachets were also recovered in an office bin,” the charge sheet added.
Magaya’s case is one of many Church incidents in Africa which gained media attention.
In February last year, a South African pastor, Lethebo Rabalago, made news for spraying his congregation with insecticide to cure diseases.
In 2016, a Tanzanian preacher grabbed media attention after pictures of him circulated social media, showing him riding on the back of his congregants as he delivered a sermon.
