A HARARE man has threatened popular Zimbabwean televangelist and United Family International Church (UFIC) founder, Emmanuel Makandiwa, with litigation over failure to pay a $1500 debt.
Victor Chaita, a graphic designer based in the capital, reportedly was hired to do graphic work for the church’s official magazine, and charged $1500 for the job but Makandiwa’s church is now dilly-dallying on payment.
Norman Mugiya of Mugiya and Macharaga Law Firm, who is representing Chaita, has since written a final letter of demand to Makandiwa.
Chaita accuses the church of breach of contract.
“We have been advised that you later (after the work had been done) pretended as if you did not like the graphic designer’s work yet you took the concept and decided to use it as yours and you are now selling our client’s work as yours for the 2014 edition of the UFIC family magazine,” Mugiya wrote.
Mugiya then threatened to approach the courts if UFIC failed to settle the outstanding debt.
“We have been instructed to demand as we hereby do that you pay $1500 through our offices, failure of which we will cause summons to be issued to you before further notice. Failure of that we will also demand that you pay 5% collection commission plus interest at the prescribed rate,” wrote Mugiya.
UFIC spokesperson Prime Kufa could neither deny nor confirm the matter.
“The matter that you are talking about has not been communicated to us and I am not aware of this particular one. We have engagements with many companies for different works and I can only comment when it is officially communicated to us,” said Kufa.
Makandiwa and his UFIC claim to attract 60 000 worshipers and rake in tens of thousands weekly in what critics have described as a form of “Gospelprenuership”.
Both Makandiwa and fellow prophet Walter Magaya have become popular among Zimbabweans in an outside the country as they attract thousands of followers every week.
